Sticking to the End

A cool Saturday afternoon on the high plains, even colder (in a manner of speaking) out east where our Cornhuskers got stomped by Michigan this afternoon. No entry last Saturday, deer season began out here and I was out in the field. On the other hand, there has been nothing to report on the book publishing. The four weeks to edit my copy for the first time should be finished next week just before Thanksgiving. I expect that this first round of editing should look a lot like those tests that I didn't study for back in the day: lots of corrections and comments. The only difference will be that I never took a test 98,000 words long!

I have heard nothing on the book cover design yet, but that is not a concern at this point. The editing will probably take a few more months (multiple rounds at a month or so each) and the next book should go in soon. Whooee, that is one odd shade of lipstick! Sorry, watching an old Budd Boetticher western, Decision at Sundown. The actress was married to the director, so I suppose that explains how she can get away with orange lips in his movie.

So, how can I help my neighbor? I don't refer to the persons living in the house next door, but the one out there like me. You may know him or her; a job lost to the recession a couple of years ago; the savings from bank accounts, IRA's, or 401k is about gone, and yet, like me, he or she hopes this new career will work out. Now the time has come to put our work out there, to see if we can make it without a big corporation paying us every two weeks. I'm there with them. Do I stumble at the end? Cave in to the temptation to seek work with an employer once more? These questions seem rather melodramatic to me, or maybe that should be, 'of me'. Trusting in what God has called me to do seems so much easier.

Using my retirement funds and savings to live on, risking my house, and paying to publish a couple of novels that I do not know will sell seems a bit like a poker player who hasn't looked at his cards going all in. Did I 'write' a straight flush or a hand full of junk cards? Actually, that's not a bad line; maybe I have learned something in these three or so years of working on this writing thing. Praise the Lord for this new life! The thought of going back to the old corporate job, no matter how good the pay, just makes the blood run cold.

Have a great week! I plan to write my first impressions of the editing job as soon as it arrives. Until then: trust in God, have a great Thanksgiving, and just believe!

Bucky