Xmas Carol: ebook extras

Another reader joined the pack last week. My longtime friend Dale read Xmas Carol and I'm happy to say he gave it an enthusiastic review. So far, that's what I'm hearing from readers. Xmas Carol is a hit. I can't tell you how this gladdens my heart.

But my readers do more than read: they get a say. Dale agreed with Annie that the longest scene in the book should be a lot shorter -- or axed entirely. Now, I think it's a fun scene but I can understand that people want the story to move along.

So here's the plan. Tomorrow I begin the final, final, final edit. I'm going to put my Barbara Stanwyck boots on for this one. I will axe whatever needs axing. And really, this is the last time I'll edit the book. I promise (I think).

On the other hand . . .

This is a follow-up to my curmudgeonly post about reunions. Although I don't want to meet or see anyone from my past, I'd like to know what happened to a few people, where their lives went. Humans love stories; we can't help it. It's probably some inherited monkey thing. We literally hunger for them, which is a lucky fact for fiction writers.

So here's my add-on to that post. What I was thinking is that these days, much of our lives are online. Some entrepreneur should write a computer program that gathers the information out there about someone, and then turns it into a narrative, as if it was a news story about the person being sought. All you'd have to do is feed the program names.