Thar She Blows! The adventures of a landlubber trying to launch a submarine.

I have planned for the publication of Voyage of the Sea Dragon for months, even years. This publication is going to be different. I have learned enough over the years that I was going to whiz though the Nanowrimo and then the critique group and then some light editing. Lest I get cocky, let me back up and hitch to the reality. Yes I did quickly write the rough draft during Nano months, adapting a little of the fan fiction I had written over the years and blending it with new materials, fresh characters, and different settings. The whole thing ended up being about 120,000 words, give or take. It would be a two book 'series.' And, yes, I still fully planned on self-publishing it. Hopefully, the right way this time. (The other way was when I had possession of the manuscript to My House of Dreams and only knew enough to take what I had and put it into an Amazon template. I wasn't able to fix the size of the font. I also had to have someone take the old ISBN number off the original cover so Amazon could slap theirs on it. Then it languished on Kindle Unlimited for over a decade. It had needed a make over. ) No, this new book was going to be done right. I figured out a little formatting, but knew I'd need help. (Thanks to all of you offering help.) I messed around with a cover and was told I had a winner. Wow! I think it will still need some tweeking to make sure it will be as nice on the finished product as it was in my computer file. More suggestions as I went along. One of my book critiquing partners was so masterful about seeing where detail needed to be added or clarifying characteristics of the character and the setting. So I had inserted chapters, lots of inserted chapters. There were so many that I ended up renumbering the chapters. I certainly hope I don't have two chapter thirty-fours!

So when I finished all of that, I thought it was a simple matter to take the individual chapters of the novel and put them together into a 6 X 9 format. It was fairly easy, but that was also when I noticed that the manuscript needed more work. The editor was heading out of town, so I sent it out anyway. The editor later contacted me and pointed out the obvious. She was nice about it, though.

So, while I know Sea Dragon is going to be published, I need to remember some rules. 1. Be patient. While it's good to come up with a publication date and shoot for it, there are times when you need to admit you need more time. 2. Be patient, things happen for a purpose. Perhaps this time it was to understand that I am still learning and will continue to learn. 3. There is no such thing as a perfect manuscript and mine is very far from perfect. 4. Listen to your editor. 5. Be patient.

So with that said, I'll be patient.