Despite the fact I’m up to Chapter Fifty-Eight in this round of editing, I’ve been going back and revising chapters three through six.  See, I took a bit of my manuscript on vacation and was reading it over and making small changes, except chapters five and six needed some more extensive work.  In Chapter Five we meet the main bad guy and I found him a bit cliched; so I did a complete make-over and changed him from a goofy, eccentric old man into a more militaristic, hard old man.  Before he was like the Emperor from Star Wars (which was inevitable), and now he’s original.  He doesn’t remind me of anyone except perhaps an ancient Roman Emperor or someone like that.  I wasn’t sure it was a good idea (and I still don’t), but I think I’ll throw in the description from the book:

‘[He] stood and walked down the dais steps toward her.  He wore a military-like uniform of maroon with a long, vivid blue robe over it.  His skin betrayed his incredible old age, but the ghost of his former beauty still lingered in his face.  He had a strong chin, high cheekbones, a straight nose, and clear blue eyes shone shrewdly from beneath determined brows.  His once fine blond hair was now sleek silver.  His mouth was twisted in a permanently cruel smirk… He stopped on the bottom step and smiled at her like a shark.  He crossed his arms and looked her over.  He was a foot taller than her and very thin, though a secret strength still seemed to linger deep within him.  There was something commanding about him, yet [she] didn’t feel drawn to him but repulsed.  She had known powerful men that had captivated thousands by their mere presence, but [his] presence felt more like the greedy, groping blackness of a storm eager to consume everything in its path than a fortress to shelter in or a banner to march under.’

 Of course you have to keep in mind that this may change, but I just felt like throwing it out there.  Anywho, I’m hoping to soon declare my personal revising done and send it off to a publisher (don’t know who though).  The third anniversary of my story is coming up in August and it would be wonderful to finish it up for that.  However, I want my dad to finish reading it before we do that, but he’s a busy guy and if it’s going to take him a year to finish reading it that’s gonna be majorly depressing.  We’ll have to see how that plays out.

Did I mention I recently took an internship position for a publisher?  I’m an acquisitions editor now.  I haven’t started yet, but I can’t wait until I do.  It’s going to be really interesting and hopefully will lend an insight into my own book and how it could stand to be improved.