6/12/2020: There is only one indication of exactly when SK takes place—the date on Freya's telegram to Trager at the above-mentioned Hotel Julay. Originally the story was set in 1980, but that put it after my last visit to India, which seemed like an accident waiting to happen. I considered 1978, but that was when the context of SK—the interbellum peace—began to unravel with an April crackdown on Kashmiri separatists. A serious novel that addresses the sociopolitical issues of Kashmir would be a good read, but that's not my book. I backed the story up to 1977.

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9/5/2020: Originally, Freya Martens made her appearance in the Prologue wearing shorts. Several weeks later, she mentions that the only time she can wear shorts in India is when travelling alone with another westerner. Freya is very sensitive to local customs, even the ones she intends to trample. I asked Wardrobe to grab her a pair of culottes.

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9/10/2020: The van driver in Delhi passes within inches of street vendors on the sidewalk. Anyone who has caught a taxi in Delhi knows I should have said millimeters, and not just because India is on the metric system.

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9/24/2020: Late in the game (i.e., today), it occurred to me that Freya Martens, an underappreciated female mountaineer, should have been aware of the emerging role of women in climbing in the 1970's. I sprinkled names of prominent climbers I had met into Chapter 2. But when I tried to incorporate my name-dropping into Freya's character, the writing couldn't get off the ground. Finally I realized Freya would not know or care about anyone who did not directly impact her schemes. I left in the names for historical accuracy (Trager would have known who these women were), but I also left Freya as the loner she will always be.

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2/21/2021: Today I noted that Trager, before crossing the Janavar Gali in Chapter 5, was admiring the panorama of the Pir Panjal Range to the east. That saddened me, because the Pir Panjal would be west of his location. Bear in mind that the author, heading to Leh in eastern Ladakh, once emerged from the mountains at the Indus River and began to walk downstream—west—into Pakistan. Trager has now been turned around. The author's direction may vary.

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3/10/2021: In the print version, Roger Kaul mentions that he is only a servant to PanAm and Swissair. Readers younger than 30 may wonder what the hell he is talking about. That's what happens in a period piece. PanAm and Swissair were two airlines regularly used by the travel companies I worked for in India. Both have been out of business for many years.

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5/6/2021: In chapter 12, I had Trager reflect that his association with Freya Martens was a "high-maintenance relationship." Today, randomly wandering around Facebook, I stumbled on the factoid that "high-maintenance relationship" only came into regular parlance after the film When Harry Met Sally in 1989, 12 years after Springtime in Kashmir. I saw the film when it came out, and Nora Ephron got the phrase just right when she wrote the script in 1988. But I changed the sentence today anyway for historical (if not rhetorical) accuracy.

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