Right-Hand Man

Here I was, with a volume of work much more massive than I ever intended. For ease in handling, I divided the manuscript into ten folders, then read and reread it at least twelve times. I even read it out loud to myself at least twice. Each read produced correction after correction. I pulled apart, rewrote, reorganized and reassembled. I couldn't believe I was still finding errors as each round progressed. I needed someone else to read it before I even considered exposing it to the outside world.

I somehow convinced my son, Mark, to take on the job. We both thought it might take him a couple of weeks to read the manuscript and red-pencil any parts that needed work. WRONG!! R.J.'s Story and the first couple of tales absolutely oozed red marks. As comments like, "This is the longest sentence in the history of mankind," "The word is fridge, not frig," and "Huh???" bled from the margins, I realized I needed to confer with him about his comments, and he realized the errors would not easily be resolved without his input. This meant a much different commitment on his part than either of us had initially imagined. We needed to attack the project one tale at a time, and there were twenty-six of them.

Now he's a guy who likes to do things correctly and thoroughly, and he pulls no punches. It doesn't matter if I'm his mom. And that was okay with me. We both knew from the start that his criticisms would do nothing but improve the body of work. He decided to keep plugging away at it, and I am forever grateful for his commitment. The process took at least two months. There were so many instances where the stories were perfectly clear to me, but there was a lot missing on the page for the first-time reader. And since I had such a detailed database, I knew my characters really well. Mark, however, didn't have the luxury of the accompanying info or pictures, so he had more trouble keeping track of them in stories where many characters were involved.

Though the process was grueling for both of us, it was a great way for us to spend time together. He would groan when we'd start an editing session, and I would laugh off the punishment I was taking. But often his prodding would lead me to new ideas, wordings and solutions that we would both get excited about. Eventually he couldn't help becoming a believer in the world of Heaven's Wait and its quirky inhabitants. As I have continued to work on this project over the years, he has continued to support my efforts, engineer the technical elements of the project, and believe that Heaven's Wait will find its rightful place somewhere in this universe. I'm so fortunate and grateful to have him on my side.

Note: I've also managed to pull my second son, Shaun, into my world to help with the music and my husband, Mike, to help with voice-overs. In fact, the two of them are the inspiration for the crazy dialect used by one of my Heaven's Wait clans.

Have you read R.J.'s Story yet? You may find it at Smashwords.com (for Kindle and most eBook formats), the Apple's iBook Store, Barnes and Noble's Nook Books Store, Kobo.com, and Diesel.com. Search "Barbara McLaughlin."