Halfway, round four

This edit is difficult, but I took a break yesterday afternoon to start prepping for the workshop I'll teach this weekend. I guess this is how regular teachers feel when it's time to start school again each year. I dread the energy suck and anxiety but also am looking forward to interacting with new students about something I care about. I forget that I care about what I'm teaching b/c it makes me so crazy, but I was sitting here with my four stacks of paper, thinking about how I am doing this as a service. Writing a book has lots to do with ego, but besides that obvious point, I am doing this b/c I think a big hole exists that this book can fill. Not entirely, but it would be a good start. I am in the midst of some major structural changes, and I have had moments of laughing out loud at my readers' edits. I am working from two sets at once, since each reader has her own strengths, and also because the calmness and objectivity of one view balances the exasperation of the other. I have a major tangle to work out today, past the halfway mark. I still have a big stack of uncovered stories to add, but I'll be better at writing them the first time around now that the structure is taking shape. Meanwhile, I have no idea what is going on in my sketchbook.