Sunday, January 31, 2016

January Slipping Away

Today’s the last day of January 2016. Interesting to think that we will never see this month and year again. Moments slip into memories. We look back and recall: that was the time when…

I spent most of last Sunday shoveling out from the big one.  Close to 30 inches fell.  Weather reporters say the circumstances may never occur on such a grand scale. El Nino pushed warm moist air our way while a cold front starting Alaska pushed down from the north. Poof! Lots of snow. Lots of back breaking work to clear it.

The opportunity afforded me some time work on the next book. The Fortune Teller’s Secret is all in one piece now. Thirty chapters (though I reserve the right to change that) compiled from start to finish. Now comes the back breaking work of editing.

I spent most of yesterday changing a clue. Such a little thing can have such a devastating effect. In the original version one of my characters, Hershel McCabe, helped the murderer dump a body down an old well. In the process of aiding, he drops something with it—something that is personal and can link him to the murder. Originally I had been sunglasses of a particular brand sold in the 90’s because that was when the body was disposed of. The whole thing was not working in the big picture, so I changed it to a St. Christopher’s medal hung from a chain around his neck, something that was gift from his mother since he traveled. What made this clue unique was a bend in the metal disc that happened when he worked on some machinery and it caught in a meshwork of gears. Now it can be identified to him. When the body is disposed of in the hole, the victim’s fingers hook the chain as she falls away and rips it from his neck. It drops with her. And twenty-five years later the sheriff will find it when the body is exhumed.

The little change took most of a Saturday, finding places where the sunglasses were mentioned and changing to the medallion.  The circumstances had to be rewritten.  Syntax and sentences needed to be altered. I am not even sure I caught it all. Thankfully I have good beta readers.

That is all for now, dear friends. Best to everyone.

Yours in writing,
Ron