Final Revisions Submitted

It's been about a month since Dana, my publisher at KRP wanted my John Dunn manuscript for editing to begin. Sure I sent it, but that didn't mean I was going to stop improving it. I learned long ago...revise, revise, revise...until it is actually published. Keep improving the ms while you can. And until edits begin, that's just what I aimed to do.

And it's a good thing. I corrected the whiskey vs whisky thing. I also learned Dunn was full Scottish not just half Scottish. I found a few typos, and spelling errors. And this past weekend I learned that the son of Henry Francis Fynn was not an adult when he accompanied his father to see King Mpande. (He saw Cetshwayo instead.) But the son, whose name is the same as the father's was only ten at the time. So I changed that part of my manuscript from his "adult" son to his "young" son. I suppose I could say his "adolescent" son, which would be more accurate than just his young son, but it's still accurate to say young son.

And the way I made this correction was by going over the ms again. There's a part where Captain Walmsley is toasting Fynn, and he pours two glasses of brandy. But I thought maybe he should pour three glasses, which is what prompted me to go on the Internet to see how old the son was. I searched for his birthdate, which was November of 1846. So that meant in January of 1857, which was when this scene took place, he was only ten years old. So no brandy for him

I also found out just where the Mangeni River is and put that and Isipezi Hill on the map I illustrated for the book. My map, so far as I know, is the only map of the region that has this river labeled. It's also the only map that has Cetshwayo's Mangweni kraal on it, and his original Ondini kraal. No other maps or books that I know of even make the distinction between the two separate Ondini kraals. (One of which is also called Ulundi.)

Things like this are important. Especially when it's real life people. There's going to be a lot of readers out there who will expect the writer to get this stuff right. And you've got to get it right the first time. I've learned that over and over again. So the truck keeps rolling.