Chalice is finished. There are still a couple of important comments to come in, but rewriting the conclusion is finished. First responses have been very positive. Proofreader edits will be entered by the end of next week.
Finished… well, the work of the writer is finished. Work of the author continues: Legal considerations remain; the book needs to be formatted for Amazon and uploaded; I need to format for print then get it printed; and I need to hire a publicist. Actually, those are not the work of author, but part of my work as publisher.
I wish my squeamishness about the label “self-published” would dissipate. Despite observations about the revolution in publishing, especially over the last two years, despite exhortations by Steven Pressfield, despite my belief in the work itself, despite the existence of 110,000 words in the form of a story, despite my experience with “professionals” who focus only on markets and not art, despite all these facets, the feeling “it’s not real” nags me.
But it is real, and it has real value. And soon, anyone who wants to discover that will be able to hold Chalice in their hand.
And I will move on to the next one.