Done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There were just a few minor copy edits to do this morning and I sailed through them in about 5 minutes. I sent my editor a memo that they'd been addressed and then sat back and stared at my chromebook in disbelief.

It was there in front of me, the finished product, this thing that I had created.

I read through it again, seeing it from the eyes of a reader and not the writer. It was so different from the first draft that I had sent them for consideration, but not a bad different; it was better! I read it thinking, I am actually enjoying reading this! (Usually I hate my own writing.)

I want to thank Aimee for her dedication and patience with me. I had heard such horror stories about editors and I admit I was truly afraid of what she would be doing with her highlighter and margin notes. I was worried that we would come to this point and I wouldn't even recognize my story anymore, that it wouldn't be what I wanted it to be, but none of that was true.

Sure, she made suggestions and suggested changes. Of course she did, that's her job. She never pushed them on me or forced anything. She made it very clear that it was my story and she didn't want to change it just to improve it.

I'm sure I wasn't the easiest writer to work with being so paranoid and all, but she listened to my concerns and eased me through things step by step.

So, thank you Aimee for being a fantastic editor, thank you Selena for being my champion, thank you Dustin for believing in the story, and thank you BigSmallTownBooks; I can't wait to see it in print!