Hello, dear reader,

It has been a minute, right? I stopped writing here because life always finds a way to take hold of you, and things get busy.

Although I kept writing my books and sticking to my goal of publishing, finally, after finding a place for my book, the wait is almost over! My much-awaited book (by me) is coming out in September. After getting interest from one publication house, I decided the offer was not what I expected, so we moved on.

Another change would be for me to have another illustrator. Unfortunately, the one working on my original illustrations was busy with other projects, so I had to move on and find someone else who could grasp my vision.

I did request that the book cover somehow look like the one I uploaded in one of my previous posts, To Publish or Not. Naturally, it would not be precisely the same, but the illustrator captured the concept, and I am happy with what she brought to my story. I have been told this is the first book, and later on, as I continue to write other stories, I can choose my “dream team,” let’s see how that goes. But the artist captured the story’s spirit, and I am grateful for that.

How did I feel seeing my book come to life? You might ask. Having all these characters in my head come to life on paper or digital form felt surreal. And then it was fun, seeing the colors and the story flowing along.

It is not a long book by any means. It is a first-level illustrated story. The parents can read it and have the kids read along with them in parts where the words are already known. I find myself nervous but excited at the same time. For a while there, I thought it might never happen.

My message here is that if you are a writer who wants to publish, you have to seriously commit to your goal. Don’t give up even in the face of changing agents (which I did) and publishing houses (ditto). Life is not perfect; not everything goes according to plan, but as long as you keep to that goal, that dream, I say to you, do not give up. Things do have a way of “weaving” together and coming to fruition.

Until I write again,

MG