I'm keen on small details myself (and - real - bird watcher, so small details matter). And I know how long it takes to get them perfect.
Yeah, it's in its last stages. Had a few proofreaders, so I'm rearranging/rewriting some stuff now, and hopefully send it to a publisher in the next weeks. One (big one) has already shown interest, or, I should say, the head editor was pretty positive about the first paragraphs. So I'll start with her, and hopefully get it out.
In short it's (of course) about a walled city with an oppressive regime, young woman finding forbidden info, and figuring out a way to see what's behind that wall (which nobody knows, due to the regime's secrecy - familiar, huh?). She meets an orphan boy, and they have to go together due to circumstances, and hopefully find what she (they) are looking for in life. It's actually about thinking beyond your box, showing interest and having guts to go beyond your boundaries. There are 4 story lines, slowly entwining (the orphan is not really an orphan, he finds out in the very end, and his parents took a terrible decison once, and father is trying to locate his 'sold' son). And of course there's a secret service agent looking for them. Setting is futuristic, but not overly so, and I take the opportunity to weave in some subtle ideas about society, and human behavior in general.
It's in Dutch of course (for the time being
)