Quite a Day

Lots of writing progress on "Game Faces": up to page 292 and done with the major climactic scene. Now it's time to do the wrap up. Of course, this is only a first draft. I already have some notes about things to add, augment, check and/or change. This is what my publisher, Arline Chase, has referred to as layering. Get the whole story down first and then go back and add elements to set the scene, bring the reader into it, add sensory details--sounds, smells. For "Game Faces," I need to make sure these additional elements take my reader to Florida.

One of the tricky parts of the first person POV is giving her the information needed to draw conclusions and form hypotheses when she isn't finding that information first hand. Tracy needs to get information from the police detective working the case in a way that seems rational and feasible. It's not terribly realistic for him to offer up his discoveries to her without being asked. My heroine is not an investigator herself, and she has no position of power. It's a two-edged sword. It presents an obstacle to extricating herself from trouble and puts her in a sort of everywoman position, but as previously noted, it also requires special handling to keep it all plausible.

"The Changeling Kill" is ready, I think, to send to my editor with a list of corrections along with a bio, a cover, and blurb. I'll probably do that later today. Here's a peek at the cover art, minus the lettering which Shelley at Write Words handles: