Again with the slow progress...

I finally worked around removing the party chapter from HNH to guide Brendan into seeing Joanna, again. It's not really, completely, totally right, yet, but it's getting there. By changing it to a meeting of the peace group Maeve belongs to and setting it in the Guildhall, it becomes even more charged with emotion.

That building is like a flashpoint, a couple of times in the first volume, so this makes better sense. And having half the chairs empty adds to the feeling that things are not going well. That Joanna shows up means even more, because she drags a few Protestants with her and their nerviness adds to the general atmosphere.

I'm also changing the chapter titles, as I go along, to better reflect their part in the story...but with a bit more finesse. The one where Brendan and his mother have a truly brutal talk about his return and she slips into a confused state, inadvertently revealing more about why he was saved instead of allowed to die, was initially titled Blunt Force. That's a bit much.

I thought of naming it Face to Face, but that's weak. And Revelations is too biblical, really. Right now I'm using More Revealed, but I'm not completely happy with that, either. Kind of wishy-washy.

FWIW, 2 months ago I asked Publishers Weekly if they would do a review of New World For Old and have yet to hear back from them. When they rejected Derry, it was within a couple days. They acknowledged getting the request, so I know that's not the issue. But I've heard nothing since. My hope is this means they will give it a review...but I honestly don't know.

I'm not going to ask, yet. The book is still slated for July 31-August 13...which I may change to the 20th, depending on how things go with setting it up for printing at Ingram Spark.

Damn...I wish I had the money to hire someone to do this right.