So here we are, at 82,601 words. Chapters I believed were finished months ago have again been edited and revised. I have been the beneficiary of some very learned individuals, some of them in positions which afford me inside info. Like police officers. They read my stuff and tell me that I am all wet or how to fix it so it sounds plausible.

The question remains.... will I ever be FINISHED????

My novel broke the EIGHTY-ONE thousand word mark today. Now I lay me down to sleep etc. I can say I have nearly finished a NOVEL. Yeah, some of my favorite authors pen books of several HUNDRED thousand words. I checked. My current read, John Irving's Until I Meet You is about 700,000 words. However, this is a guy who could write a phone book and I would buy it. 

I post chapters where other writers can review them. The "dailies" are what they tell me. MOST are good. Some are helpful. Some make me cringe and wonder if my identity has been exposed to evil forces.

It seems like a hundred or so years ago that Boo said, "Write a couple of pages a day and in a year you will have a novel."

He was both right and wrong. I write much more than a couple of pages a day. I write a bunch. Then I go over previously written stuff and clean it up, clear it out, write tighter. Write better.

Snakehead is over 81K words. Not all of them are so bad. Some of them, I even like. Every once in a while I hit upon a description, a turn of phrase that sends me reeling. Some of them I have had to take out. I am saving this one for a particular place in time:

The moon hung her face like a reluctant bride.

Surely I can find a place for that!