I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! It's a great time to get together with family and friends, have a cookout, take a swim in the lake, and a myriad of other things.
How did I spend my Labor Day weekend? I proofread my new novel. I know Labor Day is typically a time for rest and relaxation, but writing is my passion, and it's important to me that Sally's Secret Legacy is published on time. https://amzn.to/44B7zSc
I am amazed at how many small mistakes made it so far through the publishing journey. Even with critiques, professional edits, and me going over the manuscript dozens of times, I have a ton of corrections that need to be made. Most of them are missing commas, an extra word, an omitted, word, or inconsistent capitalization of a word. It's all minor stuff, and I've read plenty of books that had those same errors. I don't want my readers to find mistakes in my book. I want them to get lost in my story.
There is something different about reading my novel as a paperback in my hand from going over it on the computer screen. For one thing, I found myself reading it as I would any novel, as a reader wanting a good story. I was more relaxed, my red pen and sticky flags beside me to mark any corrections. In addition, reading my words on paper didn't strain my eyes the way reading them on a screen does, so I didn't develop my customary editing headache.
Tooting my own horn doesn't come naturally to me. I was raised not to brag. It's taken fifteen years of other writers telling me that if I don't toot that horn where my work is concerned, no one else will, to get me to this point. So, TOOT, TOOT! This book it good. In my humble opinion, of course. I'm extremely proud of it.
The thing that shocked me more than anything else was the quality of the work, minor typos notwithstanding. As I read my book, I got lost in the world I created. I found myself sitting in wonder, impressed with my work. Sometimes I looked at a particular paragraph or passage and was amazed that I wrote that. Then I would have to smile because yes, I did write that!
There's something that's fairly common among authors called imposter syndrome. I know I wrote Sally's Secret Legacy, Moonbeams and Ashes, and several other stories, poems, essays, and memoirs, many of which have been published in various anthologies, magazines, and collections.
However, like many of my colleagues, I struggle with self-doubt. Is my work any good? Who would want to read it? Am I wasting my time? Is this going anywhere? Then I shake myself and tell that inner doubter to shut her dirty mouth because I am a writer. I'm not the best, but I am learning and growing as fast as I can.
I hope you'll check out the labor of my day, Sally's Secret Legacy. The e-book is on preorder now at amazon.com for $1.99 and will increase to $2.99 on September 20th when the book releases. Here's the direct link: https://amzn.to/44B7zSc. The paperback will be available on amazon.com for $11.99 as well websites such as barnesandnoble.com. It will also be available at Always Buying Books in Joplin, Missouri and from me at various book signing events. If you can't wait to read Sally's Secret Legacy, it is currently available on Kindle Vella.
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