So much fun...

I'm dealing with inconsistencies, now, that I actually ignored in earlier drafts. For example, I wanted to see where everything was going, so I wound up with a contradictory explanation of how Brendan wound up in Houston. Dropping one that kept him as a blood relative to Aunt Mari helped clarify the other and make it more believable.

He's now put forth as a cousin to an uncle's wife. A relative by marriage. The cousin had a son who died in infancy and no more children. Then the man died in a horrific accident and the wife wasted away, so that was used to build Brendan's new background.

I think I've mentioned this, before, but it's now clear and simple. This was before passports were really checked in detail, at customs. So long as it looked good and wasn't on any cautionary list, you were usually free and easy into the US. Now, you couldn't get away with it. The customs officers don't even stamp your passport, anymore; it's all electronic.

I miss that.

Anyway, I'll need to keep this in mind as I go through the rest of the story. And I'll use the attached UK passport as a template to work up Brendan's for the book's dust jacket. It's similar enough to Ireland's, and the one he actually ordered and received would have been exactly like this.

And I like the idea of John Lennon being helpful in my book.