Puppies aside, I know next to nothin about birthin’ babies. So I’m probably taking a risk comparing an author’s wait for his book to be published to a woman anxious for labor and childbirth. But it feels like the closest match.
Will it be perfect? Why is it delayed? Am I going to suffer if people (those with bad taste) don’t like it? What if a page is left out?
What’s wrong with me? Everything will be fine. Rave reviews. Facebook compliments going viral. Alyson will have to reprint right away. I’ve done all I can—four drafts! It’s out of my hands. I can’t control the universe and choose the moment. But I want to pick the moment—now. Yesterday would be better.
CAPTAIN HARDING’S SIX DAY WAR, a labor of love, took many months more than nine to mature. Four drafts, like I said. Research and fact checking, editing and rewriting, cutting run-on scenes, insuring that the love/sex scenes drove the story forward rather than stopping the flow. My initial readers, Katharine V. Forrest chief among them, said, “More tension, more danger, more fear, more close calls. Too much poetry, not enough drama.”
Having worked with good editors most of my life, I did as bid – most of the time. It’s a better book for it.
