I finished the second re-write of Cold Comfort earlier today.  A good weekend’s work, if I do say so myself.  The manuscript is sitting in my editor’s inbox for a last check, to see if I captured all of her comments, then it’s the final polishing phase.  I did a lot of the line editing as I was going through and probably fixed eighty percent or more of those problems.

The moment I was done, Mrs Thomson and I went for a long walk around the neighbourhood.  With the arrival of November, most of the leaves are on the ground and the light of the afternoon sun, now that we’re back on standard time, is definitely autumnal.  It won’t be long before the first snow graces us with its (unwanted) presence.  There is still a fair amount of beauty in the starkness of bare trees against a washed-out sky dotted with grey clouds reflecting the orange and pink of the setting sun, but it is a harbinger of the winter to come.  As you may have guessed, I’m not a winter person though we try to go skiing every so often.  This time around, I can encourage myself by remembering that next spring brings my retirement from the demented bureaucracy.  As I was telling Mrs Thomson, I look forward to getting my weekends back for other activities once I can confine my writing to weekdays.

By then, of course, Cold Comfort will be out, and the third Dunmoore adventure, Like Stars in Heaven, should be out as well, meaning I’ll be starting work on a new story at the same time as a new chapter in my life.  It’s good having something one can look forward to, especially on the cusp of another Canadian winter.