On Writing and Storytelling: The Weight of Small Corrections

Thursday, September 10, 2026 – Orlando, Florida

Hi, there.

I’m off to a late start with my blogging today. Partly because I’m physically and mentally exhausted from stress and anxiety, but mostly because I had to make a minor but necessary correction to The Jim Garraty Chronicles in the section devoted to Reunion: Coda. It didn’t require a major rewrite — I just had to use the Kindle Create app’s Replace Text option to change a small, almost trivial costuming detail in a scene in the novel.

Correcting that literary blooper didn’t take more than a few minutes, but I’ve learned that uploading revisions to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) demands careful attention and a willingness to go through the same sequence of steps every single time: upload the file, check the preview page by page to make sure nothing broke (a special kind of challenge when your book is nearly 700 pages long), and, if needed, update the price and royalty settings. It’s not difficult work, but it’s meticulous, and it always takes more out of me than I expect.

I did all this between 7 and 8 AM, well before I poured the first of many cups of coffee, and I had to do it twice — once for the Kindle edition, then again for the paperback. And I didn’t do it because the mistake was glaring or because a casual reader would have noticed it. I did it because I noticed it last night on my Fire tablet, and once I saw it, it sat in my mind like a pebble in a shoe.

(The detail in question was a baseball cap Jim Garraty likes to wear on his days off from teaching. It was supposed to be a New York Yankees cap, but in the original draft it was a geekier Star Wars cap, and at least one mention of that slipped through when I assembled the omnibus.)

By the time the uploads were finished, I felt wrung out. It’s amazing how something so small — a cap, a single missed mention — can feel like a boulder when you’re already carrying too much. Stress has a way of magnifying everything, even the trivial. And when you’re tired, mentally and physically, the simplest tasks feel like wading through wet sand.

But the fix is in. The editions are updated. And even though I’m still running on fumes, at least I’m not carrying that little mistake anymore. I’m trying to remind myself that days like this happen, and that not every morning has to be productive or inspired. Sometimes it’s enough just to keep moving, even if the pace is slow.

If you enjoy these behind‑the‑scenes glimpses into the writing life, stick around. I’ll keep sharing the ups, the downs, and the tiny details that somehow matter more than they should.