Where I Am Now: Restructuring Countess of Cons After Beta Reader Feedback

It’s been almost a month since I received all my beta readers’ feedback on Countess of Cons. You know that moment when you realize you weren’t as close to the finish line as you thought? Not exactly a surprise, but still…

The gist: readers needed neck collars to recover from the whiplash caused by too many short chapters—constant starts and stops. Oh—and maybe a GPS so they’d know where the heck they were.

So… where am I now? Instead of 73 slightly feral chapters, I now have 52—with clear date and location stamps at the top of each. (A small mercy. For them. For me.)

Once the restructure was done, I was ready to tackle the bigger problem: somewhere along the way, the story lost the voice I started with. I’ve written about this before, but I’m saying it again because it matters.

I originally shared Catherine’s story—just with my husband’s family—through a nonfiction book I wrote in 2017. Opulent in Aliases was fine. It got the job done. But the straight nonfiction approach didn’t leave much room for Catherine’s personality to come through. And her personality is what pulled me in, in the first place.

I’ve also become a much better writer since that first book. (Look at that—no impostor syndrome in sight!) Thanks to Lynn Palermo and her Family History Writing Studio, I’ve learned a lot more about craft, structure, and how to make a true story actually read like a story. So rewriting Catherine’s tale as narrative nonfiction—instead of a somewhat dry recital of facts—made perfect sense.

And if you know me at all, you know that once I get involved in something, I take it all the way. (Right up until I get bored and wander off like a distracted raccoon.) I’m apparently like my mother in that regard: if one doll was good, 100 was better. Which, in writing terms, translated to: if one mention of the ring as a symbol was good, ten was better. In the same chapter.

In my zeal to be “writerly,” I over-applied techniques that are useful—just not when used like a seasoning shaker with a broken lid.

I get it now. Moderation. A concept. A lifestyle.

As I write this on February 11, 2026, I have (hopefully) rehabbed 34 of the 52 chapters. Next comes a final refinement pass—word choice, rhythm, cutting the little bits that clog the drain. After that, I’ll send the manuscript to a second round of beta readers. Then it’s formatting and proofreading—the glamorous part where I argue with fonts and discover I’ve spelled the same name three different ways.

I’m still aiming for publication this summer. The big win right now isn’t word count or chapter count—it’s getting Catherine back on the page the way she deserves: sharp, slippery, and impossible to ignore. Next up: the final polish pass…and then I’ll hand the wheel back to readers (with fewer sudden turns and a working map).

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