The Manuscript

Over the winter months of 2008-2009,  I finally wrote a novel, which I had always wanted to do. I was between Interims and had not yet figured out how to occupy my time.   I dedicated myself to this task over a period of four or five months.  I learned from my reading and research, and also from a Writer's conference I attended in NYC that publishers don't read manuscripts from unpublished authors. One needs an agent. Turns out the agents greatly prefer published authors as well, with only a small percentage of their clients being new authors.  Add to that that the genre of my writing includes religious/spiritual undertones, not entirely secular, not overtly Christian,  I concluded that it was an impossibility to get my novel published. Nor did I wish to spend years piling up rejection notices. Life is too precious, and I simply am not that motivated to be a published author. I put it on the shelf for a while and forgot about it, something to check off my list.

Yesterday I ran across the manuscript and took it down from the top shelf and started reading it.  It has been well over a year since I have looked at it.  The experience of reading it now has been quite fascinating.  Now I have some distance, some objectivity, and can certainly see some things I would improve, correct, change.  But overall,  reading it this time is more like reading it for the first time.  I'm not editing or looking for typos.  I am simply following the story as it unfolds.

Let me review my own book, which of course, I think is extremely well written.  It is also suspenseful.  Every chapter makes one wonder how these characters are connected to one another.  A mystery is set up which needs to be solved. As I read it, I can't "wait to see what happens".  (though of course, I created it).

This is my best summary of the plot:

       From a mental asylum in upstate New York, to the Mississippi Delta, to Naples, Italy, the reader puts together pieces of a puzzle, revealing a four generation family saga which includes murder, madness, mystery and mayhem.
        In Its Time is a novel about a woman's unique journey of self discovery.  Along the way she uncovers clues, characters, circumstances and connections that lead to a shocking conclusion.

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Sound interesting?  I do believe it is!