The Publishing of "Beauty Way"

Somewhere way back in this blog trail, you might have read about my struggles writing the novel "Beauty Way." The book is about rockhounding (of course!)and the struggles of the Navajo to follow the Nizhoni Way or Beauty Way in the contemporary Southwest.

The book took about five years to get right, or at least to tell a story in a realistic, yet very interesting way. It is an adventure into the unknown for a young writer who keeps looking for the clues that will make her life work. Aside from being what I think is a very readable piece of literature, the book carries an important message: If you leave your heart wide open to all the possibilities out there, you are likely to have choices that you never dreamed about. I know something about these choices because I'm living them.

I completed the manuscript last December and gave it to Alex Cigale to proofread and give it his good energy during the month of January. My copyright card came back from D.C. in May, and after a two month vacation rockhounding (of course!) I prepared a six page query which I completed in August. Then, following my heart and instinct, I sent it on to Sunstone Press, the celebrated independent publishing house, appropriately located in Santa Fe in the heart of the beauty way. The logo of Sunstone Press at www.sunstonepress.com is a beauty way of mesas and valleys, and what is likely the Colorado River. I received a contract in the mail one month later in mid-September.

My book is currently being formatted and scheduled for publication in early 2012, and I will be sure keep you posted!

Photo: Rockhounding in Pinta, Arizona