I got done with 25, well, at least done for this revision. Now I have to decide if I should insert a new chapter that will break with the MC POV and take a look at things back in Aimee's home city. I think I have a scene that will fill in a bit of backstory. I think I probably will, though I suspect I'll move the chapter in the next revision.

I'm very close to what I hope is the halfway point of this revision (60,000 words 11,000 words down from the rough draft)

Now that I think about it cutting 11,000 words isn't great for my goal. I can only hope my planned cuts to the storyline will get me enough words. There are going to be some hard choices coming to cut down the size of this thing.

I banged out 26 and have started on 27. I still need to clean up 26, but it was still some good progress. At this point I'm sure 27 will go more quickly than 25 did. Partly because 25 was a big chapter for me, weighing in at 3800 words.

26 is finished with, and I'm close to done with 27. I need to do a PTA newsletter and a critique so I won't make much progress tonight. But overall, things are moving along okay right now.

I'll be curious to see if readers see the end of 27 coming. I already was surprised to have a reader (non-buffista) not realize that a theft occurred at the end of chapter 7, which would just make the ending of the chapter kinda confusing (though, the beginning of chapter 8 clears things up). It's hard for me to gauge stuff since I always know what's going to happen. At a later point, I'll have to try to wrangle another reader or two and get some impressions of someone reading straight through without critiquing along the way. It'll be awhile to get it to that point though.

I managed to finish up 27 after the PTA newsletter. Onward to 28, but not tonight. I have the day off tomorrow, so I'm hoping to sneak in a good block of revision, though I do have that critique to handle.

Hey Gud, that whole thing reader might be me. I wanted to do better but life got in the way. I still want to be helpful, so why don`t we plan on me giving it a whole read when you`re done with this pass.

That sounds great Liese, thanks!

Ok, I need to write a fight/struggle scene between an armed assailant who's not that impressive otherwise, but, you know, gun, and his victim whose main physical activity is, like, a weekly exercise class or something. Neither one of them have to fight like they're on Buffy, but I have no clue how to write about things like that...it's okay, better even, if it's a little sloppy, but physicality is always hard for me to write about. Anything I should keep in mind?

No clue here, but who do you want to win? Or do you want a draw? Cause I'll bet whoever gives you advice can also give you pointers so the fight realistically ends with the results you want? (Actually I do know one thing from Karate years ago. Overwhelmingly the odds are person with gun wins, but it can come out the other way. And if the guy with the gun does not know what they are doing, I'll bet there are mistakes you can have them make that let the unarmed person win the fight.)

It depends on so many factors. There is the fact that people with guns often assume that pointing a gun will get them what they want, so they're not prepared for someone to fight back. A strategy for the unarmed person is to move in close and go for a knee.