I’m currently proofreading China Tour—or should I say Operation Lotus Sunday. This will probably be the title.

Conventional wisdom says a writer can’t proofread his own work. The problem is we read it how we want it to be, not how it is. So we read right through mistakes. This can be mitigated by reading out loud. However, even this doesn’t guarantee that the text will be perfect.

On this round of editing, which is mainly a proof-read, I have 22 pages to go. I should finish that today. I’ve been taking a few moments every morning and noon to supplement evening time to proofread. I’m reading it out loud. And I’m not catching that many mistakes. Most of what I’m finding is minor improvements in the wording that will make the narrative flow better. Or I’m adding a comma here and there. Or I’m taking commas out. A few times I’ve found “and” that should be “an” or “of” that should be “or”. Things like that.

One other thing I’m finding is some repetitiveness. I cover something on page 150 that I cover again on page 175, perhaps the behavior of the kids, or some little piece of the spy operation that the same couple discusses twice. I’m also finding a couple of holes, still, in the story. It seems I really didn’t stress the fact that the two couples are on their own, without any help from the CIA or their cooperative Chinese organization. I added some scenes at the CIA bureau in Taiwan, which helps this. Yesterday I added something to a communication from the mysterious Dong Fang about the CIA not being able to get any more assets into the country. I need to find a place for that info to go to the other couple.

And, I realized I never gave much backstory for the tourist couple, Roger and Sandra Brownwell. A careful reader will be able to glean much from their interactions with the other couple, and from a few well-placed words. But I haven’t given each of them a page or two that we could know something about their life before Sept 11, 1983.

I think what I’ll do is finish proofreading today, type the changes as I have them. I won’t print it, however. Then I’m going to look at my wife’s comments on the book, which are somewhat detailed. Then, I’ll re-read some of it to see where I can work in the additional backstory. At that point, I’ll probably print it once more, and both Lynda and I will do a careful reading of it one more time. I’ll read quickly, in two or three sittings if I can, to catch any more repletion. Lynda will read it for another proofreading and to see if she agrees with my edits.

So we draw closer, ever closer.