It's done!

. . . and was sent off to my agent yesterday for relay to my publisher.

"It" is Hang Fire, the Steve Martinez mystery I had been neglecting since the fall of 2007, working on only sporadically. Last August I suffered an unaccustomed burst of energy and wrote the last third of the manuscript, and all during September rewrote and recast and polished it until it cried for mercy.

I had the good fortune to count among my early critical readers a lawyer, another writer, an artist, the Lady Friend, a retired psychologist, a retired state park ranger and a good friend highly knowledgeable about the milieu of Porcupine County in upper Michigan. I thank them all, while of course acknowledging that any mistakes that do get into print are the fault of the author and the author alone.

Now we will see if the horribly beleaguered publishing world has resources enough to publish the thing.

What's it about? I can tell you that it involves dressing up in frontier duds and serial murder by muzzle-loader. There is sex (and the absence thereof) and there are lies. There is temptation. Alex, Chad, Ginny, Tommy, Sue, Joe Koski and Hogan are all present. There is a shootout in the woods with hunters and a SWAT team. Do Steve and Ginny get back together?

We shall see, if all goes well.