So now I actually had a book. Well, an e-book. Published into a readable document and on my husband’s Kindle. Now I wait. He was not seeing the urgency in getting this done that I was, that was obvious.  After a week, he still had not said anything. So one morning, he was up early while I was getting ready for work and I decided to bite the bullet and ask him.
‘So, have you finished my book?’  
There was a dramatic pause and then a ‘No.’
And a moment of dead air…silence…..

I was not sure what this meant. Did it mean it was that bad? That he hated it?
‘Well?’ I asked impatiently. ‘How far have you gotten?’ in a tone that probably did not go over well.
‘Not very far.’ He replied.
And then he started. Nope, I was definitely not ready for this.
His first question was ‘Are you really going to use our real names in this book?’ It was said with a tone that definitely made me think about it. Until now, I hadn’t really thought about it and just used the names that were part of the story. This would be something I needed to think about later. I used the real names as part of the story since it made it easier for me to remember who was who. I told him that I could change them later and dropped it there.
He told me a couple things he had found in the book that were out of sequence like me telling him something and then later telling him again like it was the first time. OK, I guess that needs to be fixed.
Then he said ‘who is Anita?’
I shook my head, I don’t know an Anita. He said ‘no, in your book, you reference Anita. Out of the blue you referenced her and I don’t know who it is. I went back to the cast of characters list at the beginning and there is no Anita. But you reference her when you go to the hospital.’
By now, my blood pressure is rising and I am sure I raised my voice a bit too much. ‘I don’t have an Anita in my book.’ This in turn caused him to raise his voice. And I ended up getting nothing I wanted to hear out of the conversation. And now I had all these thoughts rumbling through my head about how crappy my book was and debating on whether I should just trash the whole project.
Maybe I just shouldn’t have asked him to read it.
So later that day at lunch, I pulled up my book and did a search for Anita. And there it was…I referenced Anita. ‘Where did that come from?’ I thought to myself and probably said aloud since I was by myself in my office.
I made a change on that one and sent my husband an email apologizing for the morning. He replied back ‘no problem’. That was fine, but he still hasn’t finished reading my book. He did tell me that he was using some kind of editing notes and making notes as he went through it and that was taking time.
So now I am thinking ‘Is it that bad that he has that many notes and that is what is taking so long?’
Now I am rethinking everything. Maybe I should not have asked him. He tends to over analyze things sometimes and hopefully this is one of those times. When I set my mind to the task to write my first book, I intended it to be an easy reading, light hearted, fun book. Not something you had to analyze.
Several more days have gone by and I still have not heard anything from him about my book. This is not weighing well on my thoughts and of course, I think the worse. I try to not think about it and keep myself busy with my photography, photo clubs, bird club, work, and kids. Still, I find my mind venturing back to my book… ‘Is it that bad?’

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