Well, let me go look at what the experts say.  Once again, I went to the website and they actually have a list of things to do when you ‘think’ you have finished writing your book.  That first one to re-read it from start to finish, I definitely had covered….

The second item was it needed to have a catchy title and cover.  Well, the title was easy; I had used that from the beginning.  The cover though was not something I had thought about.  I could just use text, but they highly recommended not doing that.  So I went to my friend Google and typed in the name of my book.  I clicked on images and saw tons of things and nothing I really liked.

Then it hit me.  I went into Photoshop and played.  I tried several different effects before I found one I liked.  I added the text and the line ‘by Barbara Houston’.  I sat there and just stared at my monitor.  It was starting to be real now.  My book had a cover.  And I had to admit, it looked pretty darn good.  Not bad for an hour project.

So now what?  Back to the website.  The next item on the list was to get someone else to read it.  This was the first real test.  I thought about friends that were into reading, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that.  They might laugh at me or worse, they might not like my book.  And then what?  Would it ruin our friendship?  Maybe I better stick close to home.

I decided to ask my husband.  He was a reader and read all the time, but he preferred science fiction and spy stuff.  He knew I was writing a book, but I seriously think he thought it was a phase and something I would never finish. 

I told him I had finished and asked if he would read it.  He said ‘sure’ and said to send it to him.

I put this off a couple days.  I was not sure I was ready for this.  I had not shared the book with anyone or even told anyone I was doing it.  It was my own little secret.

Two days later, my husband was sitting at his desk and asked why I hadn’t sent him the book yet.  I confessed that I wasn’t sure it was ready.  He told me to go ahead and send it anyway, so I did.

He took the word document and ran it through some kind of software and got it published to a document he could read on his Kindle.  He sent it to the Kindle and showed me the book on it.  This was real now.  It was right there on his device.  The cover was there for me to see:   ‘The Palm Reader’ by Barbara Houston.  It was real.

I was still not sure I was ready for this……

 

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