Rinse and repeat...

I'm doing my usual obsessive-compulsive  thing of going back over the opening chapters of HNH, as I write, to align things with ideas I come up with. New details I need to establish. the usual nonsense. but it's getting there.

I up to nearly 89,000 words, now, and have more to add, for certain. What I'm working on...well, focusing on at the moment is Brenda's emotional state as he finds he has to wait to meet Joanna, again. Maeve doesn't know her; only Father Jack does. And Brendan doesn't trust the man in the slightest so doesn't want to ask him about her.

He's promised to bring her to the next peace meeting, which is a week after Bobby Sands wins his seat in Parliament...and almost two weeks before he dies from starvation. I'm nervous about how to best set up the reconnection between Brendan and Joanna, since I now know what I had before is completely useless. It doesn't even begin to conform to the new mood of the piece, at this time.

I also have to work in when to have him and Colm, his once-best friend meet up in this timeframe. It's beginning to feel crowded, but at the same time right. The longer Brendan is in Derry, the more likely it is his true self will be caught out and that is what propels the second half of the story. So him scrambling to get things done makes sense; he's hoping to be gone ASAP.

I will have a decent draft of this done before the middle of October. No question in my mind. then we'll see what happens with it, after.