I have always enjoyed catching the odd editing errors in movies. Someone is always falling into the water, only to come out bone dry. Or their hair is parted on the left in one scene, the right in another. It happens all the time, and there are some pretty funny videos that document these "continuity" errors.
After publishing my first three books, I don't laugh at them any more. Finding that odd irregularity can be painful, embarrassing, and downright maddening. I edit my work very hard, but things get out of whack. Dates, sequences, timelines - I keep them all written down. But sometimes something changes that echoes through your book - and sometimes more than 1 book.
In The Juno Letters, the most intense and important scene is the death of Marianne. It is on Yom Kippur - the date is significant. Somewhere along the line, I moved the date of the death (which also is part of book 2, Cross of Fire - another important scene). I don't remember why. But after a dozen readings, editings, a few false starts, etc, I finally finished republishing as a series Book 1 and 2 - in print as well as ebooks. Sold a bunch of them, and put them all away to focus on Book 3 - The Black Sun (The Story of Ariele).
Except... in the middle of a writing session at my Oly Club office, I had a thought (a rare event) - I think got the date of Yom Kippur wrong. So I looked it up. In 1943, Yom Kippur was October 8. In my book, it was Sept 23. A little thing ...
WRONG! That would be like saying Christmas was in January. I had several hundred sales out there, 5 major ebook versions, and print version - all had to be changed. I did it last night, and just now approved the proof of the print versions. All is better.
No one else found the mistake - yet. It doesn't matter. I FOUND IT.
Maddening.
It helps to be a little mad to be a writer.
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