IT ALWAYS HELPS for me to work out a book project in miniature. Spread out on a table, the tiny pages take the form of a canvas, and I can "see" the whole book all at once. Then, like an impressionist might paint a canvas — a daub of lavender here, now there, now here — I paint the whole of the book, pulling the parts together, but with words instead of shades of lavender.
The books I've written so far have all been only words, so the painting has been strictly metaphorical. But now that I'm making a book of photos, I'm working with actual colors. This is what the "canvas" looks like as of today for the Catahoula book I've been developing. It's just a framework at this point — I'll be adding 350 or so images into the mix before it's complete — but now that the loom is constructed — pardon the mixed metaphor — it's merely a matter of weaving.