It's not over yet.

Of course, as I wrote earlier, I succeeded in completing a huge milestone. In about a month, I managed to edit and refine my 437 page manuscript until I felt comfortable submitting it to the contest at Suvudu. And in that month, here is what I accomplished:

• My manuscript grew from 437 pages and 78 chapters to 451 pages and 79 chapters.


• I am now cross eyed. (Not really)


• My husband and I grew even closer (if that was even possible) as he helped me through the editing process.


• My cat learned that she cannot balance very well on my keyboard. (Yes, really)


• My nails are virtually gone.

Pretty good, right? But it's not over yet.

In my quest to get published, now is sort of a "lull". Sure, I can continue editing and refining my manuscript even more - and I will, but I'm still faced with the same problem as what faced me before. Without a concrete deadline, I will have a hard time maintaining my focus and getting anything done.

Since the writing contest is over, I can't use that. And for as long as my manuscript is being considered, I can't even try submitting it to any other publisher. Since winners will not be announced for another two months, that leaves me with a lot of time to lose my ambition and set my manuscript aside in favor of something more immediate.

So, my husband and I have come up with an idea. In May, two very good friends (well, technically three, since two of them are a couple) will be coming to visit for the first time since we moved to Minnesota. And I thought, you know what... no matter what the subject was or what the genre was, I bet they would each like a copy of my unpublished manuscript.

Both were such a huge inspiration to me. Of course, there were other inspirations as well, and I'm not in any way trying to diminish their contribution to my esteem in this accomplishment. But since these people will be coming all the way up here, battling through the snow and slush to see me, I'd like to give them a physical token of what their friendship and inspiration has meant to me.

So here we go! Two months to get my manuscript further refined, polished, edited and printed!

Rock on :)