When I was in England, I wrote an 800 or so page manuscript by hand, illustrating it as well. It was on Paganism, basically, although it also had autobiographical bits in it (as well as my sketches). I only had one copy of this monster because I was homeless at the time (and I discovered you couldn’t plug a copier into a tree).
You can probably see where this is going. Congratulations for nourishing your instinct. However, let me get on with it.
On August 6, 2005 my shelter in the woods was burnt down. I wasn’t hurt and neither was my dog. But guess what was mostly destroyed? You got it — the manuscript.
Can It Be Saved?
That was the lowest point in my life. So I did the only thing I could — I asked the local homeless centre to call my Mom and get me the heck out of there. Saint Mom took me and my dog. I didn’t have much to bring back (except the dog) but I did bring the remains of the manuscript.
Keep in mind, this manuscript had not only been burnt, but had been doused with flame retardant chemicals and water. The edges burnt first, leaving the center intact. My pages were egg-shaped. The first two hundred pages were completely turned to ash, but the core 600 pages remained — well, more or less.
When I saw it, I think I threw up. I can’t remember. My mind has blanked that bit out. But I do remember all of the other homeless people living in shelters around the same patch of woods I was in encouraged me to save what as left. They not only told me to keep on writing, but gave me a Peter Gabriel CD as a going away present. (My Walkman had burnt, too, but that wasn’t the point).
So, I took the flaking 600 page manuscript egg over the Atlantic back to my Mom’s home in America. After a week or so, I opened up the manuscript and began to transcribe what I could.
Missed It By This Much
I did manage to transcribe about one hundred pages worth and saved about four of my drawings. But it was heartbreaking, stressful work (and smells awful – PEE YEW!) so I put the manuscript bits away in storage.
Where I think I’m going to keep them. Looking back over the 100 pages I’ve transcribed, they aren’t actually all that great. It’s not as if "The War of the Worlds" burned here, it was a very long how-to book. And I’ve changed my mind about some of the spiritual bits I preached about. In fact, I no longer believe some of the bits I wrote about. I wonder if the Goddess allowed my book to burn as a metaphor for life — we all revise our text every day to adjust to new information.
But I’ve got two ideas for new books and I’ve decided to press on with them rather than save the manuscript. I’m considering giving it a proper burial in the back yard. Maybe I’ll just leave it "buried" in the basement. It will act as compost for the manuscript to come.
And this time I have access to a copier.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
To be notified by email when there are new blog entries, 
