Dear Reader,
A luna moth kept me company during my novel time today. I saw something out of the corner of my eye, ran to take a photo, got a bad one, and then it presented itself right on the window near where I was writing. Word Raccoon wonders if it was smitten with her. Likely it was.
The moth is beautiful, and looking up facts on it, apparently it only lives about a week, and it chose to come witness my novel. I feel honored. It has now made its way onto the tomato plant, resting from the heat, I suppose. If I’m not careful, this entire post will become about this visitor, about whom WR would like to write a poem. I told her no, not right now, but I let her take some notes below.
It’s a ghostly green kite of an insect. It seems companionable, watching as it just clings. What will it do with its short little life?
Why has it come to bless my novel?
WR and I feel honored.
I’ll share some photos, but keep in mind that cleaning porch windows is a job for September, not All Novel, All August.
Reader, if you want to write a poem about Ms. Luna Moth, that would be awesome!
Now, onward.
Reader, you may not believe this, but today I finished cleaning up the very, very Messy Bessy third thread! This one had plenty of plot, but in places I had written the same scene three or four times. I had repeated phrases and themes and motifs, had discovered things only to forget them and discover them all over again a few pages later. I kept trying to get physical descriptions and first encounters just right.
While I can’t say thread three is just right, I did go through and remove the knots. Ladies and gentlemen, tiny tots and toddlers, children of all ages, we have a rough draft of thread three!
There are still scenes to be written and plenty of finessing to be done, but now it is ready for that! My brain doesn’t hurt when I look at it. After, what, four years? Five maybe? Not sure. That’s heartening.
But wait, there’s more.
The fourth thread came into existence unexpectedly last year, during my deep mourning, and funnily enough, it was the least knotted. It had a story from beginning to end, with only minor tweaks needed, and yes, some scene work, but no repetition. This character, E., knows who she is. So the thread knew, immediately.
Oh, and as to thread three: dang me if I didn’t end up writing it in first person, present, after all. That seems to be my lot. LOL.
If you’re counting, that means that today, August 16, 2026, I can say it: the rough draft is there. Revisable. A very different beast than it was just days ago.
Psst…it might end up with a new title.
I can see finishing a decent draft by year’s end. Then an editor. Dear god, if this is not published by a traditional press (we’ll see), I am hiring a copyeditor! I have learned my lesson. No matter how good your eye is, you can’t see your own work as clearly as you think you can. Period. Dot. Dash.
So actually, Ms. Luna Moth happened to arrive on the day I reached the goal of All Novel, All August.
Except now I’m going to start adding in the things that are missing: the scenes, the letters, journal entries.
There were discoveries along the way, some that delighted me, some that surprised me. Some that troubled me. But the book is what it is.
WR says that sounds reductive. She may have a point. She certainly has had all the crunchy snacks today…
A friend messaged me some poetry submission opportunities, so maybe I’ll spend some time doing that this month, too.
Because September is going to have its own project. I may wait until closer to then to share.
Drema