Thy Word:

Listen to my prayer, O God. Pay attention to my plea. Psalm 54:2

My Thoughts:

The last time I wrote a post, I confessed I had a calling from the Lord I neglected. I committed to Him and myself I would stop all work to fully complete that calling to finish writing my novel “Broken Ten” all the way through to publishing it.

For the record, allow me to clarify something. Finishing any writing is more than just typing the words ‘The End.’ It means a lot of things, starting with editing which I jumped into with zeal! Just when I thought I was finished, I talked to an editor and before I was allowed to hand over the manuscript for those professional edits, she emailed a ‘list’ and I ‘got to’ edit it even more. (Do you hear the sarcasm? Ha!)

When I finished those edits, I excitedly handed the manuscript over into her capable hands, and guess what? When I received the manuscript back–anticipating it would receive glowing remarks and a B+ rating–the marked up document caused my face to flush in embarrassment! Yikes! Although her comments were encouraging, there was a lot of work to be done and let’s just say I merited a much lower rating on the grading scale.

For days I sat and edited the document and those changes pinched my heart a little bit. Never mind she was spot on and the changes improved the novel exponentially. However, I am not going to lie, I had to walk away and take deep breaths a few times. Being the encourager my editor is, she also left encouraging remarks throughout the document and she assured me, every author feels the same.

This experience reminded me I need to work on my pride and humility. Being honest and no sarcasm intended.

Anyway, the day came when the fully edited manuscript dropped into my email and it is amazing. I mean really amazing! The flow is magical, the missed spots are filled, and the story is polished and ready for publishing. It was worth the pain! I feel convinced the adage “no pain, no gain” refers to the editing process!

Next, I connected with the publisher, Roaring Lambs, and their representative worked with me to find the perfect cover. Listen, after the painful edit process, every author needs this fun next step!

Here is my new book cover:

I love it so much!

This is where the blog stops as I still have work to do, but the publisher allowed me to take a quick break and share the cover. The anticipated release date of end of May/first of June and I will be back here as soon as it is releases to share that news with you. When it releases I hope you will also share it with your friends and family too.

My Prayer:

Father God, you have been so patient with me and I am grateful you chose me to share Your words. I apologize to You right now for any mistakes I made, and I am comforted with the knowledge you can use my failures to strengthen and grow me and bring glory to Yourself. I praise Your Holy name, Jesus. Amen.