The Home Stretch

Last night I finish my third pass on my WIP, which I've now started to call Oblivion of Hummingbirds. My second-place title candidate is Chasing Smoke. Both work on a thematic level, but for now I prefer Hummingbirds, both for its distinctiveness and subtlety.

The third pass wasn't a true new draft, though sections novel saw significant changes. The second draft was far more substantial. Still, I did lots of cleaning up and tidying, tying off loose ends and massaging clues.

All that remains now is for me to get through about a page of random notes: double-check timing here and there, make sure I catch every instance of a character name change, etc. Then I'm going to give the manuscript a complete read through one more time. My plan right now is to send it to my agent Janet on Friday, and I have no reason to think I'll miss. Of course, it might be Friday night, but, hey, my target is twenty-four hours huge! Right?

If I get pinched I know there's a weekend there to finish up, but there's some stuff going on this weekend so Friday is pretty fixed in my mind.

And, of course Janet might come back and say, "Yes, but what about . . . ?" or "I think you need to . . . " :D

In other news, I want to congratulate Robert Fate, whose Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues received a starred review in Library Journal. I had the great privilege of reading an ARC of Beaumont Blues, and it's my feeling that Robert has taken an already great character and made her better. The complex, damaged, yet resilient Kristin van Dijk is a little older and wiser, but no less determined and focused. She now puts her instincts and the skills she developed in Baby Shark to professional use, but her underlying need for justice continues to drive her choices as she and partner Otis Millett search for a missing, and deeply troubled, heiress.

And finally, I'd like to draw your attention to a fascinating interview of Sean Chercover in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.