One of the questions I am often asked when I’m giving a book talk or just out and about in my town and meet up with someone who knows I write books is “How many books have you written?”
A reasonable question. One I might be curious to know if I was talking to a writer. But I always tell the person who asks me that they should ask a different questions instead. I think this is usually the question they want answered. “How many books have you written and published?” The truth is, I don’t know how many books I’ve written. I know. I should have kept a list. And I do have a list of some of them since at one time I was conscientious about keeping a character list for each book so that I wouldn’t use the same names over and over in my books. I do tend to like “S” names for my female characters and “M” names for my male characters. I did steer away from those letters for my people in Along a Storied Trail. We have Tansy Calhoun and Perdita Sweet along with Eudenia and Coralee. Then my guys were named Caleb and Damien along with Preacher (Hiram) and Josh.
But back to the question without an answer. I have written several books that are on my reject shelf and have never found a publisher. Probably at least ten, maybe more, because as I said, I really don’t know. The truth is, I usually have to count up the books I’ve published to answer that question, but I think Along a Storied Trail was number 35. That include the books I published in the general market and my young adult books plus two books I independently published, one for middle readers (Freak of the Week) and one non-fiction story of a friend’s amazing story of redemption and second chances (Angels at the Crossroads).
And now I’ve found those magic words “the end” on yet another story. This one is a long way from being available for readers. Right now it’s in the hands of my editor who will let me know if she thinks the story works as written or if it needs more work. While I did have some struggles along the writing road, I thought the story worked when I found those two last words. But even if the editor agrees with me, the story will still have a journey on the way to publication with a title search, a cover design, editing several times with plenty of eyes seeing it to make sure the story is told as well as it can be told.
My working title is When the Meadow Blooms, but that is subject to change. A Forever Home might have been another title I could have picked. While I have to suggest titles to my publishers when my story is just in the idea stage for me, I really don’t like to title a book until I finish it. However, this working title wasn’t bad and did fit the story. But whatever title is finally decided on, the book won’t be out there for readers until next summer at the earliest. Still I have it written and I found those words I’d been looking for through many hours of writing. I always have to smile when I type “the end.”
The book is set on a farm along Salt River in the year 1925. That’s why you’re seeing a picture of the Salt River with this post. I’ll share more about the story farther along the publishing road, but right now I just had to celebrate with you about another story written that I can count when someone asks me “How many books have you written?”
Do you like knowing about an author’s writing and publishing journey?