A Final Version of Marguerite's Diary is Completed!

In my last post here, I wrote that Marguerite's Diary, the sequel to Erin's Ring that I've been working on for the past year or so (per special request of four of my granddaughters), was finished.  I published in on a site called Bookemon on December 8, thrilled that the date coincided with one of Mary's special days.

I quickly ordered enough paperback copies for my granddaughters (and myself, plus a few extras), so that I could wrap them up as presents and bring them out to Wisconsin with us when we go to visit our oldest son's gang next week for a belated Christmas.

I've always had trouble reading my own books once they get into print.  It makes me so nervous.  But I spent yesterday and today slowly reading through one of the copies, and sure enough, despite my great efforts to catch all errors, I found some. AAAGGGHHH!!!  Typos are my nemesis.

My husband (my beta reader) caught some typos for me before I sent it to print and his help was invaluable (because an author sometimes looks at a sentence that she's rewritten, leaving in one of the words that was supposed to be deleted, and sees what she MEANT to say, not what's there on the page).  But we both missed a few boo-boos.  I even spelled a character's name wrong once (it was supposed to be the French name Georges, and I called him George!). 

Aside from a couple of typos that we'd missed, I found one instance where I was too repetitive in my phrasing and needed to do a little rewording, and also some formatting issues that didn't really hamper the enjoyment of the story but made the book look less neat and professional.  I have exhaustively gone over the manuscript to make it cleaner and more perfect (I'm pretty sure 100% perfect is hard, if not impossible, for me to accomplish!).  Now I am ready to push the publish button on the book once more.  And this time, I may actually pay the fee that will give it an ISBN number and make it available on Amazon in both hard copy and ebook form.

I hope no one out there ordered a copy of this book yet--not only because I think it's way too expensive, but also because it was not in its most perfect condition yet.  I think there will be an affordable ebook version if I decide to publish it with an ISBN.  I plan to make a decision very soon. I'll let you know!

The Sequel is Finished!

On December 8, 2023, I finished the sequel to Erin’s Ring and published it through Bookemon.com.  It is titled Marguerite's Diary.   Seeing as how this historical novel includes approved Marian apparitions and also a Marian miracle, I thought it was apropos that its publication date would be one of Mary's special days, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

For the cover, I used an old still life painting I'd done in college in the late 70's,
to which I added some flames and a Rosary, so it would fit the subject matter.

I exhaustively pored over the book's 20 chapters myself, looking for typos and grammatical errors, and then had my husband read through it, too.  He caught a few boo-boo's I'd missed.  (You'd be amazed by how many typos an author's eyes don't see, because she knows what she meant to say, and so that's how she reads the words!) However, I fear that even with all of that care and attention in an effort to produce as clean a manuscript as possible, there will be errors.  Cheryl Dickow, the publisher at Bezalel Books (where both Finding Grace and Erin's Ring were published, but which is now out of business), liked to remind me that there was no such thing as perfection in the printed word.  I guess I'll have to take her word for it, and try not to panic if I see any errors in the printed books...

...which are due to arrive today!

I ordered ten copies to start out, because I've promised them as Christmas gifts for our oldest son's four oldest daughters (the avid readers!  The ones who really wanted me to write this book!).  Then there's one for us, and one for each of our five sons.  I didn't want to order too many to start out, because they're a tad pricey on the site where I had them published, at almost $20 a copy, and I want to make sure that they turned out nicely.

My husband is wondering if I should republish on Amazon, using their KDP services. I think the copies would be much cheaper to purchase if I did that, and the book would be legit, with an ISBN number...

We shall see!  In the meantime, it feels good to be done, and to have copies in time for Christmas!

Feeling Encouraged

I have been working on a sequel to Erin's Ring for about a year or so now.  I'm calling it Marguerite's Diary. I've started a big push to finish it by Christmas, which will be hard but not impossible.  (I was going to finish it LAST Christmas, but I missed that deadline by a mile, obviously!)  I dream of being able to wrap up copies to give to my four oldest granddaughters as gifts this year.  Wish me luck!  (Better yet, pray for me!)

