Just agreed “final” version of the text after the structural edit with Impress Books. (Thanks to them for many excellent suggestions.) I’ve read, re-read, tweaked, re-read again and tweaked some more. And now I have to stop tweaking (at least until the copy-editing’s done). The story is, more or less, set in stone.

This is a bit scary, although I do take comfort from the adage that a story is never finished, only abandoned. Then I began to wonder who said it . . .

Apparently Paul Valéry (1871-1945) said: “A work is never completed except by some accident such as weariness, satisfaction, the need to deliver, or death: for, in relation to who or what is making it, it can only be one stage in a series of inner transformations.” But no less a cultural icon than Leonardo da Vinci is also supposed to have said: “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” (Not sure about the provenance of this one.)