Taking London is the best thing I've ever written.
These past two weeks making one final edit were like Christmas. I'd literally wake up at 3 a.m., eager to find better ways to tell the story. Then I'd force myself to go back to sleep, reminding myself a rested edit is a sharper edit. I'd dream about the characters, letting them tell me more about their arc.
I did a line edit on the entire book one last time, moved chapters, added chapters, deleted lines, added suspense (it was a lot of revision. I think my wonderful new editor got a little concerned when I told her about all the changes).
You spend your whole adult life writing books, then suddenly all that acquired knowledge presents itself in the form of professionalism. I had no problem deleting beautiful sentences that didn't work. I found that adding a single word can be as powerful as a poetic paragraph.
With just hours to deliver the third version of the manuscript I had 100 pages to look over one more time. Part of me said why bother. Part of me said you're never getting this chance again, so I read those pages one last time. I found at least 50 things that needed fixing — among them the suspense and pacing required to drive the reader all the way through to the end. When I finally sent the entire manuscript to New York I was so thrilled with the final outcome that I felt like a celebration was in order. Being 10 a.m., I didn't break out the champagne. Instead, I sat in my office with a goofy grin on my face, feeling like I'd just written something very special. My 25-year-old self would have been amazed by its depth and complexity. Trust me, I don't get this way very often.
In short: I feel like I wrote the book I really wanted to write.
The sense of satisfaction I carry now is complete. A finished book can leave me restive, knowing I let a few things slide for the state of brevity or to avoid confusion. But the total high is still coursing through my veins two days later. Research on the next Taking book is already ongoing, with a trip to Hawaii and a visit to London on the agenda for next month.
But the fact that I was able to write a strong rough first draft for Taking London, then the good fortune to go back and dive in two more times to elevate the story makes me wish the book could be in stores tomorrow so you could read it and see what I'm talking about. Very coincidentally, Dutton, my publisher, announced the book this week. The gorgeous blue cover with an iconic image of Winston Churchill is now up on Amazon and all the other online stores. Pub date isn't until May 7. Hoping to put an excerpt on line sometime between now and then.
So what happens next? Well, my new editor will weigh in with her opinion. I have a feeling she'll nudge me to tighten the story even more. This makes me very happy. Then it's "production," that process of First Pass, Second Pass, and all the other little steps leading to the final typeset manuscript heading to the print house.
And a lot of waiting. The gestation period between now and May 7 is a long forty-week pregnancy. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day . . . lots of stuff happening between now and then. My oldest son is getting married. Springsteen will be in Southern California. Cross country season starts in a couple weeks and goes through Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I will write something new and wait.
I've been reading a collection of non-fiction stories by John le Carré about his career. I sense he had a more purposeful sense to his writing than I do, a belief that his words would be parsed for a long time after publication. For some reason, these vignettes gave me the courage to imbue the final version of Taking London with the same sense of gravitas and taut storytelling. Save the date for May 7 or go online and pre-order your copy now. I am not a fan of self-important writing but I am a fan of great storytelling. There's a fine line. I know this sounds odd, but almost thirty books into this literary career, I don't feel like a pretender anymore. Can't put my finger on it, but there's something very different about Taking London.
I hope you feel the same way when you give it a read.