There is possibly an author, somewhere out there, who does not need to revise or edit, and his/her first attempt is what will eventually appear between the covers of his/her book. I'm afraid that I am not such a person. The manuscript was written and then rewritten; large swathes were removed or moved; words were added and deleted; the manuscript was rewritten yet again; more sections were deleted; more sections were added; another rewrite and then editing and editing and editing; punctuation was added and removed; paragraphs were combined, created and split; then more editing and editing and editing... At times, hours were spent deliberating over one page, one paragraph, one sentence or even over one single word. By the time the manuscript was finished (at what point can a manuscript actually be called finished?) I would have gone through it - word by word - anything up to one hundred times (which is a lot, considering that there are now about 114,000 words - down from around 124,000 words). At this point in time, I feel that I could most probably recite the entire book, cover to cover - a realization that brings to mind the book Fahrenheit 451.