Dear Cyndy,

Thank you for your letter. It's a relief to know that you and Ned are managing.
Life doesn't get simpler as one gets older. I look forward to our telephone 
conversation on Sunday, January 13 at 10:30 a.m. Please always feel free to
change the time, or for that matter, to change your mind altogether. I'm aware
and respectful of the circumstance that telephone conversations are not always 
easy for you. You should indicate to me what topics you would like to talk about,
and perhaps more important, what, if anything, we should not talk about. I am
very much aware of the circumstance that medical opinions tend to create unnecessary
problems. My unconventional and iconoclastic notions are no exception, and I remind
myself that I must be cautious about expressing them. 

Nathaniel, about whom you asked, has not replied to my suggestion about the
concerto for two trumpets. This afternoon, when telephoning to ask whether
he might use one of the cars, he admitted that he hadn't had time to listen
to the cantata on which the double concerto might be based. He has been very 
busy organizing prospective concerts. On Saturday he goes back to Yale. 

This evening I finished editing chapter 48 of my second novel. I have written
five additional chapters, which, for the time being, I will leave unedited
while I arrange the publication as electronic books, and perhaps as print-on-
demand volumes of the sections that I consider more or less completed. My first 
novel, which I had previously called "Die Andere" I have rechristened with the 
name of the protagonist "Döhring". This composition would aggregate about 775 
pages, which if in print, I would publish in two volumes. Of the second novel, 
which now comes to about 1090 pages, I propose initially to publish only the 
first 990 pages or 48 chapters, presumably in three print-on-demand volumes.
I'm as yet quite uncertain how to apportion the text for electronic editions. 
I plan to canvas the e-books promoted by Amazon.com, and organize my own editions
accordingly.

All these concerns about publication I consider a phase of estate planning,
an eminently satisfactory way to spend my time and energy in anticipation
of dying. I have no expectation that what I have written will be read, and 
even less expectation that anything I publish will be bought. However, I'd 
like to leave what I have written in an accessible format. The more effort
I put into my writing, the more uncertain I become about estimating its
quality. On some days, what I read seems to me very good, on other days
I find it boring. I don't trust my judgment and must be cautious not to
permit melancholy or boredom to persuade me to make erasures which I should
subsequently regret.

My best wishes to both of you.
Jochen