Sometimes the only way to finish writing a book is to read a book you haven't written, and this weekend I distanced myself from
You Are My Only by reading
By Nightfall, the new Michael Cunningham novel. Between reading, I went off to Skippack. I took a walk. I took my big camera out and found my way to the back side of an old cottage at the Willows, where I discovered this tank, its clock forever corroded by time.
It was, all of it, a restoration. I returned to my own novel in the middle of last night and read it through once more, adding, subtracting, but not by much.
It is there. It is whole now. I can breathe.
Published on October 25, 2010 06:51