The first cut should be the deepest.

First of all, apologies to the poor guinea pigs who suffered the first draft of the Thirteenth Pharaoh. Honestly I did think it was quite good.I'd tried really hard and there really wouldn't be that much to sort out.

Mmm.

Well, the feedback was salutary - conducive to health. I asked for tough love and I got it.

I cannot thank you enough, you know who you are.  If you want name checks -I'm more than happy to say how brill you were. In the same way that we need our surgeons to be callous, I need my writing friends to incise and remove all the necrotic tissue which spoils a good piece of work.

Now, me being me, I veered madly in the opposite direction: avoiding one problem area I ran straight into another. Too terse, too unexpressive became flabby and overblown. Draft 2 grew to be a monster (or at least the embryonic first chapters). More healthy advice was given.

Things I have learnt:

• rewriting is not little cosmetic touches  
• it is not fleshing out with great globs of silicon gel 
• it is more like a heart bypass.

Draft No. 3 has its drips and life support in situ.

Dear colleagues - will you help me save the patient?