Well, I spent much of…

Well, I spent much of yesterday revising "Savitha", and I'm a lot happier with it now -- it feels like an actual story to me now. I'm worried that it has too many questions, though, for readers to feel happy with it. I can't just go back and answer those questions, either -- that's the point of the story, that there are these unanswered questions, these secrets that have shaped her life.

I think it'll work well as an opening for the book, leading people to read more stories in the hope of getting answers to those questions (some will be answered, some won't). But I'm not sure that the story really does stand alone. If it doesn't, it'll be the only one in the collection that I think I'm willing to have that happen with...but I'd still rather that I could make it stand alone while still fulfilling its function in the book. Just don't know if I can do it. This novel-in-stories idea is not nearly as easy as I thought it would be!

I took some time this morning to convert my genealogy charts to Word documents so that I could insert them into the book; they do give things away, so I don't really advise consulting them, but if you find yourself utterly confused, you could sort of glance at them and try not to read more than the bit you need help with. :-) They're awfully cramped, since they're on a portrait-format page, but I think they're readable. If I actually manage to sell this book, I'm sure the publisher can do them up all pretty then.

One more story left to revise, one to write. Coming up on the home stretch...

Of course, there will be masses of revising yet to come, I'm sure, once I finish this first full draft and send it out to all and sundry for comments. But I'll worry about that later.