More than one person has asked me when that novel I’ve been writing for years will finally appear. Well, good news: Ms. Dee Ann Meets Murder is just a few weeks away from being on the market! You’ll be able to buy several copies for Christmas presents!

No one can say I’ve rushed to print. This book has had I don’t know how many revisions. Here’s a picture I shared months ago showing some of my printed rough drafts.

Below is evidence of another few rounds of hard-copy editing I’ve added since then. Yes, at least one tree has given its life for my novel even before it’s been published. Of course, I’ve also corrected chapters online scores of times. I’ve looked at Ms. Dee Ann Meets Murder so much I’ve practically memorized all 74,344 words of it.

I’ve had my husband, sisters, and daughters proofread as well as a few friends. My Rocky Mount writers’ group has listened to parts of it over the last few years. The opening paragraphs were read at a state writers’ conference.

I’ve also used five professional editors, thus having five different sets of eyes critique content as well as what we English teachers call mechanics. Things like sentence structure, word choice, repetition, wordiness, capitalization, punctuation–not to mention all that grammar stuff.

I may not have a #1 bestseller on my hands, but I’ve got some daggone clean copy.

Here’s what the front cover will look like. I know: exciting, right? What began as scribbling on a notepad while I watched Oprah’s afternoon talk show–yeah, it’s been that long–will finally be a published book.

I’ll be posting more about Ms. Dee Ann Meets Murder in future blogs, hopefully adding a link to Amazon for those of you who want to order a copy (or two or three!) when it’s available. Stay tuned!