Et Voila, Keeping Sweets

It really has been a great week. First off, I have to mention that Paul sent over my finalized cover that Brooke designed. I am so in love with it. I had such high expectations from the Dreamspinner Art Department because they have turned out so many beautiful covers and I was not disappointed in the least.

Secondly, I now know my (scheduled) release date: March 11th! Two and a half weeks before my birthday, my first book is coming out. Pretty damn good birthday present, I think.

I received the first round of edits for Keeping Sweets, and looked through them all. My editors and I didn't seem to disagree on anything, which was really nice. I was a little apprehensive about the whole process. A part of me was worried that the person editing would try to change too much, or too many edits would shatter my fragile writer's ego. Instead, I was lucky enough to be paired with editors who seemed to understand what I was trying to achieve with my story, and an unforeseen perk of editing was getting to go back and visit with my boys. I'd forgotten how much I liked my characters and this was a nice little reminder.

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It also helped to solidify my gut feeling that I was meant to be writing. The nagging self-doubts build up in my mind and I think back to the story, all I could remember were the little things I didn't like so much about the manuscript. I had myself convinced that I am a terrible writer and the only people that will buy my book will be family members who feel obligated because my name is on the cover. Reading through it made me remember all the things I loved about the book and it really is pretty good, if I do say so myself! Maybe other people will agree, and maybe they won't, but I really love doing what I do and that's really all that matters.

In any case, I managed to get the first round finished up and sent back last night. Everything is finally coming together. It's almost a real book!