Will the Proof be in the Pudding?

On Wednesday Jean and I managed to get ourselves together and met up efficiently and visited Maggie.  We got a very warm welcome, as we always do.

 The morning was taken up with shopping and cooking - Captain B navigated us to Waitrose - and I made a cheese, potato and tomato casserole from my Mexican Veggie Cookery book.   We had it for supper and it was very nice.  Well, I liked it.  Not too sure if it is the Captain's sort of thing,

And my dive thriller has come back to me - for proof reading.   I did it yesterday, but it's not as exciting as I hoped, but worrying, as I found myself wanting to cut and re-write. And yet I can't tell you how many times I have cut and re-written. Whole chapters have gone, including the first chapter, which I loved, but which just did not fit.  I first wrote it many years ago.  It was even taken by a big London agent at one time - also many years ago.  But then she changed her mind, saying it did not fit the extant publishing categories.

But sitting over it yet again is difficult.  How do authors deal with this moment I wonder.    The ending does seem absolutely right.  And I think I am now happy with the beginning.  Its the large bit in the middle that worries me.

Its Friday morning and the proof reading is now done - and I feel more strongly then ever that I should start again, and cut and cut and cut until I just have a long short story.  It all seems like padding now.

The Butterfly paperwork has also arrived, along with a Brimstone butterfly that Col and Mark saw yesterday when they were doing the fungi rounds. So that, plus doing my study for the Sunday meeting, will take care of today.

I did manage a little witnessing yesterday - and had one lovely talk at the doors.  I also found that I had got a wrong number for one of my return visits...  However, the young man who answered the door took a magazine, the one about the precious gift of the ransom, and I can call back with an invitation to the Memorial. So I can only hope it was a productive mistake.

And here is a lovely experience from the meeting at the Hall last night:

JESUS declared: “Things impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18:27) Many of us have experienced the truth of that statement. Despite all the efforts of those who want to stop the preaching work, Jehovah has helped us to carry it out.

Zacharie Elegbe (aged 66, baptized in 1963) recalls how a ban against the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Benin actually helped the brothers: “In 1976, when we had 2,300 publishers, our work was banned and the government ordered the ban to be broadcast in every local language. That was unheard of. Though Benin’s population speaks more than 60 languages, radio programs back then were usually broadcast in only five. So when the ban was broadcast in all local languages, many thousands of people living in remote areas heard of us for the very first time. They wondered, ‘Who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, and why are they banned?’ Later, when we reached those areas, many accepted the truth in short order.” Today, there are more than 11,500 Witnesses in Benin.