Well the proof arrived on Wednesday as promised. Lessa brought it to me on her way to work. I am allowed 40 corrections, and I had 50, so it will cost me a bit more than planned. I am going to confess here that the periods and commas during dialog are not perfect, and that is not the fault of Christian, it was purely mine. I meant to go back and clean them up, and forgot. So please, any teachers out there who read the book; my sincerest apologies! The next two books will be as free of errors as I can possibly make them. We all learn from our mistakes, it just takes some of us a little longer than others. And as my husband told me, when your reading, how many people actually notice the punctuation in dialog, unless you're deliberately looking for it. To be honest I didn't until I started writing, and that's where much of the confusion began. But at least I was consistent in my inconsistencies!

 

After Alden reads it to make sure I haven't missed anything glaring, I will send the proof back with the list and wait until the corrected proof is returned. If all goes well...it will be available for purchase. I am hoping the middle to end of October.  I also need to send two copies to LC for copyright. I only wish they were the corrected proofs instead of the messed up ones. Maybe I'll send them a nice one after and submit the cataloging with it. They would have absolutely no excuse not to add it to their collection--now would they?

I am so excited! I just got an e-mail (which I thought was spam) saying that Infinity is sending the proof via UPS and I should be getting it on Tuesday the 26th! I hope Lessa is home to answer the door, otherwise I'll have to sign that stupid slip and wait until the next day to see it.

 

The speed also means that so far I haven't messed up. The printing time is determined by how good your disk formatting was as well as the quality of the file for the cover. Since I didn't get any panic calls, and it's coming two weeks early I am hoping the proof will be okay.

 

Keep your finger's crossed that it looks as good as it did when I sent it.

 

More on the 26th~

Well the book is in the printing cue. It should be 6 weeks for the first proof to arrive. It's exciting and scarry at the same time, kinda like my daughter getting married next August. With so much coming up it is forcing me to finish editing A Commitment to Murder as quickly as I can. I also need to finish the third book, but am having a tad of writers block with it. I got two thirds through and didn't like the way it was working. They say that's normal, so I'm hoping this break will refresh me and get me going again. It has taken me the longest to write of the three.

 

Please send me messages on my blog or e-mail me. I love to hear from people. Questions, comments, anything!

A number of people have asked me where my cover came from...My spouse. Since Infinity, the publisher, allows the author full control of the product, they are quite happy to accept a pre-designed cover. With that in mind...I wanted to be able to share with someone my concept and have it reflect those wishes without a lot of hassle.

 

So since Alden has experience with this sort of creative stuff (he helps to create ads for Thai Airways), I knew he could put up with my whining and we would still be speaking at the end (and yes...we are still speaking).

 

So all creative credit for this cover and future one's go to him. The picture of myself on the author page (which is also the one on my book cover) Alyse took. Must give credit where credit is due...