There Really Will Be a Book

I have been reading the galleys for Alchemy and Meggy Swann. Galleys are manuscript pages printed just as they will be in the book but not cut and bound. This is the last chance to find missing words, misspellings, words divided inappropriately, and other such mistakes. It’s too late to do editing although I always find sentences I wish I’d written differently or totally the wrong words! It’s frustrating, but it’s an exciting time. The pages look almost like a book. I start to believe it’s real—there really will be a book. And reading the manuscript over reminds me of what I loved about Meggy and how annoying she can be, what a terrific guy Roger Oldham is, and why Master Peevish needs a good shaking sometimes!