84 Days Later...

 

... I have a real, live novel!

Sometime during the first quarter of today's Jacksonville Jaguars - Las Vegas Raiders game, I finished the third round of edits. Assuming Scrivener is correct, the manuscript is just below 70,000 words. That is exactly where I wanted this manuscript to be word count wise.

I'll take at least a week and a half off before I do the next round of edits. My mind and body could use a little break, but there's a part of me that wants to get going right away. The heavy lifting has been done. Any edits I do from here on out will be along the lines of trimming sentences to convey the same message while using fewer words.

I'm also excited for tomorrow afternoon. The Porch Gods will deliver a book on how to write query letters. The last time I wrote one, President Obama had taken an oath while dissidents chanted some nonsense about tea. I'm a Twinings guy myself. All kidding aside, I'm sure a lot has changed when it comes to querying publishers and agents since then.

Anything else fun and exciting happening in my life? Of course!

Last week I did the annual colorectal at home test. Like sympathy for able bodied people who leech off the federal government, the lab confirmed I tested negative.

I'm already about 25% of the way through Upton Sinclair's Oil! Despite the tome's 580 page size, I'm really enjoying the dynamic between oil baron J. Arnold Ross and his son Bunny, whom I suspect will become quite the thorn in his father's side as time passes.

I'll do my first ever Friendsgiving event later this week, and ironically none of my friends will be there. I suppose I should make a few new ones while I'm there?

The Palm Desert trip is on the horizon, and yet I may tighten the belt when it comes to my dining budget. When I discovered my dental insurance will cover less than $500 of the total cost of my replacement crown I lost my appetite for the higher end restaurants I wanted to visit. However, I will not be denied when it comes to the Shag store, the French Corner Cafe, and the anime shop that sells different variations of Artoria Pendragon and Hatsune Miku merch.

I opened the 2015 Callaway Owner's Private Reserve (OPR) Cabernet Sauvignon on Friday night, and holy hell was it full of flavor. The first glass was paired with milk chocolate and truffle Gouda cheese. The second glass was paired with boneless ribeye steak with garlic roasted potatoes and green beans last night, and I'll do the same for dinner tonight. 

I can only hope the six bottles I'm aging for my sixtieth birthday can replicate this epicurean experience.