Whew! I finally sent in my manuscript and illustrations to my new publisher, Tellwell Talent out of Victoria, BC. It has been a journey of exhilaration, self-doubt, commitment, fear, abandon, determination, oh – and I said exhilaration, right? The process is tough and fun but the hardest part is trying to get it RIGHT. As I said in my introduction in the book, writing a book of poetry is never finished. I have agonized over the wording and syntax and I can’t tell you how many sleepless hours I have had over this darn project! Anyway, at some point, I have to let go and today, I have. (Now comes the exhilaration part.)

I am not so green as to think this is the end, though. I will be working for at least another 6 weeks with the book designers to get the placements and hues of the illustrations right, the fonts and editing correct as well as designing the front and back covers. Then comes the first printed draft for me to approve. You just never know how it will turn out until you see it and hold it in your hands!

You know, the process can be crazy and you can’t think that all will go smoothly. Knowing I couldn’t rely on my own scanning and printing equipment (oh yeah, I have run out of ink how many times on a tight deadline?????), I decided to have a professional scan the illustrations so they would be at 300 dpi (high resolution for commercial printing) and put them on a USB stick. Easy, right??

The first time the paintings were scanned too dark so I brought them back to be rescanned and lightened. The second time I brought the stick home and started to download all my info to find the link only accepted jpegs and not pdfs – of course mine were pdfs. The third time I went back and had the info changed to jpegs but when I got home to download everything again, I found THEY GAVE ME THE WRONG USB STICK!!! The fourth time I went back to the printer, I received my correct information on another stick and happily went home and uploaded my manuscript and illustrations. Oh, but maybe I forgot some people to thank in my acknowledgments!!!!! SHIT! Whoever you may be (I won’t embarrass you here) who was a cheerleader for me along the way, I hope I mentioned you and please forgive me if I missed you.

I have to say a huge thanks to all of you who “like” my posts. It is incredibly encouraging when this writing thing is a lonely process.

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I want to be able to get “Mother Nature’s Kiss” out to you before the end of the summer but it is now in the hands of the publisher. I chose a Canadian publishing house this time as I felt I can keep the price at a competitive point without worrying about the Canadian exchange working against me. In other words, all my American friends can buy it for a real deal!!

I’ll keep you posted but in the meantime, keep enjoying the summer and looking up at those beautiful starry nights.

As I wrote in the introduction:

I wanted to share it as a common love for a warm summer evening.

The idea of Mother Nature is one of universal and perfect love. It crosses borders, culture and time.

May we be reminded that with every shooting star and every warm breeze, Mother Nature is reaching out to all of us.

Happy July to you all. xoxo