After a few sleepless nights, I grabbed the Gremlin rifling through the school network by the neck. A relatively tiny issue converged on a very important piece of the infrastructure in the worst way and made the last week, well, awful. I beat the Gremlin ( along with a consultant — thank you, Jaysen ) into submission. Network Admin 1, Gremlin 0. I had you at hello, Gremlin. At hello.

Since the culling, I’ve had energy for writing and in the past day began reworking one of the characters. Because the character appears in nine of sixty-three chapters, this task is the largest and most involved of edits. I’ve shirked the job long enough. Once clearing the hump, it’s mostly matters of grammar and fine-tuning. If today is any indication, a finish date of mid-March is quite feasible. Then I’ll read it start to end twice, adjust what seems off-kilter and hand the manuscript over to Team Eagle Eye. Whatever they miss — I doubt it will be much — I live with.

Tonight I revise the synopsis, a tight 2.5 pages that captures the key points of the novel.