It's Finished!

 

I am happy to announce I have finished the 2nd draft of my book.  I finished editing everything I had written and printed while in Santa Rosa in early June.  I knew there was to be one final chapter which would include real life writings.  Frankly I liked how the previous chapter had ended and did not see the need for this chapter.  Yet I went along with God's plan, and selected several writings, including one narrative about an event I was both embarrassed and humiliated by as well as I writing I simply didn't want used.

I finished the last chapter about a week ago and have just been soaking that in.  It's a marvelous feeling.  So at present the chapter stands at 40 pages with the book finishing up at 340 pages and 145,000 words.  Oh, and the writing I didn't want used didn't get used.  The last words of the book were God's:

So I say onto you, as I say onto my people:

Judge yourself less, love yourself more.

Isn't this photo stunning?  It's called Blue Sky and was taken in Scotland by Bill Lockhart.  You can find other stunning photos and his blog at www.billlockharts.com.  I have permission to use this photo on the cover of the book.  

The book is now officially titled Reality Spirituality and I am leaning more and more towards the idea of self publishing.  So the next step in the process is the 3rd draft, I would like to carve 30-40,000 words from it. I would then like to send it off to a professional editor who charges $250-300 per 20,000 words. (A great motivation to cut words.)

Meanwhile I continue to work part time/full time as a housesitter.  In May I had a marvelous time sitting with a couple of dogs near Sacramento and am presently sitting with three dogs near Joshua Tree National Park.  It's very hot here, over 100 most days, but the swampcooler keeps the place cool.  Oh and they have HBO and I am able to see TrueBlood.  What's not to love?

I finish here in August with enough time to make it back to Iowa for my family reunion and I hope to make it over to Illinois to visit family and friends.  It's a quick 10 day trip and then I commence another housesit up near Carmel, California.

The journey continues . . . . Life is Wonderful!