We got a sneak peek!

Nothing makes your writing more real than having a sneak peek at the cover design. This past Wednesday we had our monthly writer’s group at DCDL, and were surprised to receive a copy of the cover/back of our book! The art for it is pretty special, as it’s done by one of the authors in the book. She is blessed to have the best of both talents, and the group and publisher felt it was fitting to have someone within the group with such great talent to pull it all together. We also were given our submissions for final revision. It was the last time we’d see our work before it is handed to us bound and professionally printed. We took our time to look it all over and many submissions were covered in sticky notes. Mine was the only one which was fine as it was, because it is just a short picture book piece. Having that editing time allowed me to introduce myself to two new visitors to the group and get to know them. After a good half hour of last minute changes, we began the normal critique routine, everyone just a little distracted from the excitement of publishing. Within the next couple of months it sounds like our book will be out there for the world to read! We couldn’t be more excited!

Critique

Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending DCDL’s Writers’ Group. It was fantastic. High turnout, great critiques for all who submitted! My soon to be published work was in the critique batch, and was highly encouraging and productive.

To start, everyone loved it. They all agreed it had definitely improved from the last one and one of the written comments read “another way to go!”. As usual, the group didn’t disappoint with their creativity. They recommended I play around with the title some, and confirmed that the two phrases I felt needed more work needed some clarity. They recommended I look into the difference between dream vs. dreamt, which hadn’t even crossed my mind as I was writing (another reason to join a group! You’re so focused on your work that you overlook small things.). I should play around with present or past tense some as well–the group was 1/2 & 1/2 on which to go with. There were a few other minor things. I chicken scratched my copy in my own words and was eager to clip it into my writing notebook for the next revision.

The whole way home I brainstormed. Their encouragement and suggestions got me thinking, which got the creativity flowing. Of course, while driving you can’t write (okay, some people probably do, but they really shouldn’t), but technology can help with that. Before beginning the drive I turned my phone onto notepad and used the voice-to-text function to record all my thoughts and ideas.

All night ideas were churning, and I just couldn’t wait until morning to get back into my well worn notebook.

I am so excited about this road, this journey. I really love my manuscript, and I think it encompasses a lot of the emotions one goes through during adoption (and having a biological/first child, but more for adoption). The group echoed my feelings, and some actually said I should consider writing greetings cards or making a framed print out of this for nurseries. For right now, I’m just writing as time allows and tweaking as needed. I’m thankful to DCDL for providing this opportunity, and cannot wait to share more updates as the project continues.