Two posts in one day? This is, and I do not exaggerate, unprecedented. But I just had to get away from book revisions.

Here’s the problem with book revisions, see. It’s one thing to have to correct spelling mistakes and typos and the occasional word choice that, on reflection, was somewhat less than brilliant—though I should add that the process is at best tedious, and at worst downright embarrassing, as I noted earlier today.

The bigger problem is with substantial changes to content. Striking whole passages, or needing to add whole new passages, or even moving around the structure of the book itself—well, gosh. That stings.

And it’s a lot of work, I’m not fond of that part of it either, but I can handle the drudgery if I permit myself to swear frequently. (Finding all the time to handle the drudgery is another issue entirely, one I am pretending doesn’t exist).

It’s the, y’know, the CRITICISMS OF MY EVER-LOVING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY that kind of hurt.

Great way to spend a Sunday, that. Nothing like spending ALL BLEEDING DAY in the act of humbling oneself before editors who, presumably, know better.

If I am ever stupid enough to write a book again—and I definitely won’t write another, at least not a nonfiction reference book—if I am ever this stupid again, I am going to get a dog, so that I can have someone nearby who thinks I am an intellectual giant. My ego is fragile; ergo, I need a dog.

(To be fair to the cats, Gremlin was on my lap earlier, but as she was kneading she got a claw in a nipple. That was the end of that particular cuddle session.)

(And no, I don’t know what’s up with the prevalence of the word “nipple” in the blog today.)

Feel free, absolutely free, to tell me that I am an intellectual giant. Sometimes—strike that, most times—I get irritated when people exaggerate my intelligence. This is not one of those times.