Dear Readers,
A writer is in his heaven when he has found an editor he trusts doing a final run through on a manuscript and makes good suggestions and catches stupid typos. It just gets better when he has found a beta reader knowledgeable about the subject matter in the book and finds errors easily correctable. And to have a cover designer at work as well!
A Heart to Understand--finally a book of mine that easily fits into a genre, this one thriller/suspense--is getting close to publication. The book features a half Navajo, half white young man who believes he is a witch and knows how to open the gates to the Holy People so he can trick Changing Woman into giving him new gifts so the White Man can be defeated.
The beta reader has 25 years experience in New Mexico and a deep understanding and appreciate of the Navajo culture and their fascinating creation stories. And those stories figure prominently in A Heart to Understand.
I have learned how to work with editors and respect their suggestions. I look at each one and if I don't have a good reason why I have written a sentence the way I have written, then I follow the advice to make a change.
Cover design is so important and I'm delighted Michael Irvin has agreed to read the book and work on a cover design. All books about the Navajo are instantly compared to Tony Hillerman, but this is not a Hillerman-like book (and I respect his work) and I don't want a Hillerman-like cover.
Can't wait to get my hands back on that manuscript and start the process that will lead to the final product.
To give you a taste: here's the prologue:
In the beginning was the wind. And when the earth came, the wind cared for it. And when the darkness came, the wind breezed across it beautifully. And when the dawn came and laid its lightness over the darkness, We, the People, were created. And the wind kissed our faces.
