It’s done: the dreaded first readthrough of Hubris is finished. I don’t know if other writers find it as scary as I do to take a fresh look at their work; when I finished The Northerners, I had to make myself wait a full week before going over it, but now I could set a manuscript aside for months if I let myself. I guess now I know how much work still awaits me after a first draft, and I know how many warts I’ll have to confront when I finally pick up that fat stack of paper. It’s not my favorite part of the process.

But I have to say, I’m still pretty happy with my book. Yes, it needs work (often not in the places I expected), but there’s some real promise here. I really look forward to showing it to people. In other words, the last six months were not a complete waste of time, and that’s all I ask for at this point.