Kiss of the Shadow Queen

KotSQ: Second Revision #20

I’m at the point of revision where I’m unconfident any word means what I think it means. Cue looking up big, snooty words¹ like “rife” and “meander.” Spellcheck randomly putting a red squiggly under “extent” didn’t help. And spellcheck approves “troublemaker” but not “troublemaking,” so does or does not the latter need a space? A

KotSQ: Second Revision #19

In this bout of revision, I added some physical actions in the form of “exercises.” Heroine went through a lengthy convalescence followed by months of relative peace in the marsh and isn’t in her peak physical form. As soon as she admits she won’t be able to fade into the background and evade what’s coming,

KotSQ: Second Revision #18

Every time I mentioned Hero’s age at the time of his traumatic childhood event in previous drafts, I wrote “ten (or twelve?).” Unable to remember if I decided one or the other earlier in this revision pass, I wasted a fair amount of time searching for that answer and debating the pros and cons of

KotSQ: Second Revision #17

Since last time, I added a dark mode toggle to the site for folks who find a black background easier to read. The button floats at the lower right of the screen, and you can click back and forth to your heart’s content. Please be aware dark mode removes at least one accessibility feature (underlined

KotSQ: Second Revision #16

We’re now past the halfway point (as measured by how much of the previous draft has been eaten). Present working draft is around 95,000 words, which is 100% of many other books, so it doesn’t feel much like a celebratory milestone. I know I love this book because no matter how tired and defeated I

KotSQ: Second Revision #15

I needed a name for a canal. For those who haven’t heard me say this a thousand times, I hate coming up with names. My go-to tool for this dreaded task is Google Translate. I run several words characteristic of the name-requiring thing through every available language, make a list of promising results, and then

KotSQ: Second Revision #14

Sat in on a class about web accessibility. Learned a couple of things I can still improve here, mostly in relation to links. Hearing about different ways people use assistive technology (e.g., they may ask for all links on a page to be read to them as a list, so the link text should include

KotSQ: Second Revision #13

Finally got through the go-back-and-fix portion, including the “maybe move that later thing here” notes I had left in some places to be addressed in Round Three. Easier to deal with the hole from the extraction when I get to it later than to perform the extraction, transplant, and repair all at once and cross

KotSQ: Second Revision #12

I’ve been doing the slice-of-life thing for a year now, which is a long enough trial to conclude I’m not a fan. Rather than engendering empathy, it seems to invite people to view other’s lives as entertainment and complain when the season doesn’t live up to expectations. There’s no benefit to me, but there is

KotSQ: Second Revision #11

Just found out that for a mere additional $1800, Kiddo’s driver’s ed class will do what we actually needed it to do. Cannot emphasize enough that I do not have a car and therefore do not have insurance to put her on and therefore cannot clock 60 hours of practice driving, hence the entire purpose

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