Beginning at the beginning

One week after my birthday I received news that I had been awarded a mentorship, through the Australian Society of Authors, that would enable me to work with an editor on the manuscript of my memoir The Boy in the Yellow Dress.
I chose an editor as mentor, as the ms was tottering under the weight of 150,000 words! (Most publishers would shrink at the prospect of such a loooong book.) With so much material already 'on the page' as it were, I knew I needed the assistance of an experienced critical eye to decide what to keep and what to discard.
I met Shelly Kenigsberg at LAST year's Byron Writers' Festival and wanted to find a way to finance her professional contribution. Luckily for me, the ASA offers a number of mentorships each year (from 350 applicants, 20 were selected) and a group of writers act as a judging panel to assess the samples sent in to them.
So, now it's time to get serious. Some teaching work lined up for semester two has fallen through, opening up the time to put in some serious work on the ms. (One door closes, another one opens.) Okay, there will be no income, but sometimes time itself is more important than money...