time line | Mary J. McCoy-Dressel ~ Contemporary Romance

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Timeline Part Two, The Journey of a Book

Posted at 9:09 pm by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on December 26, 2012

So sorry it took so long to post Part Two– The Journey– the Howdy, Ma’am Time Line. I couldn’t get it out when I had planned. All the better because I can put a “real” end to it now.

Part One left off at September 2011 after I sat down to finish writing the book. Part Two covers another fifteen months. Whew! What a journey.

Onward–

October— On October 4^th I became a widow instead of a divorcee.
October— Somehow I kept at it. A week before NaNoWriMo 2011 began, Howdy, Ma’am was finished. I repeat, Finished! It gave me time to plot out a new story for 2011. I don’t know where the idea came from, or how I could think of creating anything new, but once again writing became my solace.
November — My plan was to set it aside until after Nano and that would give me a month away from it before tackling another revision and edit. NaNo came and went as did November.
December— I continued with the Nano 2011 novel, wanting to get to a certain point before setting it aside. This will be a great story when finished, and it falls under the women’s fiction category.

Second Year

2012— Then the unexpected happened—this time positive. I got the rights back to Visions of Enchantment. I was so thrilled I started revising it rightaway, but Howdy, Ma’am pestered me from the inner sanction of my mind. It must be where my muse lives.
The next thing I knew, I was trying to work on both books. Lo and behold, within a couple months I acquired the rights back to Enchantment’s Embrace, Book Two. Now what? I had three huge completed books to revise. Working on two at the same time began to drive me nutty and I had to make a decision.
That decision was to get busy on Howdy, Ma’am and do nothing else until it was finished. So, I started down the path of editing and revising again. After the first run through I put it aside for a week. But the cowboy called me back in less than a week, and I diligently worked on that book. Don’t ask how many edits and revisions it’s been through because I don’t know, but let’s say many, and we can add a capital “M” to many. The time had come to order a different book cover.
By time the story was finished and took shape, I had fallen in love with the characters and the story. My heroine had become such a big part of my life that I had to have a cover with her. My original cover had only a male. UPDATE: Brand-new covers in 2019.
June— I posted on Facebook that I needed an editor. I think it was fate to find a wonderful cover designer, and then a “super awesome” editor, too.
Howdy, Ma’am was about as good as I could make it on my own. I know the editor I chose put her heart and soul into this book to make it shine. What a journey!
July— I was never satisfied with chapter one, two, and three, and told my editor I wanted to rework them. She asked if I had considered a prologue. I had, but only with a brief thought. I added a prologue.
August— I received the first thirteen chapters back from my editor. Finished them. In the last week of August, I received the rest of the edited manuscript back, worked on it, and sent it back for the second round of edits.
September— Started writing the second book in the series.
October— When the second round of edits came back, I fixed editor suggestions, proofread, proofread, and proofread. I cut almost a thousand words. Oh, wait, I probably wasn’t supposed to do that.
October 31^st— Sent back the last round of edits. Last?? Oh, look! In time for another NaNoWriMo
November 1st— NaNoWriMo 2012—NaNo Rebel here I come! Instead of starting something brand new, I continued working on the sequel.
November 23^rd — Trip to the ER. (Another story)
November 25^th (I think) Reached 50 thousand words, and kept writing till the end of the month.
November 29^th— Received the FINAL edits back from my wonderfully talented editor. Couldn’t open the document for a couple days because I didn’t feel well.

Final Month

December 2^rd— Okay, I opened the document. Did what I had to do to finalize the changes. Still not feeling well.
December 5^th— FINISHED! I said FINISHED the edits. Took a break and then started reading from the beginning.
December — Tweaked the Front and Back Matter
December 9^th — Looked into ISBNs and Copyright information.
December — Talked to a formatter.
December 18 — COMPUTER CRASHED! Ekkk. No! Not now… Weird, but my computer worked after four BSOD. I hate that blue screen!
Sent the book to a formatter. Deep Breath. Okay, I need another deep breath, oh, and a couple long exhales, too.
December 20^th — All three formats came back from the formatter.
December 21^st — Uploaded to Smashwords first. This took a long time, but it was because of the size of the book cover. Still in review for Premium as we speak. Bravery took over, and I uploaded to Amazon KDP, too!
YAY!
December 21st PUBLISHED.

