Distractions...

My youngest daughter (sorry, no pictures) is nearly seven. She's riding a JR50 (a tiny Suzuki motorcycle), and wants to go ride in the dirt before the carpool boys get bikes... competitive much?

So, Dad, being a good Dad, goes and gets stiffer springs for his (slightly-larger) Yamaha pitbike (it's a TTR125, for those who know about such things), so he can go putt in the dirt and generally supervise while she crashes a lot. Or something...

Meant a lot of wrenching today, and since the forks on Dad's bike are tiny, Dad had no clue how much oil to put in... meaning I may have a 'field adjustment' in my future (drain some while at the parking area of the trailhead).

Sandy (Sparks) is getting through the first pass. This pass, you'll recall, was mostly plot tweak - I'm fixing it to 'better fit the Action/Adventure genre'. A few other things I didn't really like, but was too wrapped up in the story before to want to tweak got tweaked, and I'll make a couple of desultory spot-edits in phrases or whatnot.

Next week I'll begin the deathmarch-edit, like I did on Hell's Own. That'll be the "each sentence in a microscope". Thank Heaven this story's shorter...

Then comes the 'print it and read it like a book' pass. And, this time, I'll probably ask a professional to judge the first few dozen pages.

I would really like this book to sell, since it's sequel is such a great story. If I can't sell Sparks, I'll have to redo the beginning to Lenore (the sequel)... and that'll be harsh.

Anyway, have a great weekend, and I'll try not to break any bones keeping up with my youngest girl on the trail...


dave