All in the End Is Harvest

Saw this sign in France recently - Vendanges means grape harvest and it is such a big deal over there that it stops traffic -- literally.

The reason I'm sharing this photo with you is that I like the drama of the road sign,  the idea that a harvest, whether agricultural or literary, is something you should be alerted to, that it is worthy of an exclamation mark.  Part of me would like to hang out a big sign when I've finished the draft of a book (although another part of me would like to hide away and pretend that nothing has happened). I remember that when I put the final full stop to the first novel I wrote, I made the strangest sound - something between a laugh and a sob - and finishing a mammoth project to which you have committed months if not years of your time is a strange mix of grief and elation, of achievement and loss: the book is no longer yours, it belongs to other people and will make its way without you (or not at all, but that's another story).

So be prepared, if you are coming to the end of something you have written, for the turbulence of unexpected feelings; remember that once the harvest is in, a long winter lies ahead before you see the first signs of spring...