As tough as it’s been the last year, I have finally found my niche. As Velia Armano, my feisty heroine in Howdy, Ma’am would say, “La vita e bella”. (Life is beautiful.) Honest.

Now, go get a copy!

Author Note Update:

This book (and series) has been through many more changes and revisions since first published, which includes new book covers in 2019. Plus, two more books have been added to the series, and a three-book boxed set. You may still see old covers in older posts I haven’t gotten to yet. Below are the new ones.

Mary J McCoy-Dressel, western romance author website page for the series

As for me? I’m celebrating because I have to do it all over again with the next book. Hey, Cowboy is now Available, too.

Credit line © Inacio Pires | Dreamstime.com

Posted in #AmWriting | 2 Comments | Tagged celebrate, editor, formatter, Howdy Ma'am bk #1, Published! Amazon, smashwords, time line, upload

Howdy, Ma’am– The Journey Part One

Posted at 4:17 pm by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on December 13, 2012

Update: Howdy, Ma’am and Hey, Cowboy are now available.

When I wrote Enchantment’s Embrace, Book Two, I did a timeline, but it’s nothing like the one you’re about to read here. At that time, I had a peaceful life, wrote, edited, submitted, and got it published.

This timeline for Howdy, Ma’am Book One is a short memoir in itself. Part One.

Howdy Ma’am, Book One in the Bull Rider Series—The Journey

The end of October 2010—Plotted part of the story while I packed to move. One life ended; a new one would begin.
November 1^st – 6^th I started NaNoWriMo 2010. While my heart was breaking, I knew I would need a distraction for the first month of being alone. Working a full time job during the day, and writing 1,667 words at night should help with that. The title came to me right away and even though I searched for other titles, Howdy, Ma’am fit the story more each time I worked on it.
November 7, 2010—Moving day. I didn’t work on the book for three days. That’s a lot of words to make up. By time day four came along I had to write 6,668 words. I exceeded it.
November 30^th— Howdy, Ma’am exceeded 52,000 words, but not close to being finished as a full-length novel.
December— Wrote throughout December, but not as steadily as in November. Eight-thousand words were added, bringing it to 60,000. The bull rider and photographer helped get me through two very big holidays.
January 2011— By the time January came along, I was sick of this story. There was so much garbage to take out. After giving in to my inner editor, I edited and revised. It got to the point where I wondered if there was any hope for this book, yet, it called to me.
My next choice was to put away what I had written and not think about it—clear my head. This is not possible for a writer I don’t think. These characters become a part of you, and honestly call you by name—they wake you in your sleep, and they haunt every waking moment. Even if you have writers block, they still nag you. This cowboy begged to be heard, and I could almost feel that bull rope around me, the same way he wrapped it around his hand. His heroine said, “Come on, you’ve brought me this far, don’t leave me now, bambina.”
February— Read through and edited what I had written. Again.
March— I discovered NaNoEdMo. National Novel Editing Month. Fifty hours of novel editing in a month. Editing a NaNo novel has to be one of the hardest revisions a person can do. All the extra adjectives and adverbs and other things we do to get word count, has to ALL come out. What a chore!
In early spring I filed for divorce. I wrote on occasion, but I didn’t have a regular schedule. I worked full time. Staying up late and getting up at 5:00 a.m. five days a week was draining. Not to mention the stress that went along with my life at the time. At the most inopportune time medical issues popped up. More stress. Howdy, Ma’am came to a halt while I tried to figure out my life. To save money I went to a smaller rental room. I began to feel more closed in every day. The decision to retire weighed heavy on my mind beginning in April of 2011. I had to make up my mind soon because the school year ended in June. So badly I wanted to move and be near my family all the way across the state. This brought my decision to retire to the forefront. I prayed, and prayed, and prayed. In August I had to make my decision. By then I already knew I was moving. Leaving a job isn’t easy, but having my dream come true to be a full time writer made it easier, plus, I’d be living with my son and close to my brother and his family. In the middle of August, my son helped me load up another U-Haul and I moved across the state.
September 2011— I finally, sat down to finish the rest of the book.