Editing . . .

Life has been quite intense over the past month and a half. My Dad was putting under Hospice care on June 4th. He is stable and at home now with constant loving care. My dear friend, Marguerite Barringer, died suddenly. She had a heart attack on the 4th of July and was off to heaven on July 10th. Wow! That hit me really hard.

I haven't been getting all my normal work responsibilities done. Finally over the past 4 days I've started to find myself again. The intensity of loved ones failing or passing over left me emotionally raw. Through sunshine, rest, swimming and a tiny bit of gardening I've regenerated myself. Most of the work responsibilities are accomplished and now I'm free to edit my manuscript.

I have a book under Publishing Agreement with Llewellyn Worldwide. This is my first time as an author publishing with a large publishing house. In order to provide a good final manuscript I have hired an editor to help me finalize the project. The majority of the work is done and now the process of tweaking, removing non-essential anecdotal stories and molding it into a professional book is at hand. I've started working on the edit sent back to me by this fabulous editor and I am enjoying the process.

Because I already have a heavy workload, I've had to cross off all the days that I have free and made an appointment with my manuscript. I'm looking forward to finishing it so we can go through another round of editing. I didn't know that birthing a book was such a process and I'm happy to be learning the process.

So enough dilly dallying writing in my blog . . . . off to the manuscript I go!

Crystal Consciousness

I'm done! I've finished the manuscript. Thanks to Melissa Applegate for her help in editing!

I've sent the final manuscript off to Llewellyn. Let's all pause now for a moment of heartfelt prayer that Llewellyn and all the powers that be at the publishing house LOVE my book. I know the content is really extraordinary. The approach I've taken with the teachings are different than any other book in it's genre.

I'm much more relaxed now that the book has left my desk. Now it's time to focus on preparing for the pre-publication blitz and the holidays.

I had such a great visit to NYC. I spent time with my family for Thanksgiving (and edited the book late at night.) Vincent took me into Manhattan to all the spots I wanted to visit.

First we stopped at East West Bookshop NYC. I'll be there in June while I'm up at the Book Expo of America at the Jacob Javits Center. I've spoken at East West Bookshop in Seattle last June.

Vincent took me to lunch at a quaint Italian Restaurant on 14th Street then we jumped on a subway to head uptown. We walked past Radio City Music Hall on the way to Rockefeller Center.

After a few photo ops we continued through the throngs of tourists for a quick prayer at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Actually, we sat, kneeled and prayed for over a half hour there. We headed out again in the 41 degree weather (says the Palm Beach girl) to meet Vincent's nephew, Kevin, for a cup of coffee. We ended up at Trump Tower. We sat and chatted for hours.

Our final walk brought us past Bergdoff Goodman. My mom was a seamstress for very famous people there back in the 1940's. She had a career of over 12 years there. So my nostalgic connection with Mommy had me pay homage to the place. Afterall, I was generally spoiled with the fanciest dresses! I was a little doll! (ooops - self-praise? naaaah . . . gratitude for gorgeous dresses and Mary Janes!)

We stopped at the Apple store - their flagship store and took the glass tubular elevator down to visit the Genius Bar. I really tried to get myself to switch to an Apple Mac Book Pro but couldn't leave the PC behind. I just ordered my Dell Latitude. Customer service was great with Dell. (and Apple has excellent sales people as well!)

Finally, we walked down 59th Street past all the fancy expensive hotels on our left and Central Park on our right. We ended up at the Time Warner Building for a green salad at the Whole Foods on the bottom floor. mmmmmm . . . .

We all had a great time! I LOVE NY!