Fluffing it up.

The Last Fedora: The Gangster Golem Chronicles is done, but I want to spend a few days fleshing it out a little.  Little bits of description where they are needed.  Just looking for small ways to enhance the story.

I may have rushed the ending slightly.  I always want to get to the end when I see it, and the ending is not the place to get bogged down.  But Linda thought it needed a little more.  I printed up a copy of the last two chapters and she said she'd look at them.

I had left a couple of main characters out of the ending, so I just wrote a couple of small scenes bringing them back.  I'm going to mull over how to enhance those last few pages.  Make them as satisfying as I can.

What is most useful is to let my editor, Lara, have a look at it, and then do a little more fiddling around when I get back her comments.  Usually that is enough to make the book work.  I'd say this book came out about 88% complete, whereas Tuskers probably came out 96% complete.  (Most of my books come out more like 60 or 70% complete with the first draft.)

I have books where I spend more time on back story and history, more character development and description -- and I have books where everything is very straightforward, where the whole point is the easy reading action.

I like both kinds of books.