Postpartum

There's always a period of letdown after finishing a work, after which my relationship to the work changes completely. I had occasion to pick up Kerouac's Scroll, my most recent novel, a moment ago, and I now am distant enough from it to marvel, Did I write this? This is a good reflection because I was impressed with what I read. Strong stuff. Yet the book is as invisible as almost all my work, but that's another issue. Right after finishing the book, I was a tad depressed -- but now I marvel, I am wondrous, that I wrote something I can, at least while browsing through it, admire. And the book has picked up a few fans, larger in enthusiasm than in number. I'm proud to have written it, and that's the real bottom line.

Now to continue the struggle with Sally, trying to make it even better.