I've slept on this for a few weeks (more than a month, I think), but I think I'm going to go ahead and cut a plot point out of "The Linen Butterfly" completely. That means I can go ahead and say what I was planning to do, though I can't explain all of it because the full explanation contains spoilers.

In my original version, one of the characters was going to remember a past life as William Longespee. This reflected a byproduct of my medieval research, and played into a series of curious synchronicities between Longespee's life and that of another individual who lived several centuries later.

I thought it'd make a great, intriguing story, Instead what it turned out to be was a mess as I tried to develop this subplot of a character being a reincarnated Norman baron and relentlessly tried to keep it as part of the story even though it added nothing to the overall plot and actually created the need for a massive digression in the final chapters to accommodate it.

I got too attached to my research and to a cool idea and I forgot that cardinal rule of writing fiction: kill your darlings. I'm just glad someone called me on it before I made the mistake of printing it as is.

Luckily, this subplot is only alluded to in the cover art in the most subtle way. In fact, if you're not a medieval scholar you'll probably never spot the Easter Eggs I had Kobi work into a couple of the scenes he drew. One of those Easter Eggs is the only playing card visible on the card table in the WWI scene, the Ace of Spades; Spades was once the suit of Swords, and "Longespee" means "Longsword," so he was an "ace of swords." As for the other Easter Egg, I won't give it away but unless you know what to look for, you'll probably miss it.

The new version will be much more focused on the gist of the story and freed entirely from the burden of this subplot that brought some cool imagery into the story and a lot of weird historic coincidences to ponder, but ultimately went nowhere.

Just think though, if a character being the reincarnation of Richard the Lionhearted's half-brother was too much of a digression for me, what else might I be cooking up that will make the final cut?

I'll leave you to wonder for a few months while I try to work that out myself.