I found a site called Bookemon (where I had my My Little ABC Book published) that is user-friendly and where you can get copies of your book on a print-by-demand basis.  They aren't cheap, but the quality is very good--as good as any publishing house has to offer, if you ask me.  You can also set up your Bookemon account to have your titles listed for sale on Amazon...but I've been-there-done-that already, and both books that used to sell on Amazon are out of print now.  I'm not in the "author" business anymore.  I don't think I really have the heart for that.  This book is mostly for my grandchildren, and for my personal use--to have copies made as gifts or whatever.  I'm trying to get all the joy out of the writing, without the stress of wondering whether anyone will read or like what I've written.  I know the audience for whom I'm writing this book will be pleased no matter what.

Anyway, out of the blue lately there have been little surprises that have made me feel very encouraged and excited to keep on writing. 

While we were away for a couple of weeks recently, visiting our two boys who don't live near us in VA, I got a sweet text from my daughter-in-law Braveheart (wife of son #4).  She is the mother of triplets who are in kindergarten, and son #3's daughter is in kindergarten at the same Catholic school.  One of the triplet boys is with his sister in one homeroom, but the other is classmates with his cousin.  Braveheart had gone in to school that day as a volunteer, to read to the class that has the two cousins in it.  Afterward, she sent me this: 

When I asked her if they liked it, she said they loved it--and so did their teacher.  In fact, the teacher wanted a copy!  So I'm ordering a copy to donate to the kindergarten library.  (Braveheart is ordering one as well.)

What an incredibly nice, unexpected blessing, hearing that my humble little picture book had been a hit at our grandkids' school.  Blessings like those are not a dime a dozen.

But then the very same night, amazingly, I got a text from one of our twenty-something nieces on the Pearl side, saying she wanted to let me know that she had ordered my first novel Finding Grace on Amazon (where copies are sometimes available through other sellers, often used).  She was too young to read it when it came out, she said, but she was trying to get into reading and thought it was time to do so.  I was so touched by this!

(I'm not crying; you're crying!)

I can't believe my darling niece paid this for a copy of Finding Grace!  I sure hope she likes it.*

Wow...just wow.  Two messages like that in one day was almost more than I could handle.  I have been a full-time homemaker (a wife, mother, and Grammy, without a career outside the home; a woman who has not made enough money in her lifetime to qualify for a monthly Social Security check like most folks my age), and writing was just something I got to do for a few years, between the time my boys were growing up and moving away and when the grandchildren started coming along at a furious pace.  I didn't have a writing "career," per se.  I don't think of myself as a "writer," really.  But on October 17, my loved ones were sure making me feel like one.

As if my cup hadn't already runneth over, the very next day, a nice reader named Ellen left me this comment on a recent post at String o' Pearls: "Hi Laura, somehow I missed that your books are actually available for purchase.  I thought they were for family only.   I bought them both from Thriftbooks and have been enjoying Erin's Ring.  Your writing is lovely!"

Somebody pinch me!  

Okay then, now I should get back to writing that sequel, shouldn't I?  With my confidence bolstered by all this love and encouragement, I can and I must.

*BTW, I sent a reply telling my niece to cancel the order if it wasn't too late, because the price on the used copy was so high and I still have a number of copies that I bought years ago (for book signings, few of which ever happened!), and I could send her one of those.  But she didn't take me up on it; then when her copy came in the mail yesterday, she texted to say that it was okay, and that she loved getting to support me and my book.  (Okay, maybe this time I AM crying.)

Fiction Imitates Life

Here is a blog post called Fiction Imitates Life, which was published over at String o’ Pearls today.  I thought I ought to share it here, as it has to do with the book I'm working on.  (After all, this blog is supposed to be the one where I talk about writing!)

