I haven’t said much about the current WIP revision progress lately. I typed in revisions for the first 13.7k (cut nearly 2k off the 15+k I started with). I think I may have mentioned that already. I read through the next 20k, made margin comments, and will probably type them in this weekend after giving some thought to the large revisions to imprint my villain (Merlin) into the novel more. I’ll have some weaving to do before I can accomplish that successfully.

And Tuesday night after jotting some reflections on Hurricane Katrina (totally unrelated to this novel), a couple facts about Merlin achieved incredible clarity (also totally unrelated to my reflections). Merlin is not a nice man, and he didn’t have a nice adolescence. He’s been influenced and shaped by those childhood events as well as by the writings and works of the Unabomber. It’s important to me to make him come alive in the book. I think he’s beginning to trust me more since I started spending more time with him.