The road in question here is, of course, the road to publication of Widow Woman. I’m aiming for within 30 days. The “1/2” is because technically, today is already Day 2, but I didn’t get much done yesterday, so I’m not counting it. It’s my party, I’ll lie–er, fudge–if I want to.

So where am I? Got the title page, copyright page, dedication, acknowledgements, and TOC completed and formatted and slogged through the first 8 chapters. Not as far as I’d hoped to get, but at least it’s forward progress.Ugh. Necessary evils suck.

Also made first contact with the designer I’d like to create my cover for me–shared my ideas with him and am greatly encouraged by his feedback. I toyed (briefly) with the idea of designing the cover myself, but a) completely lack any ability to translate visually what I see in my mind–duh, writer; and b) everything I’ve read stresses the importance, particularly for e-books, of an eye-catching and professional-looking cover.

I look at it this way: If I put an extra space or two somewhere in the formatting, you’ll bitch about it, maybe ridicule me to a few of your more supercilious friends (come on, fellow editors, we’ve all done it) but I think (hope), if you’re finding the story compelling enough, you’ll get over my egregious mistakes and keep reading. But–if you’re not grabbed by the cover, you’ll never even pick it up (or click on it)–it’s just too important a factor to trust it to my own mischief-prone hands.

That’s where I am! More updates to come–keep those comments coming!

P.S. Tomorrow, I’m dropping the “1/2”–it’s still my party and I can.