A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

We know this to be true, simplistic perhaps, but true nonetheless. My publishing journey continues with its ups and downs, its sideways shuffles, its stalls, and its full steam ahead moments.

I recently changed the title of my memoir from Passing Through to The Moon To Play With. The new title holds unique and significant meanings as words from a lullaby my father sang to me as a child, as words that depict the importance of the moon, as words that describe my parents playfully.

These words came to me (almost) out of the blue, after attending a writer’s conference at Skidmore College. I’d been mildly dissatisfied with the title for a while, and I’d wanted to change it. But to what? Worthy titles had been eluding me, or I would love the title enough to grab any available scrap of paper to write it down on, only to feel disappointed in it the following day.

When last I spoke with Balboa—my self-publisher—the design team leader was out of the office with a fever and I had a short conversation with an apologetic graphic artist. She loved the new title, said she’d make a mock-up cover including a moon, and felt genuinely out of her element with any further aspects of our ill-fated call. She did however, send me new cover ideas that day, and followed up with emails to myself and the design team coordinator.

The newly arranged phone call will take place tomorrow afternoon, and I love the artist’s cover ideas. She nailed this one, immediately. We shall discuss the front cover, the back cover, the spine, and what words I choose to describe myself in the sections: About the Author, About the Book, My Bio, and the Dust Jacket.

It is heady, weighty, and lovely stuff. What will appear on what clothes the book containing my words, my life, my name, my pictures? My journey through the death of my parents, and back into the world of the living, without them. I have a lot to say. About so many aspects that touch on all these cogs that make up the wheel that we call life.

Change is ubiquitous. And sometimes, like today, change is fantastic!

Thanks for being here. There will be more on the publishing journey to follow. I should be receiving emails containing word docs and jpegs in the not too distant future. And I promise to share.

Happy Holidays to all.