When I sold my novel a year ago, I was told it could take a year for it to be out. Really? No way.

Here it is a year later and I'm finally about to get my release date. 

I have sold many stories to the confession magazines, one to Chicken Soup for the Soul, and various newspapers and magazines. I figured writing a book couldn't be much harder.

Wrong. Things the editor wrote to me: You have too many dangling modifiers. Really? Better google that one.

Or, you need to watch out for filter words. Hmm. Better read about that, too.

The good thing about The Wild Rose Press is they have meetings on Tuesday evenings (online) and from that I learned  lot. I also made new friends.

I don't have my release date yet, but should have it soon. Poor Myrtle Sue and Presley, my mother and daughter in my dysfunctional family book, had to learn to do things like threw an arm in the air, scrunch their face, or touch someone, have thoughts I hadn't thought about, and much more. I'm sure both my characters shook their heads many times wondering if this writer was ever going to get things correct so they could move on with their lives.

Myrtle Sue's dead husband finally quit talking to her now that she found a replacement for him.

Presley's abusive husband got ate by a gator while in one of his drunken stupors.

Sonja learned her mother would not quit her job and stay home with her baby.

And even her sometimes dim-witted son found love.

Hazel, the mother-in-law from hell, finally got placed in a home, the same one Zack's father is in. 

Oh yes, Zack, the man Myrtle Sue met at church after Hazel whacked his father with her cane, turned out to be a really nice guy, one she decided could psychoanalyze
her entire family.

I hope you'll join Myrtle Sue and her family for a good homemade Southern meal once the book is out. Some of those recipes can be found in the back.

Dee Gatrell

(um, yes, we all have dysfunctional families that give us things to write about.)