Super locked. There has been a lot of confusion over who Seth's best friend is in FREEFALL.
When was helping me with my query, her version included a line about Seth's "best friend" dying. (I'm pretty sure I changed it to say "friend.") When Jim put together the deal memo, he also mentioned Seth's dead "best friend." When Liesa's assistant typed up my contract, she did the same! Others mentioned it in critiques as well.
All this time, I've been thinking, People. Seth's best friend isn't dead! See, Isaac is the dead friend. The best friend, Daniel, is very much alive!
On my draft, Liesa points out a couple of place where Seth tells readers things about his friendship with Daniel that she doesn't find consistent with what we actually see of them. I've been thinking it over all these weeks, and then last night, I read through every one of Seth and Daniel's scenes.
And that's when I realized: The person who was confused about Seth's best friend was me.
All indications show that it was Isaac. In fact, if it weren't for Seth twice telling readers that Daniel is his "best friend" and Daniel saying it once in dialogue, there is nothing in this story that shows their relationship that way.
So, I removed those three "bests" in the manuscript. And now it's official that Isaac was the one. Why did it take me so long to see this?