The cover photo for my "orphan" book

I've called it my my orphan book - the one I struggled to write because I wanted to get to the one after it. This one was in the way, and it was too fragmented, and too disconnected, with too much needing to be done. 

But I couldn't get to the one I wanted to write until this one was written. And then something happened in the struggle: the orphan book became my personal favorite. New characters emerged, new story lines developed, and new scenes erupted right on my computer screen. 

And now it's moving through the editorial production process, shepherded by Mark Sutherland at Dunrobin Publishing. Aboce is the cover photo we're working on for novel #3, Dancing King. It was taken by Thomas Kelley, via Unsplash. 

"I Just Had to Publish It"

Today on his blog, my publisher, Mark Sutherland of Dunrobin Publishing, talks about reading and publishing Dancing Priest.

"I just had to publish it," he says.

And, yes, I'm very glad he felt that way. Actually, I'm thrilled he felt that way.

I could probably think of a few more words to describe how I feel: excited, gratified, thankful, blessed, struck dumb, amazed, trying to keep myself from breaking out in gigantic smiles, acting goofy, teary-eyed, and humbled are a few that come to mind.

It's a scary thing for me to put on display for the world to see a part of me that's been private for almost a decade. You write a book, any book, and you know it's part of you, and you're getting ready to expose it. It's similar to the time I first posted a poem on this blog, but about 100 times more accentuated.