Perils of Being an Author

By the time you’re reading this I’ll be on the last leg of my journey to Crescent City and the launch of Kindred Spirits. Because hubby and I have to make regular potty stops, it takes us two days to drive to Crescent City which sits right next to the Oregon border.

Hopefully, I’ll be carrying the 200 books I ordered.

The last part of the drive is wonderful as we’ll be driving through the majestic redwood forest. The ancient redwoods are absolutely mind boggling. When you’re in the forest the trees are so thick, you can’t see the sky.

If we’re lucky, we’ll see a herd of elk. We have each time we’ve driven to Crescent City.

As we draw closer, we’ll be driving along the coast. The ocean is gorgeous along here with fantastic rock formations.

The whole process of getting Kindred Spirits out in time for the book launch has been nerve-wracking. Just before the edits came, I found out that a prominent fact given to me by my primary source and I used in the book several times was erroneous. This meant a scramble trying to find the places and making the changes so they sounded like that’s what they were meant to be.

When the galley arrived, I found one more place that had to be altered. In my determination to make sure the galley was correct I neglected to check the Dedication page. After the book was at the printer and too late to make anymore changes, I looked at the galley for something else and guess what I found? The last name of the person I dedicated the book to is wrong! The first name is correct, but the last name is the name I gave to one of the characters in the book. Granted, the character was inspired by this person, but that doesn’t excuse the mistake.

I suspect when I ran the spell-checker at some point, it suggested I change the right name which is quite unusual to the other name and I mindlessly did it and never noticed my error.

I’ll hand correct the mistake in the books that go out in Crescent City–and I’ll promise the person I dedicated it to a corrected copy when new books are printed. That’s all I can do at this point.

An apology will definitely be a part of my speech at the launching at the Ana Wulf Bed and Breakfast on Wednesday.

Oh, the trials and pain of being an author.

Who knows? Maybe the copy with the mistake in it will become a collector’s copy. Yeah, right.

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com