This morning I inserted a comma

 Had a fun idea to open the scene; "The umbrella in my ice tea was looking at me." Very briefly looked up Yokai Cafes but I wasn't going to use a real one anyhow. And this let me set up two later things; the dangerous life of the young kitsune (don't fall in love with playing at being human) and the uncanny danger of the Yuki-onna (which I still don't know is going to be a trick Penny tries on the chimpira in the big snow scene).

And sat down and started writing and banged out the first paragraph...

And realized it won't work. I need the "Embassy Ball" to be a big, culminating moment, also the apex of the James Bond arc; black tie and earbuds and glittering fashion and dangerous people. Which means I want to ramp up, with every scene from the conclusion of "Hikikomori Night" having the accelerating sense of preparing for the big mission.

And the kitsune warning needs to fall as close as I can to entering the Imperial Hotel.

This is the thing; a lot of a story takes place in dialogue, and there are natural ways one thing in a conversation leads to another. Bringing up the fight with Sukeban Deka offers two different jumping-on points to bring Aki back into the story, but also could lead naturally into getting the final dressing and make-up prep (as she needs to cover up the bruise she took. Which Penny might insist on calling a black eye, because she thinks that sounds funnier. She did the same thing when she was shot in the hip.)

So the timing is all messed up. If I open here, I can't have Yuki spot the black eye when they first meet, and she will have already explained about the kitsune -- which I sort of want happening while she is getting into The Dress.

I did pick out The Dress, though. (That was a few days of learning both too much and too little about the complexities of formal wear for women).

So now I'm back to charting out what is best to have when, what leads best to what, and how to unfold the scenes in a logical way that still gets the acceleration I want and gets as much of the information I want across as well.

But it is writing. So with any luck I'll get several hours of productive work in before I need to stop and "relax" by going back into PhotoShop.

(About 3/4 of the way done on repainting the cover model. On the list is creating a new "widget" that will identify the series -- using the owl I have but making it more interesting -- and re-doing the title text with texture and dimension. And of course a basically new background. The next covers should go a bit quicker...)