Weary...

I'm not feeling good; some kind of upper-respiratory infection is going around and I got it. Not Covid; I've run 3 tests and all are negative. But I've coughed myself into a headache, and the only thing that seems to remove the ticking in my throat is drinking Dr Pepper, since it's carbonated and is like scratching that fucking itch. Gargling with Listerine diluted in half does help, but not all that much. However, doing that I don't need to pee every hour on the hour.

I managed to get through more of APoS-Derry's backward proofing, and it seems the closer I get to the beginning the fewer typos I find. Probably due to all the times I reworked the first chapters to work with the last. I have 9 left. I've been inputting any corrections I make on the ebook format of the novel, so it will be ready to upload to BookLife to replace the one that's currently there. 

That's such an embarrassment. I should have waited till I did this before sending it in for reviews.

This shows why I'm a bust when it comes to fixing and promoting my work. I should hire someone professional to do not only the proofing but also some editing. Someone to point out when I get repetitious or inconsistent in the story.

It's said that Hemingway didn't become a great writer until he worked with Maxwell Perkins. Same for Thomas Wolfe, who was known to love his own writing, unlike me. Perkins was an amazing editor who could catch the gist of the stories and would argue with his writers and fight to help them make their work even better. Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Wolfe...all their greatest books had his fingerprints all over them.

I need a Maxwell Perkins.