My new baby

What is it with me and giving birth to children at night?

Seriously, what's up with that??

My two actual physical children were both born at night -- after 8 p.m. for them both, actually.

And now, this evening, at 10:47 p.m., I've officially delivered a metaphorical child.

I sent my book off to the publisher. Hooray!

Yes, this is the SAME BOOK I have been working on for about a year. That "RGT book" I've blogged about. And this is why a lot of people have not been hearing from me so often lately. Heh.

My newest ghost book was FINALLY finished just recently. And, today, I finally revised the Introduction for this book to my satisfaction. (Thanks for the feedback on it, Millie!) It took FOREVER to get it formatted. Took me two days to edit it. That includes double-checking things, verifying Web site URL's, fact-checking and going over my notes to see if I missed anything (which I did). I was disgruntled to discover that book titles were not correct, confounded by little typos I'd overlooked in my previous edits (there was much forehead-slapping and mutterings of, 'How on earth did I miss THAT??") and gnashing of teeth as I constantly, CONSTANTLY had to get up to tend to the baby. It's not that I didn't WANT to tend to my real human baby. It's just that I had to get away from the book SO! MUCH!

It was hard, very hard, to perform the final work on the book, because I didn't have anybody else to watch the baby (the only time hubby helped was when I had to interview someone for an hour for this book -- and I AM grateful for that!). I also had hubby complaining about the lack of housework and cooking I was doing on one side, and my older child complaining about not having access to our ONE computer on the other side. No matter how many times I stressed to them "this is only temporary" and "I have a deadline," they still showed little support for this project.

Which was depressing, actually. At one point, I almost broke down and cried because it seemed like my own family wasn't supporting something I so strongly believed in and WANTED to do.

My blog series for breast cancer awareness suffered, too. So far, I've missed out on two blog posts. But I'll keep up with it where I can!

My SIGNews assignment was forgotten about. Eep! And so were my tasks of printing out articles to submit. Ugh! (Next time, I think I should hire an assistant. LOL)

But something else almost made me cry, too....

There is a story in this book about a very young little girl ghost who died tragically. She was never crossed over and she is very sad. A psychic who communicated with her asked her if there was something she wanted to say to him and she said, "I want my Daddy."

That just about broke my heart. I was so sad to read this and had tears in my eyes long after I stopped reading it. I really hope someone does help that little girl to cross over someday.

And speaking of those stories....I have a couple where some ghosts ARE crossed over. These stories are so uplifting!! The things that were shared about these experiences just really moved me and I'm glad that they are in this book, so that people can see that a ghost hunter does not JUST go out to prove there is a haunting then pack up and leave. I was pleasantly surprised to learn of groups who actually DO help spirits cross over. Yay for them!!

Some of the stories and pictures really gave me goosebumps, too. I was stunned at the photographic evidence captured. Some of the ghost voices recorded on EVP's gave me the chills, too!

But, there were also struggles. Not just when my computer decided to start acting wonky or the whole process of finding groups for the cities I'm including. (In all, 17 cities were stripped down to 9. Sigh!) But I really had a hard time with the title. See, "RGT" stood for "Real Ghost Towns." Not a very catchy title. I racked my brain for something better. I asked fellow writers and siblings for advice. I put out a call for suggestions in my newsletter. Finally, I talked it over with my publisher. She suggested a title that I just love: Spook City!

Additionally, I was thrilled at the opportunity to explore the history of certain places included. I am a big history buff so it was a pleasant opportunity to be able to partake in historical research.

Finally, I am so intensely grateful to ALL of the people who took the time for this book. These people will always have a special place in my heart. They were very kind, very helpful, and VERY prompt! This was a nice change given that so many of my emails sent to so many groups went unanswered. So I am VERY grateful to all the people who took the time to help me make this book possible.

I know we still have a long road ahead. Probably more editing, proofing, typesetting, soliciting reviews, etc. But now we have a new book born into the world. The gestational period is over and now we must nurture its growth before sending it out into the world.