'Finished' writing my PARKLAND book!

Done!* Asterisk there and quotation marks, because that’s only the first draft. But what a weight off that is.

I sent Parkland to my editor in chunks, and she had her finger poised and hit send on the edits immediately, and I've been making the changes all evening and this morning. Those are her overview comments to the right. (Yes, I had to crop them. Can't give away EVERYthing. :) )

SO much to do now, so quickly.

This is normally a writer’s most painful moment, swallowing all the cuts--letting all our little babies get the ax. I'm finding it really easy this time. She's being very selective, and good, and I just need to get this beast down to fighting trim. Edits are good.

Besides, o time to grieve them, got to keep moving on rewrites. This is breakneck pace to get it out Feb 12. The whole team at HarperCollins is on it. Really cool to see. I feel in great hands. (And my editor, Gail Winston is brilliant.)

I’m headed out to Sag Harbor today to do much of the rewrites. My friends will be gone and said I could have my place out there to myself. I would have loved to go the past week, where I was suffering mental exhaustion--last half day off was about 3 weeks ago; and two Fridays ago I quit at 7:30 and skipped the evening session for a 90-minute date. That was my weekend. But . . .

I really needed my home setup with two 27-inch monitors to have lots of windows open with interviews and different chapters, and chunks of copy to move around. Plus, I decided I needed to leave myself a reward, and a big change of environment for the next phase. I didn't want to pollute it mentally, with all the strain of trying birth this beast.

Now, to pack!

(BTW, what amazing friends. They're loaning me their house, their car and their dog! I'm taking the subway down to pick up Bobby Sneakers and drive out there with him for the week. Watch my Instagram for pix.)