I don’t really know what step I’m on along this path to publication–I just know it’s a good ways down the road from the day I wrote CHAPTER 1 for the first time. Last summer I did the BIG edits for Miracle in a Dry Season. That would be the big picture stuff that required a bit of rewriting, not just tweaking. Now I have an actual, printed copy of my manuscript formatted to publishing standards.
This is my LAST chance to make any significant changes. Thankfully, I don’t think I want to make any. Just a few little things like making a couple of characters younger so they aren’t TOO ancient in book #2. And replacing some hymns that aren’t yet in the public domain (Victory in Jesus is too modern. Who knew? Oh–my editor did!). AND making sure everyone is the right age and that events fit history’s timeline as well as my own. Nit-picky stuff.
I wasn’t really looking forward to this job. I’ve read the story so many times I thought I’d be sick of it. But as it turns out, having written a whole other book as well as a novella since my last read-through has given me room to enjoy this round of edits.
I’ll confess I had only a vague idea about what this process of publishing a book would include. And I suppose it might get old one day, this business of going over and over what I’ve written. But for now, as I turn each page and see the words, “Unpublished manuscript–copyright protected Baker Publishing Group” in black letters across the top, I can’t imagine every getting tired of this new calling.
And I’m so very grateful God is letting me use my way with words–HIS gift–to tell other people the stories He’s placed in my heart. Now that’s a miracle.