Still working on the book, Saint Gabriel’s Girls, my collection of stories.

Right now, I’m in my reading period. This is when I read the entire manuscript to see how it flows, after having undergone so many revisions and edits.

Figured this part would be easy, but it’s a whole lot different than looking over a 600-word article or 2,000-word short story. This is the point where a writer comes face-to-face with their nemesis—overused words, misspelled names, date switches, etcetera.

My particular failings happen to be the overuse of the word “that” and keeping the timeline between the three stories consistent as I write about these four separate lives of friends.

Leaving these errors unresolved would not amuse an editor.  They’ll have enough to do helping addresses other issues in the pieces.

Speaking of editors, I’m still raising money on my Indiegogo campaign to offset the costs of those services, along with other expenses.  So far, the crowdfunding site hasn’t won me a lot of support from strangers, but it’s doing a good bit to let people I know hear that I could use their support to get this project finished.

Since Saint Gabriel’s Girls is a go whether or not I raise all the editing money, I’m giving most of my attention to the writing/editing, with a bit of pre-promotion effort.

I’ve taking the risky step of uploading to YouTube a very short, but unedited excerpt of the final story in the collection, “Background Music.”

I figure that no amount of editing is going to change my style as a writer or the stories in the collection as a whole.  So, why not?

Now that I’ve done it—uploaded that excerpt—I do kinda feel like I’m showing off my face in the morning, before I’ve had a chance to clear the junk from my eyes.

But that’s what fiction really looks like, before it gets all spiffed up.