Monday again. They do roll around quickly, don't they?

The weekend was a nice balance of fun and work, perhaps tilting a little too far toward the latter on Sunday. On Saturday we went for a walk to the Farmer's Market in the morning, and hung out with Heather's mom and sister and our nephew. It was warm -- summery, even, and hot in direct sunlight -- and River sat in the grass for the first time, I think, ever. Later Susan and Matt came over, bringing their Wii, for an afternoon and evening of games, french fries, chili cheeseburgers, and other delightful things. That night Heather and I watched some episodes of The Unit and ate ice cream and, lo, life was fine.

Sunday, though, I pretty much worked straight through. The end result is the first five chapters (about 11,000 words) of a YA, plus little thumbnail paragraphs about possible sequels (I did the outline for book 1 last week). I sent the whole package off to my agent, and now wait on tenterhooks with bated breath, etc., to see what she thinks.

That 11K word day isn't as impressive as it seems. The process felt much more like revising than drafting, honestly, as I'm adapting my adult novel The Genius of Deceit into a different form. Now, it's essentially a page-one rewrite, since it's set in a different location, with a substantially rearranged plot, and because the main protagonist is the same only in name (and supernatural affliction). And yet, I know exactly how the book will end, I know what events to foreshadow, I know all the characters very well -- it doesn't feel like drafting because there isn't much of that sense of uncertainty and wild discovery that I experience when writing something new.

But I'm enjoying the process -- at some point in the past few years I've started enjoying revising. It's just... different. If drafting is jazz improvisation, revising is carefully crafting a scale model of Mt. Rushmore with popsicle sticks.

I'm also remembering how very much I love this story -- the antagonists, the cool shit, the neat reversals and revelations... I hope I sell the thing, because I'd love to finish this rewrite, and I'm even getting excited about my incredibly vague ideas for future books in the series!

I'm taking a few days off from fiction. Maybe as much as two weeks, unless I get the itch to do a story. Between cranking away on Grift Sense and cranking away on this YA proposal, I'm feeling a little stretched thin. Time for a break -- at least until I have to revise Grift Sense near the end of the month.