15 December 2008
Entry 13
A little break
This blog is going to go quiet for a few weeks now. I’m going away for three weeks, and though I’ll be working on the book while I’m away I don’t know how easily I’ll be online – and in any case, I don’t think I’ll have a lot to report. This fortnight or so is the least interesting part of the work, I think. My plan for while I’m away is to finish up the full first draft, and do the first less-interesting bit of filling in the gaps (by which I mean looking things up in a dictionary).
But then it gets more interesting. Because when I’m back on 8 January, having done the dictionary checks etc, I’ll suddenly have something complete and fairly presentable – not polished by any means, but something readable (albeit still with particular issues to be resolved). I’ll post a chunk of that for you to read and comment on as soon as it’s done. (And will have all sorts of new problems that will doubtless have arisen by then, too…)
After a bit of polishing and problem-solving, my aim is to have something I’m pleased with by the middle of the January, ready to send to the author then; and I hope to go to Lisbon and talk through it with him around the 23rd/24th. Then, if he’s happy with it, there’ll be just a few last bits of ironing and off to the publishers for their feedback at the end of January or start of February. But more about all that as it happens…
These six weeks or so, especially the polishing phase during the first half of January, while not the most labour-intensive period, are where the big qualitative shift happens. Right now the most advanced bits I’ve got still look like that passage I showed you in my post of 20 October; so looking over the rubbish I’ve got so far it’s hard to believe it’ll be worth reading by this time next month, but that’s how it goes…(Well, that’s how it’s worked in the past, so here’s hoping.)
So – more from me in the first week of 2009. Check back here around the 7th or 8th and there should be a bit of a book waiting for you to read… Have a good couple of holiday weeks meantime.
D.
[And thank you to you all for visiting the site to read and comment on Daniel's blog — Ed.]
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Estação das Chuvas © José Eduardo Agualusa
English translation © Daniel Hahn
