The Birth of a Book

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect I would still be preparing my manuscript for publication three and a half years after I started. For the first six months, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. wide awake and ready to write. Unfortunately and fortunately, I took some classes offered by the Federation of B.C. Writers that changed my opinion of myself as an author. New information, new ideas, and some sound teaching made me pause and rewrite what I had just written.

Two months later, I took another course with the FBCW, and learned so much I tore my book apart rearranging chapters and slashing words that didn't need to be there. I also had a one-on-one consultation with a writer and publisher, who told me that self-help books were on their way out. Not all of them, mind you, just the kind I was writing on spiritual transformation. I heard her. Truthfully, I didn't feel qualified to write a how-to book on transforming one's life, but I felt qualified to offer readers an account of how I transformed. My book went through shedding all the self-help parts and a birth, of sorts, into a memoir.

Now I was on track. More editing after all that removing and rearranging took me to February 2024, when I was about to send my manuscript to my publisher. I felt I needed a few people to read it and give me feedback first. It was a miracle two people agreed, as they were very busy people, but they did, and saved my book.

Despite many edits, I just didn't know how to write yet, so didn't avoid common pitfalls that befall first-time writers: wordiness, "telling" not "showing", character head hopping, misuse of dialogue tags, misplaced modifiers, forgetting the timeline (or bouncing around in time), and the dreaded passive voice. They let me know what I needed to do to get my book back on track. I am truly indebted to them for their time and expertise.

Unfortunately, February was also the month that my teeth let me know I had neglected them for far too long. Tooth pain was something I knew nothing about because my parents took me to the dentist regularly. I credit my mother for the wonderful, nourishing food she made for us, which played a crucial role in the health of my teeth. Throughout my life, I continued caring for my teeth until later in adulthood. Then, for the first time, I neglected them, and the result was tooth pain. Root canals, fillings, and X-rays helped stabilize them; my dentist and team did an amazing job. Thank goodness I qualified for the new Canadian Dental Plan, and I can chew well again. In March, I fell flat on my face for the first time, too, and knocked the wind out of my sails. My rib broke, and I had a nice black eye for a while. I put publishing on hold while I recovered.

That hold was a chance to re-read my manuscript again and go deeper into the story than I had before. I reached out to an encouraging soul whose words were a balm to my brokenness. An amazing editor I met through FBCW helped me identify a couple of new themes. Slowly, I got back into my manuscript.

The nitty-gritty of putting a book together that means something to me and hopefully to my readers was before me. What did I really want to say, and how could I say it without sounding preachy? I wanted to establish a meaningful connection with my readers. To do that, I dug deep inside for a feeling I could put into a phrase or a word. Feeling one's heart and then translating what it feels like in words is indeed searching one's soul for guidance and wisdom. How can people with souls believe AI can replace them, when it is digging deep into one's inner being that births the words, phrases, inspiration, and recognizable human feelings that go into writing a book?

I finally woke up to knowing that writing was a passion. Now, I'm writing my 110th blog and soon will submit my much-edited 65,000-word manuscript to the publisher. Writing lights me up and satisfies my love of learning. Yes, the journey of my lifelong mystical transformation was hard, as was the journey of this book. Fortunately, hard is not equal to how much I've learned and grown as a human and as a writer. I can't wait to share this book with all of you when it's available.

They (seasoned writers) say they know when they arrive at the point when a manuscript is finally ready to be published. I thought my manuscript was ready multiple times, but circumstances and roadblocks appeared to school me.

...time, when understood spiritually, becomes more than a measure of life passing by. It becomes a teacher, guiding us to live fully in the present, to understand our timeless nature, and to trust the divine unfolding of events.

         Medina Alkadir, The Spiritual Essence of Time: Living in the Eternal Present, Medium,

              https://medium.com/@menaep121/the-spiritual-essence-of-time-living-in-the-eternal-present-dc0614ce2e58

As this quote suggests, I realized that trusting in what I call divine timing is always the best course of action, despite my penchant for pushing my mind and ego forward. Indeed, I've learned that my mystical transformation as a human will not stop until

"There is a stillness in the air,

in the light of the dusk,

in the eyes fixed forward,

in the still end of life,

an intolerable sweetness..."

Lawrence Ferlinghetti,

The Mexican Night

https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-mexican-night/

... and then, who knows? The birth of my book will arrive in its own divine timing, but I think it will be this year, she said quietly and slowly.