Empty Rooms

Two weeks ago, I signed off on my debut novel, the very final round of proofreading done, and now it’s off to the printers. Doing so, however, left me feeling a little like I did when my last kid moved out. I keep walking around the house the way I did back then only instead of looping around past empty bedrooms, I circle past my laptop and stare at it.

After three rounds with the substantive editor, three more with the copy editor and then four more rounds of proofreading, I feel like I know every word of that novel inside out, upside down and backwards and kind of like becoming an empty nester, there was a satisfaction of knowing I’d done all I could do and that it was off an on its way.

It was such an incredible process working with the professionals Breakwater Books has on their team. I learned so much! I know they helped make it so much stronger--definitely one of the nicest perks of publishing traditionally.

As I often do when exhausted from a writing project, I purposely have avoided writing much of anything the past two weeks and explored other creative outlets to recharge my batteries but now, with only a day and a half left of 2025, I will dive back into my short story writing and try to enter a few of the contests I’ve bookmarked.

For the next few months, I will be anxiously watching from the sidelines as my finally fully finished novel, The Art of Getting Lost and Found, finds its wings and takes flight into the world on March 10th.

Bon voyage, little book! See you on the other side!