A Publishing Journey: A Book Baby is Born!

On November 18th at 2:33am my book baby was born, weighing in at 60,864 words. A gestation of only eighteen days from conception makes this book a bit of a miracle in my eyes. Like a human pregnancy, it was filled with excitement, fear, pain, exhaustion, questioning my sanity to do this, and finally insurmountable joy as I stare at it in all its newborn glory.

Like any newborn baby, it’s a little ugly at this stage. It needs a good bath, some cute clothes, and a little time to grow into what will eventually be a beautiful baby I can introduce to the world. But for now, I’m just leaving it to squirm around alive and breathing, a living thing I created out of nothing.

Yesterday I was hopping around celebrating the completion of my goal to write 50,000 words of a book for National Novel Writing Month. Today, I sit 12,000 words later the proud owner of the rough draft of a completed novel, the second book in the Daggers of Desire Series publishing in early 2018. Once my story found its stride, I found it difficult not to write. I was as desperate to hit the keyboard as I feel when I get pulled into a great book or an awesome TV series. I’m not the kind of person who wants to nibble off a little at a time, an hour here or there, an episode a week. Not me. I want to live in my pajamas for days binge watching every season back to back, cursing anyone who calls or attempts to ruin my marathon.

Writing this book felt no different. I couldn’t stop. I had to know what happened next. I needed to know where they went, what they did, what roguish thing he was going to say. I typed away with the same excitement and anticipation I feel reading a book. Before I knew it their journey had come to an end. I’m actually sad to have the story over, but then I remember the next stage is waiting. My journey is not done. Now I get to go back in and pretty up my new baby. Now it's time for editing.

Today though, I’m putting my book aside. I’ll let it rest, marinate, and in a few days I’ll pick it back up and start the editing. In the meantime, I now get to go do the one thing I promised myself I wouldn’t do until I was done.... binge watch Stranger Things. This pajama-clad writer is taking the weekend off and will be covered in dogs, eating ice cream and streaming episode after episode of the show I’ve been dying to watch! A well-earned treat.