eat." "Mom will." "You okay?" Ray scratched the five-day-old stubble on his chin. "They made a mistake. We just gotta find Dad and get this all straightened out. Dad will know what to do." Gary lit a cigarette and slowly exhaled. Ray watched the smoke disappear into the October-blue sky. A foreigner. Two hundred million people in the United States and the President's widow was going to marry a foreigner. No wonder the world was so damned screwed up. Notice that by changing our viewpoint character, we get a different account of the action. Therefore, we need to carefully choose whose viewpoint to use so we can get the greatest power from each scene. Even within third person omniscient, we should have only one viewpoint character at a time, only one character whose thoughts and mind we visit. We have the option to change viewpoint characters, but we must do it carefully, preferably at a scene or chapter break. However, if we must switch "heads" within a scene, we should clue the reader to what we are doing and allow for a transition. I prefer to do this by ignoring the previous viewpoint character for a sentence or two, then have the new viewpoint character touch his face -- rub his forehead, scratch his ear, any action as long as it involves his face or head -- to clue the reader that this is our new "head." Once the switch is made, stay with it. "Head-hopping" is confusing for the