You gotta laugh at yourself!
While writing my second book in the historical series, Edge of the New World, (about 2500 years ago in the Florida Everglades) I had a friend of mine become a beta reader—not after the book was completed, but almost. I watched her reading the manuscript (though I pretended not to) one evening when we were attending a teachers’ conference. She was most of the way through it when she looked over at me with a puzzled look on her face. (Yes, Merrill, it was you.)
Her: “Didn’t Wagahi die?”
Me: “Uh, I think so.”
Her: “Well, she’s alive in chapter thirteen.”
Me: “Oh, crapola!” (maybe worse than that)
I grabbed the manuscript. Sure enough, I had killed that character back in chapter 5.
Me: “Shaman must have brought her back to life.”
Big laugh!
REWRITE!
Oh, the book was TOUCHES THE STARS.
Haha! Thank goodness for good friends!
You got that right!
Tom’s job now. Haha
Yep, he’s my first beta reader.