So ends Revisionmania '04.

I did all those middle-zillion points of revision today, adding a couple of significant scenes, cutting out some deadwood, tweaking a lot of things throughout the manuscript, and then basically noodling around with the prose for a while. When I found myself reading a line, rewriting the line, staring at the line, and then changing it back to the way it was originally, I realized it was time to call this draft finished. (You never finish a book, you just abandon it. And I'll have to revise again based on my agent Ginger's comments anyway, unless she thinks it's perfect, which seems unlikely.)

I just sent it off to Ginger, so we'll see what she thinks.

Thanks to Heather, Mike, Jenn, Barzak, Greg, Jenni, Mandy, and Jay for the great critiques, and for their willingness to read my raw first draft. They all made good catches, and I'm happier than I can say to have such a good bunch of people willing to read my work and help me make it better.

For the name of my protagonist's city, I went with Coalhaven for now, though it may change. Heather's the one who suggested Coalhaven, but she says the credit should go to Chris Rowe for suggesting Coldhaven, which I liked a lot, but which felt a little too on-the-nose, only because the protagonist is a stone-cold badass type (or so she seems at first glance, anyway). Coalhaven keeps the sound I like, implies a certain sooty grubbiness, and is appropriate on some other levels, too.

I wrote a review of Conrad Williams's Use Once, Then Destroy tonight. Good book! He writes a bit like Ramsey Campbell or Michael Marshall Smith, perhaps a bit like M. John Harrison -- and in the later stories, like no one at all except Conrad Williams, which is good.

Heather's getting better, I think -- she rested all day today, hanging out on the couch. She's got pneumonia, which isn't something you get over quickly, but I think she's over the worst of it. Both the cats are noticeably better, after a visit to the vet on Friday and a couple of days' worth of medication. They're frisky again, and not sneezing so much. My own cold seems to be gone entirely. So the Prattshaws are on the mend.

It was a good leap day.