Morphing

Now that I have completed the first and most intense step of editing and annotating the raw transliteration manuscript for “To Make as Perfectly As Possible: Roubo on Furniture Making,” aka R2, my attentions will turn to and eventually be dedicated solely to the full pedal-to-the-metal effort to bring VIRTUOSO to fruition.

This does not mean our labors on R2 are done; far from it. Instead it means that my time with it will be episodic but perhaps even more intense periodically than the last half-year of my nearly all-Roubo-all-the-time life as Michele, Philippe and I revise and reconcile each other’s modifications to the work.  In addition, I need to integrate the observations and suggestions from my readers Bob, Mike and Martin on things that need to be clarified or augmented.

But, the first draft is complete and sitting in the 3″-thick file folder next to my chair, awaiting only my entering of the last sections into the computer for sending off into the ether. About two-thirds is already there, with the remaining third flowing in several sections at a time almost every day.

This process will continue behind the curtain for months through the Lost Art Press editing, Wesley’s design and our galley-proof-review process some time next autumn, when we will once again wash our hands of the project in order to consign it to you and to move on ourselves.

In the meantime, beginning next week I will be stomping down on the gas for the Studley manuscript, weaving the many threads already extant with ones yet to be spun out of my notebook and Narayan’s photo gallery then deposited onto the screen, crafting a volume we hope will achieve some interest in the market.

This will be an exciting and somewhat disorienting time, as I will be ratcheting way back on the energies necessary for R2 to refocus and allow myself a pretty complete dedication to this new franchise. If I find myself crafting impossible syntax into 300-word sentences I will know that the reorientation is not yet complete. All of this is occurring against the backdrop of a time when Lost Art Press seems to be going into hyperdrive with excellent and desirable new volumes in the coming few dozen months.

This new endeavor includes many exciting opportunities, twists and turns, and I will certainly apprise you of them as they emerge.

— Donald C. Williams