1st May Update for the Current Work in Progress

Here's the check-in for  Portrait with Death.

Word Count for the very Rough Draft = over 41,000 words. That's 51% of the goal.

•     The Final Draft / Revision / Proof-plus come after the Rough Draft is finished

Research that has happened since the April 21 update

• Forms (grade levels) in the British Public Schools
• shipping freighters
• golf
• vintage garden tools
• photography: prints, enlargement, and more
• more on cameras available in 1920.
• field hospitals in the Great War

Writing the Story

The murder has occurred. 

Suspects abound, including one that I wasn't expecting.

Lots of red herrings and real clues.

Isabella Newcombe Tarrant is sharing the viewpoint with Flick Sherborne, a garden photographer, and Detective Inspector Michael Wainwright. We first met DI Wainwright in Christmas with Death. The commanding officer of Madoc Tarrant in WWI, he investigated the murder in XmasW/D.

• This is a change from the previous two books, told from Isabella's viewpoint alone.
• I planned for Flick's viewpoint from the beginning.
• I didn't plan for DI Wainwright's viewpoint. He insisted on a viewpoint. Since I approved of what he brought to the story, I was amenable to his injection into the story. 

The story is flowing smoothly, and I'm reaching my daily goals without difficulty. (I have had great writing trouble with a couple of published books: 3 solid months of stoppage on The Key for Spies and the ever-expanding story of The Hazard with Secrets). Not this time, though!

I'm on track for publication this summer. Yey!

Watch for Portrait with Death.

Also coming after PwD publishes will be the Into Death bundle, available later in the year.