Paying extra attention to improving the John Dunn manuscript has paid off. I had referred to Dunn as being half Scottish and half English, which was wrong. He is 100% Scottish descent. I had read during my research that Dunn's father immigrated to South Africa from Scotland. But I found no reference to his mother's origins. Until yesterday. I read on some Internet website that both of Dunn's parents were Scottish immigrants.
At first I thought the writer of that article had made a mistake. Dunn's mother's name was Anne Harold Biggar, so to make sure I Googled the national origin of the surname "Biggar" and sure enough, it's a Scottish name. With further research I learned Dunn's mother was born in Scotland and immigrated to South Africa with her parents in the year 1820. So there you have it. Both of John Dunn's parents were born in Scotland.
I've made all the necessary corrections in the manuscript now. There were only two references in there regarding Dunn's parent's ethnicity. The first reference is when I introduce the main character, John Dunn early in the story, I had referred to him as the son of a Scottish immigrant. I've changed that to the son of Scottish immigrants. And later on, when Dunn meets with Lord Chelmsford, (he had two meetings with Chelmsford in real life, and they are both in the story,) Chelmsford inquires to Dunn's British ancestry, after which Dunn now says, "My parents were born in Scotland." Before I had Dunn say that his mother was English, his father a Scot. But it's all corrected now and good to go, at least insofar as that particular point.
I will still improve the manuscript daily and send the improved version every Monday until Dana advises me that edits are underway. Until then, I'll use the time wisely. While I can.
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