Final Editing of Golden Spike

I have been busy lately doing the final editing of Golden Spike, The Iron Horse Chronicles–Book Three. This book takes Will Braddock and his friends through the final year of construction of the first transcontinental railroad and ends with the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869.

Reenactment of the driving of the golden spike.

It always amazes me when I receive the work of the copy editor at Five Star Publishing. It’s obvious that I have trouble spelling. Not that I don’t have all the right letters in most of the words, but I have difficulty determining whether a word is compound, hyphenated, or separated. I will provide an example:

Select the correct spelling:

1. stage coach
2. stagecoach
3. stage-coach

You cannot rely upon the spellchecker on your computer. Microsoft Word accepts all three. But the only correct answer is 2. stagecoach.

Did you know that packhorse is one word, but saddle horse is two? No wonder folks learning English as a secondary language can be confused. I grew up with English, and I struggle with some of these “rules.”

I am very happy to have a competent copy editor working over my manuscripts before they go to print. In the next few days I will be returning my comments on this final editing pass to Five Star, then they can proceed with cover design and production of the Advance Reading Copy, or galley as it’s sometimes called.

Look for the final book in The Iron Horse Chronicles to be published in the next several months. Traditional publishing is a slow process, but worth it. The finished product is always a thing to be proud of. Also, keep checking this website. Very soon I will post the first three chapters of Golden Spike.