I sent the completed manuscript of my cozy mystery, A Dream Of A Murder, to my publisher recently. But I'm still thinking of things I could have added/deleted to make it better.  That's an author's life. It's easy to fall into the "just one more round of edits" treadmill. I 'finished' that manuscript back in November 2024.  I set myself a goal to get it done by the end of that month. and I wrote forward daily, even during Thanksgiving, to get it finished. I wrote over 15,000 words! The only way I could do that was to force myself to skip my typos and minor glitches and just get the words down. I had a rough outline and I knew where I was going, so off I went. When it was done. I forced myself to leave it alone while I worked on my other book.  The best time to edit a manuscript  is when it's cold. 

Last month I opened that file again. I used a couple of editing tools to catch spelling, grammar and structure problems and I ran the pages through. Some suggestions I accepted, but I dismissed a few, too. I have thugs and a floozie in my book. Such characters aren't expected to speak The King's English.  One tool drove me crazy with the placement of commas, which I admit, I skipped over in my rush to the finish line.  But I drew the line at the AI suggestions to restructure entire sentences.  It's my work and I'll keep it true to me.  Always.  I went over that manuscript, word by word, chapter by chapter countless times.  I am grateful to AI for catching my mixed up chapter numbers. That helped a lot. But I didn't accept the Chapter Titles AI suggested. Mine are better.

So, it's done, for better or for worse. And to tell the truth, I feel pretty good about it.  It's a lighthearted thrill of a ride around the world with only three murders, several detours and red herrings galore. I'll let you know when it's available in ebook and print.