There is Something About the Feel of a Book

Last week I was thrilled to hold my first novel in my hands, the slick cover, the gold lettering, the cannon--I once thought looked like a trashcan--the puzzle pieces. it had all come together, finally. I wrote the folks I needed to thank and sent them copies; the ones in my Atlanta critique group who read every word, taught me about tension and reminded me when my point of view "head hopped;" the two editors who returned my manuscript covered in red and green marks or penciled symbols; the early readers who pointed me to the places where they found themselves lost or misunderstanding; and the expert photographer who helped me design the cover.

I read my new book again, all 300 pages--when I sent it to the publisher it had 400, seems it needed squeezing, so the letters between a southern girl, her Confederate brother and a Union Captain were not allowed page breaks. I cannot count the number of times I've read the book in its entirety, more than thirty, I'd wager. If you're a reader, you'll understand when I say, it read differently, bound and covered.

Now comes the difficult part for me--difficult for most writers, I hear--the marketing.

My First Published Novel

Wow! Am I excited or what? After years of writing, I finally have a novel in print, Going Home. It's not my first novel; it's my third, but the first two gather dust on the shelf. They were too "girly," had too many story lines, too many points of view, or so they said.

After more rejections than I like to count, I revisited the craft of story telling and writing. I started over, entered college again -- after all these years -- graduated in English Literature and minored in History. What I thought might be the end of formal study was only the beginning. Story telling is a gift, I believe, like imagination; but good writing is a learned craft, developed out of study and practice, practice, practice. Am I there yet? No. Will I stop? No. I've just begun.