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  • 16-MAY-2025 | Excerpt from “To Have and Have Not” by Ernest Hemingway

16-MAY-2025 | Excerpt from “To Have and Have Not” by Ernest Hemingway

Author

Dan Bogachek
May 16, 2025

You glance at your watch.

It’s 6:28. You’ve been at it since 3.
Crap. Your hot date is at 7. Running late. Sink shower it is.
Nowhere close to done editing…

“…at least all the ideas are laid out, so there’s that. Did I miss anything? I don’t think so? Ok, but how do I make it flow? I need to get the final draft to Stacey for design asap, team cutoff is at noon Thursday…”

You’ve spent dinner completely distracted. Your date just took off. You go home exhausted, plod to your desk, and flip open the laptop.

Or… what if:

5:41 — you’re out of the shower and lip-syncing.
6:17 — dressed to the nines and zenned out.
7:03 — the sunset glints off your aviators as you smile hello.
8:36 — it actually feels like you’re hitting it off. Not just hot, funny to boot.
Next morning, 9:27 — final draft ready in your inbox.
10:31 — Stacey messages back, “thanks, looks good!”

The difference?

Copygloss handled it. Before you left for the date, actually.

For help with editing, email Dan:
[email protected].

Excerpt from “To Have and Have Not” by Ernest Hemingway

Some made the long drop from the apartment or the office window; some took it quietly in two-car garages with the motor running; some used the native tradition of the Colt or Smith and Wesson; those well-constructed implements that end insomnia, terminate remorse, cure cancer, avoid bankruptcy, and blast an exit from intolerable positions by the pressure of a finger; those admirable American instruments so easily carried, so sure of effect, so well designed to end the American dream when it becomes a nightmare, their only drawback the mess they leave for relatives to clean up. 🏁

You really feel Hemingway ruminating here.

Beautiful repetition by embellishment. Crisp joinery between each string, as one deepens into the next.

“some” - “some” - “some.” Transitioning from [used a revolver] → [now, what the revolver does]:
“end” - “terminate” - “cure” - “avoid” - “blast an exit.” And now, [from what the revolver does] → [the qualities of said revolver]:
“so” - “so” - “so.”