Yekaterina Novikova liked an update for The Cat's Pajamas

Jumping right into things . . .The book is an actual book now and most of the backers have received their copies and I could not be happier. This is my first book featuring in equal parts my illustrations and text, and I have a different feeling about it than I've had with my novels. Between you and me, I don't think of The Cat's Pajamas as a children's book (though it is); I think of it as  . . . a book. A book with both sides of my brain in it. Writing, for me, does not come easy: I have high standards for prose which, by now, I should be more comfortable falling short of. But I love to draw, and I'm content with my limitations as a drawer of things. Ladies and gentlemen, these here drawings are about the best I can do and I don't feel the need to do it much betterer. So it is a kid's book, I guess, in that it makes me feel like a kid. Happy.

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    Yekaterina Novikova liked an update for Whither Messianic Judaism?

    Hi all!  Things are still moving along with my article on Messianic Judaism, thank you for your patience and support.  Adam Jack Gomolin at Inkshares had some great edit suggestions on my first version, so I revised accordingly and the second draft is now being read by another Inkshares editor, Barnaby Conrad III.

    Meanwhile, my friend Mark Glaser will be reading it this weekend with an eye towards helping figure out what to do with it-- like, should we send it out to publishers, and if so, who; or should we publish it ourselves, and if so, how.

    The article is nearly 10,000 words in length, which makes it long for an article but short for a book, so it could go in a few different directions.  It's also a tricky piece to categorize because it includes some fictional elements (which are clearly delineated) along with the regular reporting-- so it's not standard journalism, and would not work for publications that frame their content as such.

    But however the piece comes out, I'm excited about it.  I think it's super interesting (I'm biased, of course).

    Paul

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      Yekaterina Novikova liked an update for Slim and The Beast: A Novel
      Howdy Folks, 

      I've been editing like a fiend since I received the major edits from my editor in June. The main points were: three major plot themes that I knew needed to be changed/amended, and deleting 50 pages while also adding some key backstory and re-writing the end. 

      The fruits of my labor may or may not be ripe yet, but here is a picture symbolic of the writing process: http://instagram.com/p/rXSFV1os2K/?modal=true  

      Since I started this project on February 18, 2012 (according to Word anyway) coffee and whiskey have certainly helped. To give you a quick idea about Slim and The Beast's journey up until this point, it took me about two years to write a first novel (300 pages and ten drafts) to realize it was shit and move on to the second. The first draft Sim and The Beast was 300 pages (double-spaced) and 92,000 words. This latest draft, entitled "Draft #9" (in reality, including reading out loud and editing, it's probably draft #15), is 245-pages and approx. 78,000 words. A lot of the words in the latest draft didn't exist in the first, and vice versa; the hardest thing about the writing process is coming to terms with "Chapter Surgeries" and "Dead Darlings," the nagging fear that you're a failure and will never be a published writer, forever exacerbated by self-doubt and really bad sentences.

      The novel isn't done yet, but it's getting close. October 1st is the projected date of reckoning for all the final edits. I've always believed that I could be a writer, but it took me four years, a shitty first novel, and a potentially decent second one to realize that. There's a great quote by Dr. J: "Being a professional is doing the things you love to do on the days you don't feel like doing them." This more or less sums up the editing process for me, but can be applied to anything. 

      In any case, I just finished the latest draft and wanted to share it with you. You've been with me since the beginning of the publishing process, and you'll be hearing from me right up until the end. The poster with all your names on it will be on my wall soon enough, too. I'm talking with my cousin, an industrial designer, to make it a piece of artwork in itself so I can do justice to you, the backers. 
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