This final journal entry pulls me in all sorts of directions. For one thing, I'm struck by how close it is to the final sentence of the finished novel. For another, I marvel at how quickly I worked. Only a month and a half, between first stirrings and a complete first draft! I remember thinking I'd have the book done by Christmas.

In fact I did finish it by Christmas -- only it was five Christmases later than expected! Everything was already in place -- characters, plot, organizational device . . . I was missing only one thing: tone of voice. The narrator's tone kept coming out wrong -- kept coming out sounding smug or precious or affected or fussy. What I thought would be my easiest book to write in many ways turned out to be the hardest; I broke all previous personal records and went through thirteen drafts. As I look back on my earliest journal entries, I can still smell the elation and exhilaration in the air. I suppose it's the occupational hazard of the writer: I didn't know what was ahead. I wrote "Sept 9, 1994! Twelve noon!" Those exclamation points are like balloons that the days ahead would pop . . . it's only now -- I write these words on March 16, 2001, a month before publication day -- that the full elation and exhilaration come back. Inflate the balloons, bring out the exclamation marks. I'm going to have a new book in my hands!!