I returned the galley proof for “The Christmas Wager” to my editor at Dreamspinner tonight, just slightly late. But they’re in Texas, and two hours behind me, so hopefully they’ll consider it on time.
It was a lot tougher than proofing “The Meaning of Vengeance.” Not only was it longer and therefore more prone to have minor mistakes in punctuation, grammar and (depressingly) word usage, but the editor appears to know the Victorian time period fairly well, and was able to zero in on my weak spots. I sent my characters to the grocers, in one scene. Were there grocers at that time? I’m not sure. How does one address a duchess? Well, I managed to get it wrong.
But the really hard part was fixing inconsistencies my editor found in the story. In one scene, Thomas takes his neice downstairs on their way to meet Hew and Duncan, but they stop to talk to her father. Susan tells her father something Hew told her. But when did he tell her? She was on her way to see him, and hadn’t had a chance to talk to him that morning. In another scene, Thomas decides he isn’t quite ready to try anal sex. But we’d earlier established that he didn’t know men did that together, so why would it even occur to him?
Now I just remembered something I meant to change, but forgot. Aargh!
I’ll have to send a follow-up e-mail…
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