The holidays found me gorging again. One of the benefits of my stint as an elder care provider is that I’ve become a pretty good cook. Frankly, I didn’t know I had it in me. That means I’m dangerous around the holidays. For example, this past Christmas season I made over 2,000 cookies, Italian pastries, Italian candy, homemade ravioli, and assorted other fresh pastas. You can probably guess by now that part of my heritage is Italian. To sum it up, throughout the first part of December, I cooked, tasted, and wrote. In the last part of December and through mostof January, I ate and wrote. I won’t lie, about a thousand cookies and some homemade torrone propelled me through the completion of Penance.

Everything was going fine until I wrote the last line. Then I got a good look at the manuscript and a good look in the mirror. My writing-eating extravaganza had added 25 pounds to my frame and yielded a manuscript in desperate need of a trim. So, this month I have ben editing and dieting. Not as much fun as the first part of January, but definitely necessary. Penance is a great story, and I’m totally pleased with the tale, but it grew fat like its author. Too many tedious explanations of plot devices, too many pointless conversations, and too much fun for the characters in what is a particularly dark episode of the This Generation Series. So, I set out this month to lose 25 pages and 25 pounds.

As it turns out, Penance was in much better shape than I was. One pass through the manuscript and the ft dropped out rather effortlessly—no lamenting scenes laid to rest on the editing room floor, no pining for lost moments with the characters. The excessive parts were readily apparent, and if I remember correctly, were all written when I assured myself I needed “just a couple more cookies” to get the chapter right. So, the Penance edit is happily underway. In fact, the new trimmer version boasts a decrease of 30 pages!I wish the my fate of were that uncomplicated. Detoxing from six weeks of massive sugar intake has been exhausting. Withdrawal pains lasted only a few days, but it was weeks before my new whole-food diet became appealing to me. Then there was my return to the gym. Those extra 25 pounds killed me on the treadmill! Even my entertainment choices changed as I found myself with an unprecedented interest in “The Biggest Loser”. But I’m proud to say I’ve lost 15 pounds as of today. The next ten will no doubt be buggers, but with any luck both TC and his newest novel will be in great shape within the next month.

So my plan is to diligently hone and edit Penance before shipping it off to the publisher. And what a day that will be! I’m planning a binge day of French toast, chocolate, and ice cream to celebrate … oh, and potato chips, did I mention potato chips? … and maybe a chili cheese dog and some mac n cheese … and anything alfredo would be nice …