When I Came West (Part Twenty-seven)
The most fun part of the process for me in recent days has been making a list of all the people who helped me bring this book to life. Each of them will receive a signed copy along with a personal note of thanks for his or her loving involvement.
And, of course, copies must go to my mother and sisters and step-children. Well, perhaps there will be one more thing that will bring me sheer delight: taking the three bulging file folders of old notes and out-dated correspondence and committing them to a recycle bin.
The numerous copies of the manuscript in all its various scribbled upon drafts have already been destroyed. Something that has been tickling the edges of my consciousness as When I Came West nears completion (aside from marketing, readings and book signings) is what I want to do, if anything, with the 50,000 words I cut from the original manuscript.
At one point a couple years ago I had pieced them altogether into the semblance of a sequel. I had even sent that rough draft manuscript, tentatively titled In the Direction of Sunset, out for a professional edit, received some very good comments along with strong advice for much-needed revisions.
Was I writer enough to tackle the whole process again in hopes of constructing another book?
Was the fact that my last memoir (Spring's Edge: A Ranch Wife's Chronicles, University of New Mexico Press, 2008) had been a finalist for the Colorado Book Award enough affirmation for me to believe that I could write another worthy book?
