An Eight Year Goal

Today I finished a project I've been working on for about eight years. I finished the last big editing of the children's book I've been writing. I finished the book all those years ago, but I use the word "finished" loosely. I suppose I'm also using the words "last big editing" loosely as well. Undoubtedly there are still things to be fixed in the text.

Unfortunately, I still haven't come up with a good title. I've tried, lo these many years, to find just the right one. It's a quandary. I know the perfect title is out there, but until I find it, I can't introduce you to my friend. And since I don't want to give anything away, I'm not going to tell you about it, except to say it's 141 pages, single spaced, and 31 chapters. It's a real book.

My kids love it. After all these years, they still love it. My nieces and nephews liked it too. I have hopes for the poor little book. There are so many books out there in the world. What's one more?

Writing the book the first time is nothing compared to going back through, time after time, looking for poorly written chapters, inconsistencies, lame plot, undeveloped characters, and out-of-place paragraphs. Adam went through the whole book, looking for bad spots. I then went through it all again, fixing them. I had to write two new chapters at the beginning, just in the last few months. That was hard.

So, today, I accomplished a goal I never thought I would. Adam never thought I would either. He has pushed and gently prodded, even when I refused to work on it for months and years. Bless him.

Adam will format it so it complies with Smashwords.com, and Philip will (hopefully) come up with some sort of cover art for the book cover, even though it will only be digital. If it ever takes off into anything, maybe it will see the light of day as a real, tangible book with paper and ink.