All I can really do is laugh and roll up my sleeves 😂. 

I pulled my files from my old briefcase. When I say "files," I literally mean PAPER. The only other format where I have the original saved is on floppy disk. No, I'm not joking. Yes, I'm old. HAHAHA. 

I wrote this in 2003 when I still used an HP computer. All of my work prior to 2011 is backed up on floppy disks and CDs. After getting my first Mac (the one that finally crashed a few months ago), I saved files to CDs or flash drives or in Google Docs/Drive. 

Thankfully, I had saved the final version to a CD just before I received my iMac. I was able to transfer it to my iMac and convert it to the Word version I use now. I worked on it then printed it out and edited it again twice. The most recent edit from 2013 is what you see in this photo. 

Yes, my editing was always done with a red pen on printed out copies. I told you I'm old. 

Here I am now looking at this pile of ... I mean, what do I call this? There are so many edits. Edits upon edits! 

And looking at the last saved version on the computer from 2013, I see that I had begun using these handwritten edits to edit the draft on the computer. I wasn't done, though. 

My problem now is that when I edit, much like when I write, so many of it stays in my head without being written down. So although I know certain parts need changing, I don't remember what those changes were because I didn't write them down. I didn't write them down because I had intended to continue editing at that moment. Something interfered and I was distracted. I put it on hold and didn't go back until now. 

It's funny (not really, no) because I've noticed random paragraphs posted in the middle of chapters that I swear was in another chapter or that don't exist on this old printed copy. I can only guess I was in the middle of shifting things around to make them more chronologically suitable, but your guess is as good as mine as to what I was planning. 

At any rate, I'm about to be swamped with the edits of this novel. The good news is that it's roughly 100 pages. That's shorter than "Cultivating Lilies," which was 220 pages. I can do 100 pages in a couple of days. Although, that's a LOT of red ink ....... 😳😂. 

I wrote it once, I can write it again. I just never like leaving out ideas I once had. If I think about it, though, this story has to now be edited to fit in with the bigger crossover novel. Missing out on ideas I can't even remember isn't that bad. 

Well, back to work. I'm really so very excited to get back into this! Reading through some of these edits brings the story back to life for me again, and I love it so much!