CRASH TEST DUMMY

So, my illustrator partner-in-crime delivered the pdf book "dummy" for PB PROJECT X. I must say, it's awesome. I can't believe the visual puzzle that was constructed. Such amazing talent!

Studying the text with the illustrations has got me wondering, though, if I still need to make a few tweaks to improve the story.

My agent called and said she loved the art. However, she wants to print the dummy and cut it out, paste it together and turn the pages to really get the feel of the book and how it functions. She says after she does this she'll call me to discuss it.

Wow. I can't believe what an undertaking this has been. I've been working on this manuscript feverishly since January - nine months, and yet it still isn't "born." In fact, I wrote the original manuscript a year or so prior to that, smiled at the strangeness of the idea and put it away. Then I found it again while cleaning up some files and started to work on it anew. It went from about 750 words to 211 over the next several months, and finally left the traditional manuscript form and became a table with illustration notes and sparse text.

Part of the reason for continuing to work so long on this is that my agent simply has not deemed it ready to be shopped around. She loved the very first version but has never quite felt it was ready. 28 versions after the first she was shown, I enlisted an illustrator.

If this machine ever takes flight it will have hopefully earned its wings.

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