Rachel, my prime reader and life partner, has been working with me to whip the manuscript into readable shape for submission to my content editor. The work we’re doing together will, I believe, ensure that the editor not stumble over egregious errors. And boy are there egregious errors. This is what comes of working **really** fast on a large, complex story, but I feel confident that this story will be the better for it.

That said, it’s always a little discouraging when one of my little gems turns out to be a crackerjack toy rather than something of polish and depth. There was a little scene that I had to essentially rewrite completely this morning, for example. It was atmospheric, and I thought it introduced a good story idea. But it turned out to be completely confusing for the reader (aka Rachel), so I replaced it with something a bit more mundane but a great deal more comprehensible.

Onward! November 6th is my drop-dead date.