Goodbye, Ebola Similie

For those of you who have been keeping breathless track of my life, I have been cutting in all areas of my novel, but particularly in the first 100 pages - I was advised to cut them in HALF (by an agent who agreed to reread the first 50...eeep!)

Well, I've succeeded in cutting them by slightly more than a third (from 27, 523 words to 18, 312 words, or 97 pages reduced to 65). But wow, does that opening ever move! And I'm still going to cut more. Anyway, I had my husband, who is both handsome AND brilliant, read the first 50 pages last night, and he found some additional cuts, including one of my favorite, albeit silly, similies which today will leave its home on page 10, way too early for such a thing, and go into a file I keep for such cuts, where it will live out its days in quiet darkness. Here it is.

I pull the covers over me. Sometimes when I’m alone in Cubby’s condo I try to feel what it would be like to be him. Cubby has faith in life the way you might have faith in a five star hotel: you assume everything is perfect, and the place is full of caring people and sunny swimming pools and plush towels, and the folks at the front desk are highly capable—just call if there’s a problem and it will be fixed. To me, life is a trip into a jungle full of toothy predators and fire ants. You find shelter in an Ebola cave and set out a vase of flowers on a doily to cheer up the place, and everybody pretends people aren’t disappearing. I want more than anything to live in Cubby’s safe hotel. To just go through one day without fear.

He suggested the cut because I already show what I tell here about the heroine. Alas, he is right.

In other news, I wrote Xmas cards last night, and I used Star Wars stamps, which all looked absolutely beautiful on the deep red envelopes I had, though not that festive. I refrained from using the Darth Vader one, though I wish I had used it for one of my sisters, because she and her husband would think it was pretty funny. It's like twice as large as a normal stamp. Maybe I'll save it for a health insurance bill.