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Montreal January 2021 In December 2019 I received a manuscript evaluation of the first draft of my book, The ‘Starting Out’ Years, and began making some of the changes they suggested. The book is about the years in the lives of girls in six generations of my family when they finish school and decide what to do next. The first four stories, about my grandmother, my mother, myself, and my daughter, hadn’t changed since that first draft. But the fifth story is about my partly-fictional granddaughter, Fiona, during the years she finishes school and goes on to university. 2020, the year she graduates from high school, unfolded smoothly in that first draft. It was the most exciting year in Fiona’s life. And then 2020 actually happened. In March, when I sent
the second draft to the editors, I made some references to COVID-19. But
the narrative in that story still jumped directly from a December 2019 high
school dance in Edmonton to Fiona’s arrival at McGill University in Montreal in
September 2020. And the illustration I
had asked to have inserted was this one:  Montreal September 2020 The book has been back and forth to the publisher a few times since then. I have made many additions to the fifth story, as 2020 literally fell apart. Fiona’s arrival at McGill University has been delayed until January 2021—hence the picture at the beginning of this blog post. I am still hoping to have the book
available in time for Christmas, so I’m just going to guess what happens for
the rest of the year and get it into the production process as quickly as
possible. |
