It���s been a long time since I wrote. Why? I���ve been absorbedin the most amazing editing process. I am basically rewriting one of thenovel's story lines. My editor is an incredibly perceptive and gifted reader whose comments have an illuminating effect--I can suddenly see with more clarity the characters and their journeys as well as my own role as writer in crafting the book. It's quite mysterious. This also somehow means that I have to acknowledge--ugh, painful!--the moments when I fail to be honestwith myself or when I get lazy or lose faith. Her questions and her comments, once I sit with them, open up the characters and the story in ways that continually surprise me���andsometimes scare me (but this, too, I am learning, is a good sign).