Almost There

Happy to be back here to share with you, what progress I have made on getting my novel published. Strange to think that I am almost there. Almost ready to begin the publishing process. Almost ready to put my work out to the world. Ew..scary! Since I've last posted I have done another edit and am just waiting to receive it back, again, so that I can do the final revisions; mostly punctuation and grammar. Quite a surreal feeling. It's great that I have received so much good feed back and that encourages me even further. But, it seems that whenever something big is about to happen for me everything else goes crazy in my life. Work, finances, and a child moving back home because of the same. Now, I am not telling you this because I am looking for anyone's sympathy, on the contrary. Had this not happened I certainly would not have had the time to have moved so quickly on the novel. Though, it has been difficult and even painful, truly I have seen this turn not as misfortune but as a god-send. It's all about the perspective. A door may be closed but the window is open and it's sunny outside. But enough about that. I have decided, on the advice of a trusted friend to self publish through Blurb. Surprisingly, for as old as my computer is, I was able to down load the software with out any difficulty. The program did seem a bit daunting at first glance, but I believe I can figure it out within a few trial pages and hopefully in a couple of weeks, or less, I'll have a finished, tangible, book. The hardest part right now, is the waiting.

First Critique

Though I have several readers currently looking at my novel, it is this first critique that has had me concerned the most. I knew that my friend Michael, a published author himself, would be my toughest critic. Particularly after telling him to show no mercy with his opinion on my story. I wanted the cold, hard truth. I was so nervous about it, I could hardly wait for the "bad" news I knew was going to come. Knowing that he has so much more experience than myself and that his technical knowledge far exceeds my own, I was certain he would tear it apart into tiny little, itsy bitsy pieces. Really, the anticipation was torturing me. So, imagine my great relief when I received this e-mail. "I enjoyed reading it and think it is quite good!" His exact words. Thank you Lord!!! I must tell you, that had it gone the other way, I would never have looked at the words I'd written again. I would have put my writing ambitions to rest. Now, I really feel that I am, finally, on the right path. That I am doing what I was always meant to do. What an affimiration! Not to say that I don't still have some fixin' to do before the book is ready to publish, because I do. And I would have started immediatly if I could have only been able to open the file that he sent me. Oh... the dilemmas of working on an ancient computer. But that's OK. I should probably wait until I hear back from the others before I start to do any correcting.

Whoo! Hoo! I wanna sing, I wanna dance, I wanna jump up and down and pee my pants, (just a little). Well, we can skip that last part.

-K.L. Parry-

"Faith in others is easy. It is the faith in one's self that comes difficult."

The Pirate's Daughter-Following the Dream

Well, here I am. I have arrived at a place that I had only dreamed of reaching. Now, 6 years from conception, I am nearing the completion of my first novel. I can not express to you how happy, relieved, frighten and excited I am. I am happy to be nearly done after devoting, literally, every spare moment granted me for the last 2 years. Really, I can hardly remember the last time I spent a day off just relaxing, other than when I had the flue a couple of months ago. I am relieved because I can finally get back to my garden, see my friends and watch something on TV at it's actual airing time. I am frightened, even petrified, that those reading it now will tell me it's crap and that I have wasted the last two years of my life. And lastly, I am excited about the possibilities of what could happen for me should it become a sensation. Yes, wishful thinking, I know. But, it is not beyond the impossible. And that slight, smallest of chances is what has kept me going through the headaches, blocks and the widening of my backside. Honestly, I think even my health may have suffered from my self imposed confinement and the sedentary lifestyle I have adopted in order to complete this project. Not only did I gain weight, but during this last year I have caught every sniffle, cough and sore throat that has passed through the ranks. I've even had customers comment on how sickly I've been, even though I have been practically main lining "EMERGENCY". I have sacrificed much and I hope, pray that it wasn't for naught.

So now it is that I wait. Await the verdict of my peers. I wait for the all important words I long to hear. Dare I to speak them? I think not. I don't want to jinx it. But, I can promise you this, dear friends, you will be the second to know. Me first, of course and then those reading it..,I think they would actually be the first, but I'm not counting them. So cross your fingers, toes, not your eyes because they might get stuck that way, but do wish for me the best and with me we will ride this train.

-K.L.Parry-

"Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake"