Woot Woot! Just sent the revised manuscript back to my editor! And I actually hit the deadline (we’re all surprised I have to say this was the most enjoyable revising experience I’ve had to date. Every cut I made felt right and every addition flowed smoothly into place. I just might be getting the hang of this.

For those interested in some of the specs, the book now clocks in at around 165,000 words so it’s still a brick, but a leaner and meaner one. I estimate that I cut around 25,000 words and added 15,000 new ones. There was a lot of discussion about race and terms in the book and the use of a particularly derogatory word. In the end, raw and ugly won out because that best reflected the truth of things.

Big thanks to my editor, Ed Schlesinger, my agent, Don Maass, and my first readers Mike Evans, Deb Christerson, Robert Evans and Shelly Shapiro with additional input from Barbara Evans, Chris Schluep and Bill Takes. They made the novel better, and I am better for it.

Cheers!

Chris