I've been plugging away on it for some time now, Sins, and I hope I can get it wrapped up within the next year or two. I could whip out a novel in about a twentieth of the time, but even though the book consists largely of my own personal experiences and reminiscences, I'm keeping it well anchored within the context of the larger picture. This involves a lot of fact-checking and consulting with friends who were also there at the time.

The first draft has run over 120,000 words so far, and I still have a way to go. When I get the first draft finished, it's going to take a lot of heavy-duty editing and cutting, because I'm doing a lot of "stream of consciousness" writing in an attempt, not only to include the facts and the events, but to capture the flavor of it all.

But there is the old dictum about a writer editing his or her own stuff that you have to spend a lot of painful time "killing your darlings." That is, eliminating those scenes that were fun to write, but don't necessarily advance the narrative. For example, I'm not sure how many people interested in the folk music scene in this area would also be interested in the encounter between Walt Robertson's dog, Smoky (half malamute, half chow), and Fred Melberg's (fully loaded) pet skunk. Or the tendency of quart bottles of Bob Clark's home-brewed beer (which he often brought to song fests) to explode in a geyser of foam at inopportune times.

There's the old story of the writer of who had a tight deadline, and he turned in a huge manuscript. The editor said, "But I only wanted a short piece!" To which the writer replied, "You gave me such a close deadline that I didn't have enough time to write a short piece!"

Soon, I hope. I already have a line on a couple of potential publishers.

Don Firth