Wow!
Editing is much harder than I ever imagined. It took me longer to edit my book “Pain Drives Change” than it did to write it!
But it needed to be edited. My first draft was written stream of consciousness. My editor then took my stream of consciousness writing and cleaned it up significantly. I then took his edits and modified some of the content.
It turns out that I didn’t know the full story when I wrote the original version-I learned more in the process of talking with my mom and dad while they each wrote their letters that are included in the book.
I’m glad I took the time to listen and learn from them. I’m dedicating my book to each of them, and by including their letters I believe it makes the story more poignant and real. I shared the first chapter with my junior high English teacher and she shared this after reading it:
“This chapter moved me to tears. It is so powerful. Bringing your mom in on it was brilliant. To show that forgiveness to others is something they will grapple with.”
I also waited to include a letter from my daughter, Monica. Chapter 11-The Pain of the Prodigal Child-talks about how her pain helped her to change. I’m soooo proud of her for sharing her story-she gave me her letter for my book as my birthday present a few days ago!
I’m still targeting January 1, 2016 for publication but realistically I don’t think it will be published until February.
Thanks for letting me share my journey! You can download the first chapter for free by entering your email address below.