I used to think the hardest part about publishing a book was writing the book itself. Don’t get me wrong. There is a huge sense of accomplishment in looking at your document with it’s 85,000+ words arranged in a story—hopefully in a fabulous arc. You should take a moment to celebrate. Which we did. We went out for Devan’s favorite meal – sushi. But this is really the half-way point, if that. There’s the editing… and more editing. There’s the cover to worry about. A website to create (We hope you enjoy all the extra information here). Blurbs to solicit. And we haven’t even gotten to the marketing and promotion.

Publishing a book reminds me of having a child. You spend nine months getting to know the baby you are growing. Devan and I spent a year writing Thunder and Pomp. Sometimes easily and sometimes with a bit more contention. On the overall story outline and  character backgrounds, Devan was always right. It was the finer points that we would tease out together. After all that work, you have your story. And it is beautiful. Then you realize there’s a lot more hard work to come. Devan was an easy pregnancy but a lot of work for the first five months of his life, and then he became the most beautiful baby. Let’s hope the life of the book follows this trajectory too.

I’m a firm believer in creating your own opportunities and advocating for what you want. If you wait for something to happen, the likelihood of it occurring is much smaller. Be nimble and pivot as needed. These are lessons that take time to fully embrace. After we wrote to the publisher what we wanted for our cover art, I started working on a version of our own. Devan wondered why I was doing it as we had someone working on it. I told him you can never be too sure of what someone else will create and this way we’ll have options. While the first cover we received did follow our outline, it did not invoke the feeling we wanted. No, we didn’t go with my original creation, we worked together to make something better. We then sent it off to the publisher and they made improved it even more. This is why I love to collaborate. I couldn’t imagine a better writing partner than my son, he’s a storyteller at heart just like me.

Get out there and make your own magic with the people you love!
~Kara