After finding a number of things in the last version of the manuscript for my novel, I went back to the drawing board — again — to hammer out some editing issues that desperately needed attention.  This process required me to go through the manuscript in its entirety several times, until I had what I felt, and still feel, is the best version of the story that I could make.  It wasn't just grammatical issues that I had to contend with; editing is a tedious process, and there were many places where I felt the wording or descriptions were lacking, and I did my best to fix those, without losing the pace of the story.  This novel has been a long (too long some would say) hard road for me, and after all that effort, I did not want to put out anything less than what I felt was the best  of my ability.  This included the cover design, description, and even the author bio.  These all required several revisions, and each revision had to be reviewed before I could move forward, and this added several months to the overall project.
This is my first novel.  There were bound to be mistakes, and I made them — plenty of them.  But, I learned as much as could on every occasion, and have vowed to not repeat them as much as humanly possible.  I believe that my further releases will not take anywhere near as long to bring to light as my first.  I hope not, because if it does, I won't live long enough to write more than another book or two.
Yes, it's been <em>that</em> long.
But, after more rewrites and edits than I can count, a complete revision of the cover (I went from a hand-painted version to a more photographic look), and several edits of the description, which appears on the back cover, I am finally satisfied.  That means it's proof time again, and I'll be sending off for one within the next few days.  I have already reviewed the interior, and am happy with the typesetting, font, and so on, and this proof will be mainly for the quality of the cover image.  If it looks good, I'll finally be releasing it within the next week to ten days.  I'll be updating my blog as soon as this occurs, naturally.
Then, I'll be able to sit back and relax...not.  
Actually, I'll be able to use all the time I used to spend on this novel, to write and edit my <em>second</em> novel, which has been screaming to be let loose into the world for the last couple of years.  I've gone so far as completing most of the outline, several character bios, and have written about a hundred pages of the first draft.
Again, I'll be posting more as the project continues.
But for now, I am finally done writing a story that has taken so many years to see the light of day.  With any luck at all, I am only a proof away from publication.  
Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.
Until next time,

~Namaste