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!