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Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Margay Leah Justice | From Conception to Birth, Or One Book’s Journey to Publication

Ah, the first blush of romance. The first time you see the idea, sitting there in the corner of your mind, trying to get your attention in that inconspicuous manner these ideas sometimes adopt. You look away, convinced that there is no way this idea could possibly go anywhere. It’s just a fluke, a fling. Surely, you’ll forget it by morning. But when you look back, the idea is still there, sitting in the corner, flirting with you. So what’s a harmless little flirtation? You approach the idea cautiously, in a manner you hope is suave and sophisticated, but as you get closer, your excitement rises. Your heart begins to race. You lick your lips in anticipation. It’s even more exciting up close. So you flirt with it, spend the night with it, take it home with you. In the morning, you’re surprised that it’s still with you. After two months, you begin to believe this idea has a future. So you cultivate it, give up sleep for it, nurture it as it grows within you. Soon, what began as a nugget of an idea in your mind blossoms into a full-blown creature. It grows within you, like a fetus in a womb, becoming bigger by the month, more substantial. You can almost feel it move within you; you carry it everywhere, wherever you go, it’s there with you. All of your energy is devoted to it.

After a suitable gestation period, your little nugget of an idea, which you have affectionately begun to call “the book” while you search for the right title, is ready to make its appearance. Your months of labor are about to pay off as you prepare to deliver your book into the capable hands of the publisher who will introduce it to the world. But wait, his assistant has to help you clean it up a bit first and you are struck by the niggling thought, What if my baby’s ugly? What if I put this out there and no one likes it? But with the reassurances of your publisher, you clean the book up and send it back, maybe with a prayer or two, and you wait. Now it’s time for your baby to prove its worth.

As you can tell from my whimsical tale above, writing and publishing, to me, often mimic conception and birth. The stages of both are remarkably similar. There is the courtship period when you are first introduced to the idea that will one day take over your life. Followed by the get-to-know you period during which you decide whether or not the idea has longevity and you want to commit to it. Once you make that commitment, there is the gestation period – I think you can guess what happens here. The idea grows and grows, taking on a life of its own, convincing you that you are mad, suffering from a hormonal imbalance, or both. But in the end, it’s worth it because you deliver a rollicking, three hundred page epic that someone is bound to love – and not because they’re related to you.

So I guess you could say that Nora’s Soul is the first of my literary babies. She is almost two months old now, having made her debut in November, and growing stronger every day. Bringing her to the attention of the public is similar to the care and nurturing of an infant, requiring constant vigilance. Yet the pay off is that people are noticing her, some are cooing over her, and others even want to take her home with them. She may just be crawling now, but soon she will gain her legs and walk on her own – and I will sit back in amazement like any proud mother, thinking, Wow, I can’t believe I created that! And in the grand tradition of mothers everywhere, I will want to create another one, forgetting all of the pains and labor involved in the process. Keep your eyes open for the debut of Nora’s brother, Dante. Thank you for riding along with me on this whimsical journey into my take on writing. I hope you enjoyed the trip as much as I did.

Margay Leah Justice is the author of Nora’s Soul, from Second Wind Publishing, LLC. Nora’s Soul is currently available on Amazon.com. To read more about Margay and her writing, visit margayleahjustice.com.

Click here for a chance to win a copy of NORA'S SOUL -Today only.

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16 Comments:

At January 06, 2009 6:26 AM , Blogger Stacy~ said...

Congrats on your book release :)

 
At January 06, 2009 8:07 AM , Blogger Margay Leah Justice said...

Thank you, Stacy!

 
At January 06, 2009 11:18 AM , Blogger Kay Thomas said...

Congratulations, Margay on "Nora's Soul." What a wonderful post. You captured the "birth of a book" perfectly.

Kay
KayThomas.net

 
At January 06, 2009 11:59 AM , Blogger Margay Leah Justice said...

Thanks, Kay! I'm so glad you stopped by. I've always said producing a book is like birthing a baby - I'm just glad I was able to capture the essence.

 
At January 06, 2009 4:59 PM , Blogger clynsg said...

Other writers have described writing a book as a birth process, but can't remember anyone else giving it such a complete overview!

clynsg at yahoo.com

 
At January 06, 2009 5:01 PM , Blogger Margay Leah Justice said...

clynsg, thank you for stopping by. Let's just say, I've had a lot of time to think about this!

 
At January 06, 2009 5:22 PM , Blogger dawnlizabeth said...

WOW! I had no idea how complicated the publishing/writing
process was until I read your blog; it is a wonder anything is published! Good on you, MS. Justice.

 
At January 06, 2009 6:09 PM , Blogger Margay Leah Justice said...

It may be a lot of work, fraught with complications, but like childbirth, in the end you have the beautiful fruits of your labor. Thanks for stopping by, Dawnlizabeth.

 
At January 06, 2009 8:29 PM , Blogger Anna Campbell said...

Margay, hello again! Saw you were over at Fresh Fiction and thought I had to drop in and congratulate you again on the release of Nora's Soul. Love your blog - very cute!

 
At January 06, 2009 8:39 PM , Blogger Margay Leah Justice said...

Thank you, Anna! I appreciate the support. Thank you so much for stopping by!

 
At January 06, 2009 9:56 PM , Blogger LuAnn said...

Great blog post! Thanks.

 
At January 07, 2009 12:04 AM , Blogger Julie Robinson said...

Congrats on your release, Margay. YOur blog today was a perfect description about the creation of your 'baby.' Thanks for the smile.
Julie

 
At January 07, 2009 12:55 AM , Blogger donnas said...

Congrats on the release. Great post and the book sounds good.

 
At January 07, 2009 5:17 AM , Blogger Margay Leah Justice said...

Thanks, LuAnn, I'm glad you liked it!

 
At January 07, 2009 5:19 AM , Blogger Margay Leah Justice said...

Thank you, Julie. I've always believed that the creation of life and the creation of a book were similar. I'm just glad I was able to capture that essence on paper.

 
At January 07, 2009 5:20 AM , Blogger Margay Leah Justice said...

Thank you, Donnas. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

 

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