So there I was. Eight years after Starfire had first been conceived, with a publisher who finally wanted my novel.  The six months from October to April was a crazy time. My wife was pregnant with our first child, due in late March and I was laboring (in a much lesser way) over the revisions to my manuscript from Jeff.

This was the first time I had really felt the hand of another person really pushing my writing style. Mostly because Jeff’s edits were stretching me to grow in my writing in ways I thought were my strongest. I wish I could say I handled the stretching gracefully. But there were quite a few days where I  thumped around the condo in frustration wondering if I was really a terrible writer.

Again my wife was my voice of reason, putting up with my mood swings and helping to coax me through the edits that needed to be done and see where some suggestions would just change my voice too much.

While the edits were ongoing, the cover creation process was rolling along as well. The incredible artist, Kirk Douponce was busy translating my novel into a cover that would capture its essence and draw people in. Again, it was an interesting process of seeing your work translated by another. I was very thankful that Kirk insisted on reading the books prior to creating the cover, but I had a lifetime of seeing my characters come to life in my head, and years of dreaming about the cover.

Some of the early cover drafts had me quite worried, as they just showed a dinosaur in a jungle. But with every revision Kirk’s skill and vision came through until we got to the cover that now graces the front of my book.

Even as we were going through this, Jeff was having his own chaotic life as he adopted an adorable little girl from China! In fact, it was just the week before the April 2009 books were scheduled to be released that he returned from China to put the finishing touches on all the books! That everything went as smoothly as it did that month was a testament to God’s providence, Jeff’s incredible dedication and hard work, and the flexibility of MLP’s publishing model.

So April 1^st, 2009, Starfire became available for purchase, and my wife went into labor. After an eventful breakdown in a blizzard, and 27 hours of labor my beautiful daughter Victoria came into the world on April 2^nd.

I went home a new father and a newly published author.