So this week I was reading The Spirit Clearing, a novel (which would have been better as a short story*) about a young man who, after surviving a horrific car accident, wakes to find that his left eye has been drained of all coloration, but has gained the ability to see ghosts, auras, the past, and, possibly the future. Trading a baby blue for second sight? Sure, why not.
Mike was like a little kid waiting for Santa on the day Jandilyn was to come home. He was hopping back and forth and finally had to go wait on the sidewalk even though Southern California was in the midst of its rainy season.
In the teaser above, our hero, Mike, is at the airport, awaiting the return of his girlfriend from a July 4th visit back East for a family reunion. The problem with the scene, as the perspicacious ready might realize, is that July is nowhere close to the rainy season in Southern California. It’s the opposite of the rainy season. It’s the everything-has-dried-up-and-blown-away season. So, yeah, I’m the type of person who has no problem at all with colorless eyes that see the past, present, and future, but I’ll get all ten kinds of bent out of shape if you get your seasons wrong.
Meanwhile, speaking of seasons, it’s still summertime in the world of Father’s Books, where I’m just about to the end of this round of paper-editing.
“You’ll be okay on your own until we catch up?” Rose said.
“Oh I won’t be on my own.” He went to the trunk and retrieved the doll. “I’m bringing Candy.”
Tucking her into the crook of his arm, and pretending he didn’t see the glance that Ozzie and Rose exchanged, he turned and headed down the hot, bright slope, into the forest.
Notice I didn’t say “what I hope will be the last round” this time; I just scrawled in a couple more major changes to the scenes at the end of the book (that being the most problematic section by far), so it’s entirely possible that there’ll be at least one more round of print-and-chicken-scratch after this. But it will be done eventually. I swear.
*Spoiler alert: For details of how this story could have been (and was) done better, click here.
Viscosity 
First time I visited California was in July. Everything was dried to a golden brown. That’s why they call it “The Golden State”.
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