I just finished re-reading The Mountain Throne and flagging all the edits I want to make, including to the Glossary. Here’s a picture, taken the next minute.

You can see from all the Post-its there are many edits, but most are minor. There were a couple of formatting errors that apparently appeared when the document was converted to pdf, but the rest were deletions of words I decided were unnecessary, missing commas, hyphens, and so on. One word was misspelled, some redundant phrases removed, and there were a handful of re-phrases.

I didn’t really want to do this last edit because it would be something like the fifth time I’d read the whole book, but I’m glad I did. It was the first time to read it in physical, hard copy form and that did really make a difference. I couldn’t tell you why, but linguistic and other errors are easier to spot on a printed page than on a screen.

And I’m pleased to report it was not a slog. The novel starts a touch slow, which is unavoidable due to its triple protagonists and limited POV structure, but once it picked up it was a joy to finish. It had been long enough since I’d read some parts that jokes were fresh and clever and other emotional evocations still worked. I still have to balance real life responsibilities, but an October release is possible.

I received proofs of The Mountain Throne last week and have been working through it. This is my last chance to edit it before it goes to print, the ISBN is permanently assigned, and it gets into the hands of readers. Given how busy I am otherwise (writing is a part-time gig for new authors), I’ve made good progress; I’m about halfway done. Hopefully, I’ll catch everything I need to catch and readers will receive the best quality product. I don’t like to be cruising along in speculative fiction and come across a misspelled or missing word, copy-paste artifact, or some other cock-up that should have been caught by editing, and I assume no one else does either.

This version of the cover art is a touch brighter than the first version and the author’s name is crisper. It looks quite professional, and I’m pleased with the overall appearance. I just need to ensure now that the contents are as well done.