For the most part, I'm making good progress on Marguerite's Diary, a granddaughter-requested sequel to Erin's Ring.  But I'm about to get to a part of the story--the action-packed, dramatic climax--that intimidates me, and I worry about coming down with a severe case of writer's block.

Pray for me, won't you?

And St. Francis de Sales  (patron saint of Catholic writers!), pray for me, too!

A Finding Grace Sighting

A number of years ago, I donated some copies of Finding Grace and Erin's Ring to the library of the Catholic school in our old hometown.

When my husband and I were young, there were multiple parochial schools in town: the K-8 co-ed grade school attached to my parish, where I went up until high school; the K-12 co-ed school attached to his parish across town, where he went; an all-boys high school for both local and boarding students; and another K-8 school attached to a third Catholic parish. (A quick aside: we met in 9th grade at the school where he had been a student since kindergarten, and by the summer after our freshman year we were dating.) All of these schools merged into one K-12 Catholic school a long time ago.  And now, all three once-thriving parishes have merged into one as well.  

One of my husband's sisters moved back about a year ago, after years of living far from where she'd grown up; she now has two kids at the Catholic school and has taken the job of track coach.  This sister-in-law posted this picture on the Pearl sibling text stream a few days ago: 

She spied this copy of Finding Grace on a shelf in the school's library.  She said that some of the kids on the track team had told her it was good book and she should read it (not realizing that she was related to the author by marriage 🤣).

I’m humbled and amazed…there are high school students out there reading this book.  Published in 2012, it has been out of print for a while, so it wasn’t a success by the world’s standards.  But it may be doing some good yet!

#dreamsdocometrue

Two of our grown sons (#3 and #5) recently moved their families into new houses, and they’re still in the process of getting settled. 

In both of their new office spaces, I spied copes of their mom’s books.  I can’t think of anyplace I would rather find them than on the shelves of my boys’ homes.

#dreamsdocometrue  

I got to be a wife, then a mom, and now a grandmother—everything I ever wanted to be.  And more.  A a bonus, I even got to write books. It’s been a blessed life for sure.  Thank you, God, for giving me a life that I certainly don’t deserve but love so much.  

A Second Edition of Erin's Ring

I mentioned in my last post here that I was working on a new edition of Erin's Ring, which was originally published by Bezalel Books over eight years ago.   I have finished, and this updated edition is now available here, at a print-on-demand publishing site called bookemon.com. 

Bezalel, the wonderful small Catholic company that published not only Erin's Ring in 2014, but also my first novel, Finding Grace, in 2012, has gone the way of the dinosaurs, I'm afraid--along with the Amazon-available editions of the novels it produced.  Extinct.  Not to be found anymore.  (Although before it was too late, back when my books were still in circulation I did purchase a number of copies of both novels to have on hand for book signings or to give away in the future as gifts.  But new copies are no longer being printed.)

Now I'm about to get back to work on Marguerite's Diary, the sequel to Erin's Ring, which my favorite readers (four of my precious granddaughters, the book-loving oldest children of our oldest son), have asked for.  This special request is one I feel I cannot deny; otherwise, I don't think I'd ever be inspired to try to write another book.

Getting one novel written and published was a childhood dream, miraculously fulfilled.

Two of them--well, that was never, ever going to happen (because the dream was one book, and that bucket list item had been checked off already)...until it did.

And if two was never going to happen, you can imagine how surreal three seems.  

I pray that I am able to finish this sequel, not only because it would make such an extraordinarily special gift for my sweet granddaughters; but also because through it, I hope to bring glory and honor to Our Blessed Mother, as well as Her Son and the Catholic Faith He came to establish.  I loved bringing the endearing Irish immigrant characters to life for Erin's Ring; the sequel is also based on true historical events, but this time my people are Belgian immigrants, and I am growing to love them, too.  But the story is a big one, a really big one...and it overwhelms me at times, trying to figure out how best to tell it.

Wish me luck!  (Better yet, pray for me!)