I’ve finished my first read-through of my manuscript, and I’ve got good and bad news.

The good news first: I enjoyed reading it from start to end. That’s not to say I didn’t come up with a long list of things I wanted to change — either add or remove, strengthen or change, fact check or move around. I have a lot of ideas about what I want to do with these 362 pages. But even with that, I had a good time reading it. Dare I say, I even had a hard time putting it down when I got close to the end. But then, I admit to being a little biased.

But the bad news? I have one hell of an editing project ahead of me, and it starts now. I’ve never actually done this, so I’m still guessing at the process, but I’ve got thirteen colors of highlighter pens and three colors of erasable ink pens and a color chart to tell me which color represents what kind of change needs to be made. So I got this. I think.

Good thing I actually enjoy editing or this would be a chore.

Here’s what it looks like after I’m done with just one page. And this is a page I’d actually edited before so my mother could get a sneak peak. There’s just always more to do. The blessing and the curse of being a perfectionist, I guess.

Anyway — if you came here through my Facebook post, welcome! I invite (actually, I implore you) to follow my humble blog, where not only will you keep up with my novelizing efforts, but also the research I’m doing for my book. If you follow, you will learn about such fascinating topics as:

• Spinoza’s philosophy, or, you only thought you chose to read this
• Rembrandt’s infatuation with his own face
• How Mennonites started as a forward-thinking, liberal group – and are they still that today?
• All you ever wanted to know about the history of the Sephardic community in Amsterdam and then a whole lot more
• The history of the first black people in the Netherlands, especially Amsterdam
• The natural and unnatural history of diamonds
• The true history of vampires
• My wholly unprovable theories about Spinoza
• On my blog, you should always expect the Spanish Inquisition, and the Portuguese one, too.
• Franciscus van den Enden, the renegade former Jesuit of Amsterdam who lost his head over the Sun King
• The rivalries of Amsterdam’s first rabbis
• My musings on kosher laws and how they relate to, or complicate, being a vampire
• And oh, so many other things ….

I know what you’re thinking: What in the world are you working on? Let me tell you, it’s a beautiful mess, and it’s a fun ride. And when I’m done, god willing, it will be less of a mess and more of a good time. And that’s just the first book. Yes, I have plans for more. Many, many more. So hop on the train while it’s still at the station and be able to say you were there for the whole journey!