HUMBLE PIE

Checking the mail on a daily basis, hoping the "dummy" book had arrived, I gave up on Martin Luther King day because there was no mail deliveries. I came home from shopping late in the afternoon to find a small UPS package, the size of a book, on the couch. There it was, in all its glory! I ran out to the studio to show my husband, who was building a threshold for a door. He was nearly as excited as I, and we stood holding each other to see this baby born of our devotion to pursue our highest dreams. A new threshold.

We gazed at the sliver of moon in the south west sky, offering good beginnings for the new phase. We celebrated with friends in the neighborhood, and then went out to dinner. The book came with,a silent member of our celebration. I hugged it to my chest like a newborn while I drove through town.

Later, stretched out in bed, I began checking through it for errors, reading here and there, especially noting that the ends of a chapter and the beginning of the next chapter were correct. I came upon an astonishing error that only I could have made: two chapter fifteens, one that by all rights should have been chapter sixteen, the last one in the book. My balloon deflated, another cost, another wait.

I'm not even going to the "how could this ever have happened?" place. Somehow the innumerable edits by me, and the one excellent edit by a dear friend failed to reveal this flagrant error. I can only say the Universe wants this book available later in the spring than I ever imagined, for reasons unknown.

This morning the telephone call to IUniverse (after the email) was difficult. The folks who dealt with me were lovely, sympathetic, informative. But the charges would come to $300 more. I gasped, because I thought they'd only be $100. But it must be done.

The process is straightforward: I have up to 25 corrections I can make on the forms they will email today. I return them, they print a new "dummy" copy and mail it out (this part took 30 days last time). I review it, okay it, and the order is placed for 185 copies (+ 20 freebies) which will arrive in March, with no shipping charges (saving about $155).

Dear reader, if this tries your patience, imagine the level of deep breathing going on in my body today! Many adjustments to be made in scheduling, manifesting and, well, we'll have a lot more time to work on the website (which presented endless difficulties yesterday)!

Dear self-published author: Beware. Edit. Remain open to surprising changes!