Bailey Black in Progress

I recently submitted a book manuscript for publishing and was accepted! I was really excited at first, and I still am. But I am now realizing how much work there is between the manuscript acceptance and the actual publication of the finished book. Between the re-editing, correcting, re-reading, re-writing, and the book production, I urge you to follow me as I go through the process. I believe that the finished product will be a very readable and surprising Western. It is not of the usual vein, but includes the namesake's run-in with a dead sheriff, in fact, the sheriff he himself killed. The story follows Bailey Black as he robs a bank, makes his escape while pursued by a posse and a very tenacious deputy, through his meeting with the dead sheriff, and Bailey Black's ultimate meeting with Destiny.

I am so pleased to be a (soon to be) published author. While my book poses no threats to the greats such as Louis L'Amour or Zane Grey, nonetheless I had a great time writing the book while living the adventure in my head at the same time. I had read about authors who say that they "do not know" what will happen next. I have to say that, prior to writing my own book, I had no concept of what these authors meant. How could someone possibly NOT know what he was about to write. In actuality I found this to be the case for myself. I knew what I thought would happen, in line with my general plot outline, yet, there were times when I was really not sure how a character would react, how some event would turn out, until I had actually written it into the book. It was almost like real life.

My final manuscript will go to the publisher next week, and if all goes well, it will be through the final editor before Christmas. I am crossing my fingers for this. What a great gift! I am so proud to have something of myself to leave behind to family and friends. Another thing that is also exciting is the prospect that people I DO NOT KNOW will read about or hear about my book and buy it to read for themselves. I realize I will not become a Dean R. Koontz overnight, but I will certainly appreciate each person who buys, reads, and enjoys my book. That reward, that someone actually likes my book, is so much more important to me than any money I might make someday from book sales.

So I hope you will follow me on this adventure, even as I continue to blog about my usual things, which is anything that I feel needs blogging. Hopefully very soon I will be blogging about my first book signing...and hopefully many more to come!