Final push.

Spent the entire day putting in the changes to The Dead Spend No Gold that the writer's group has suggested.

As always, I'm amazed by the tiny copy-editing changes that need to be made.  Simple little things that the brain just passes over.  I believe that I'm relatively careful.  I get the grammar right most of the time.  I don't misspell that many words.  And yet there they are -- saying "he" instead of "his", leaving out the "it", etc.  I think, probably, that you need not only a copy-editor, but a couple of other people reading a manuscript to catch most of them.

Meanwhile, I've gotten about half the book back from Bren, and I've entered those changes too.  (Coincidentally, the same 11 chapters is exactly how far I've gotten with writer's group.)

She's also putting me to task for relationship problems.  She thinks I've gotten the two couples together too fast, especially the sex.  I think she's probably right, and I'm going to try to adjust that.

Still lots of work to do on this book, but I'm hoping that if I keep on working on it intensively for the next month, I should be able to get it ready...

My main goal in the final draft is to get all those little unbelievables and inconsistencies ironed out.

And to add "Telling Details."  Those little details that make the scene seem real, with historical details or just descriptive details or character quirks.  Whatever works to make it seem like it is really happening.

You just keep tipping the book in the right direction, and if it works, then one day it all kind of comes together into a real thing.