I decided to submit FOTS to Harper Voyager and their call for unagented submissions. This means that I am doing another round of edits, mainly for tweaking and word count reduction. After a week of work, I got it down under 120k which is a far cry from the 210k that I started with last year.

And, in a moment of insight, I figured out a much better way of introducing the characters. It ended up being the new chapter zero (because I'm a programmer) but it was a resounding hit with the writing group when I submitted it yesterday.

I'm pretty happy with FOTS as it stands, but there are always little things that can be tweaked. A word or twelve there, rephrasing a paragraph or two. I decided to give it one more day and submit it tomorrow. In three months, I'll get a response (or not), but at least there is forward momentum on that project.