So a month ago I claimed I was back at it again, but feared for the future of my progress, since the easy part was over and I was swimming into some uncharted waters. I called that one! Things did pretty much grind to a halt after that. Fortunately, that ended today when I think I got this storyline properly reworked. I struggled and struggled with the weak ending the first draft produced but today, like a bolt out of the blue, it just came together.

Still lots of work to do, mostly ironing out a few of the middle details. But this is the closest this has felt in a long time, and I'm going to take that as a good sign.