Writing, publishing, angst and joy!

Holy Cow, ya'll.  Who knew how much work was involved in getting a book published!  Lynda and I and Janet, our editor and Suzanne, our cover artist and interior genius, have really started on a journey together.

Lynda will be out here in October so we can continue with our second book, "The Darkened Light".  This will be a much more intricate story.  We've learned many elementary things about content, formatting, rewriting, rewriting, rewriting and rewriting.  (Let's hope we remember all of the lessons.)

Google docs will save us uncountable hours in the rewriting process.  Thanks to my son, Timmy and our editor, Janet, our eyes are open to being able to work on a manuscript from different States.  The first time Lynda and I looked at the same manuscript at the same time and I could see her changing words, right in front of my eyes, from Indiana, I knew how much this would streamline our writing in the future. 

Then there's marketing... licenses and more licenses.  They aren't free, believe it or not.  And taxes?  We haven't even gone there, yet.  The resale license application for the city of Glendale, Az, asks us how much money we made last year.  Ha!  That's a laugh!  Why does it have to be so difficult?

We just want to sit at a table, sign some books, and maybe sell a couple, to get the word out. 

Our story, "Guam Adventures, Mystery of the Cave" is about two girls who grew up in an Air Force family and have a wonderful, magical adventure on the island of Guam, where they were lucky enough to live for awhile.  There are so many military kids out there who can't find a single book that illustrates their lives.  Granted, this story is fiction, but being the "new kids", becoming acquainted with a new environment, riding around in a "Guam bomb", or some other hand-me-down vehicle at an overseas assignment, coming face-to-face with bugs, lizards, and wild animals they never dreamed they would encounter... these are just a few things military kids "adjust" to time and time again.  We want to share the military life with not only military kids, but others who move around their entire lives to accommodate a parent's career, or those who wonder what it would be like to live in an amazing new town, state or country.

It's very difficult at times to be a military "brat", but, in the long run, such a blessing.  WE were blessed to grow up in a military family.  Life, for us, was an adventure, filled with wonder, knowledge, friends we would never have otherwise known. 
 
I always wondered what it would be like to grow up in one small town my entire life, have the same friends from kindergarten to highschool graduation.  But if I had, I would have missed out.  The people I've met and the amazing places I have lived....irreplacable!

Is this endeavor, hour upon hour of writing, racking our brains for just the right story line, description of places, things, people, worth it?  You bet!  We want YOU to read our story and see yourself in this exotic place.  Feel the sun, humidity, wildness and familiarity of a faraway military base, where everything is new and exciting, but, home, nonetheless.

Guam Adventures - Mystery of the Cave can be purchased at, www.createspace.com/4008187 or direcly from us at whammysteries@gmail.com