I finished the revisions on The Firma Sisters and the Stake-a-tine of Death last night. Now it's being proofread by someone other than myself, thank Zeus, and read by three juveniles as well as others. I may need to make further revisions due to the feedback I receive. Hopefully, there won't be a lot of revisions. I plan to start reading the book again in a couple of days to look for errors.
 
 
The stake-a-tine originated when I was 12 years old. Its design amusingly predicted my ultimate career as a technical writer (note that I'm not describing the first stake-a-tine here). The current design of the stake-a-tine, however, surpasses that initial design, which was totally impractical. The intriguing features of the new stake-a-tine just gave me a very cool idea for the last scene in The Firma Twins and the Flute of Enchantment. 

I began chapter 7 last night.
 
 
At long last, I finished the fourth chapter. The end of that chapter needed to introduce a particularly important character. It took me a while to think of how exactly to do so, and I'm very happy with it.

I think I should change the titles of the books to The Firma Twins and the Stake-a-tine of Death and The Firma Twins and the Flute of Enchantment to attract the boy audience as well as the girl audience. Since my first reader (and my first fan, a very cool thing) is a boy, once boys read the books, I have no doubt the books will speak for themselves. The origin of the stake-a-tine, although it's changed considerably in description and somewhat in use in the books, was in the stories I told my younger cousins, most of whom are male, when I was a kid. They still talk about those stories.  

I should also publish the books under "D. Harlow Timpko," not my full name for the same reason as the title change.