It’s super exciting to watch the process as my novel is being rolled out to the mass market. First came the launch on Kindle via Amazon. Every step of the way this book has been looked over with a fine-toothed comb. Consequently, there have been more tweaks than I ever could have imagined are possible. Of course, the more eyes that look at this, the more things are caught. Last Friday I received the proof copy in the mail. It’s really hard to describe the feeling holding the book in your hands that you’ve been working on for six years and seeing your name on the cover and the spine of the book. Yowza!
I was instructed to read the book over the weekend and see if there were any last fixes that needed to be made. I live for deadlines so consequently I scheduled the reading session starting late Sunday afternoon. In the meantime, I got a private message on Facebook from a gentleman who read the book and really enjoyed it. He had one question about the final page of the story. Without looking at the copy, I explained how things turned out and could set up the book for a possible sequel.
It took about seven hours to go through the book and find those minute details that needed addressing. Around midnight Sunday I got to the last page and stopped dead in my tracks. There was one word wrong that completely would change how the story was wrapped up. No wonder that gentleman was confused! I sent a panicked e-mail to my publisher and she assured me if it was just a typo, they’d let it slide until the next round of printing. This was much more than a typo! Talk about throwing a monkey wrench in the works! “Stop the presses” was no longer an expression you hear in the movies, it was literally what we had to do.
That threw the timing of everything off because we weren’t able to order copies of the book that day for the book launches in November. Thankfully everything was able to be fixed and the book went to press on October 29. This turned out to be the perfect day for printing to be begin. This is the note I got from my publisher late that day: “I spent a long time today going through this final proof and approved it this evening on the Feast of Blessed Maria Restituta (rather than waiting until Saturday). Blessed Maria was a martyr and beheaded by the Nazis, but her feisty spirit reminds me of Amara and…we can ask for Blessed Maria’s intercession for the success of your book!” Wow! To top it off, Blessed Maria was a nurse just like our heroine. Talk about divine intervention!
A World Such as Heaven Intended has been in the hands of beta readers and other folks for the last month or so with the hope that people will like it enough to write positive reviews on Amazon. So far, so good. After 10 reviews, we’re still at 5 stars! Even better news is the book is moving up in rank on Amazon as more people are purchasing copies for their Kindles. Heading to the topper-most of the popper-most. (Beatles fans should get this…)
Anyhow, someone read the book earlier this month and sent me a message asking when the sequel would be available. The picture below shows the expression on my face when I read her note…
Apparently I need to get writing. Once again, providence has stepped in. Today is November 1, or as my fellow writing friends know, it’s the first day of Nanowrimo or National Novel Writing Month. Writers around the world are encouraged to write a 50,000-word novel between today and November 30. That’s 1,667 words per day in case anyone’s counting. In my estimation that’s a good 2 hours of writing per day. Seeing as I have so much free time on my hands, I signed up. Here’s the deal… I have two sequels on the drawing board for A World Such as Heaven Intended but both are quite labor-intensive in the research department. So I’m starting a completely different project, a young adult novel set in 1974 that centers on the topic of bullying and a young girl’s experience as the victim of a bully and how the issue is resolved in an unexpected way.
Guess it’s time to get writing! I’ll keep you in the loop and let you know how the manuscript is progressing!