People have been asking me how goes the progress with what was originally supposed to be a slim volume of popularized theology. Well, "pop theology", perhaps. As noted before, the original outline began, in writing, to morph into another rich vein of spirituality, so much so that, after 60,000 words, I realized that I was writing another work entirely. This could not stand, of course, as I have a contract that determines the nature of the product.
So, I returned to the original outline, cannibalized the useful information from the deviance, and am now over 50,000 words into the promised work. For those of you unfamiliar with such things, hardcover books tend to run, depending on print format, to around 350-400 words a page; paperbacks around 300. 50,000 words is approximately 150+ pages of what is to be a 200 page volume.
Here's the thing: I'm only halfway to fulfilling my outline. I'm a loquacious git, aren't I? This means that the original work will be around 400 pages in length, which is way too long for contemporary readers.
Also, I still have about 20,000 words of good copy from the deviance. So, what was once to be a slim volume is now projected to be...a three volume work of some 200,000 words. Unfortunately, I still get paid at the original rate.
What is of terrific curiosity to me is that, while my first book, written sixteen years ago and now long out-of-print, sold only three copies in the United States [all to libraries], it is still read in the U.K. and Australia. Mainstream Christians overseas are more theologically literate than their American cousins, as they prefer to read quite a bit about spirituality.
Anyway, the work continues, as brutally interior and painstaking as any kind of writing can be.