Leaping to Conclusions

I got through my to-do list again yesterday, so yay, me! I just have a few more chapters of edits to get through, and then I'll need to go through the whole book again to do some tinkering. I've got a bit of a problem, though, in that one thing the editor is really confused/concerned about and asking for some rewriting is actually based on an assumption she seems to have made, since I can't find a single place in the text where there's even a hint that what she thinks is going on is going on. Since there's no suggestion there, it's hard to fix. I suppose what I'll have to do is put in specific counter-evidence. In the book, there's a Scarlet Pimpernel-type character who's so highly placed that no one would suspect him of being the secret bandit. This bandit is helping fund the rebels. The editor has decided that since the rebels know they're getting funding from the bandit, they know who the bandit is. There's nothing in there to give that assumption (in fact, they're surprised when they learn who he is, but that's the scene the editor wants rewritten because she thinks they already know), but maybe I can add something to the earlier scene about the rebels being curious about who the bandit is, with maybe some details about how he covers the tracks of his identity.

I suppose if an editor who has read this book multiple times was able to leap to an incorrect conclusion, it's possible that a reader rushing through the book with multiple distractions in the background could come to the same conclusion, so I have to do something to fix it instead of just saying, "You're wrong!"

Tomorrow, I may have to put aside the other book for a while and really delve into this one, but I'm at a good stopping point where I've reached the end of the stuff I'm rewriting and ready to jump forward.

In other news, after reading my way through the Nebula ballot, and especially the teen books, this parody of the dystopian teen novel is almost too true to be funny. I thought the fantasy books were excellent, but all the science fiction books were so bleak and grim. It was hard to judge the quality of the book when I just didn't like the story and when I'm likely to roll my eyes at anything taking place in a dystopian future, especially if there's some kind of sorting into teams or public exhibition in which someone's chosen for something.

I do have this vague idea of a dystopian past-set fantasy book, where the world is like the Dickens London with a Stalinist-type ruler. But without any sorting into teams or public combat, or anything like that. Just people desperate to escape and doing what it takes to be ready to escape.

Finally, I registered for DetCon, so I'll be coming to Detroit this summer. I figure I need to expand my geographic horizons and introduce myself to fans in other parts of the country (and maybe start getting on the radar for being invited to other conventions if I ever make it big enough).