Read back through what I’d written on Secret of the Wood and decided that there was just something wrong with it. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the flow is just off.
Decided to start it all over. It’s more or less the same, but I’m taking out the re-intros of a couple of characters, compressing the setup of the main conflict, boosting the Earth Day connection, and getting to my main protagonist earlier.
Back to it.