Five Days Out – WTLLM

A published book only has one release day. A birth day.

An author takes it through its gestation period from conception as a single idea to a living, fully developed story, whose birth is assisted by the Doula Publisher, who releases it to the world.

But like any mother during her pregnancy, the writer does all he/she can during the gestation to make sure the book is as perfect as it can possibly be. Make sure that all the ingredients that flows into the book as it develops are of the highest quality available. Organic. And no smoking, drinking or drugs.

For me, my inner readers’ circle acted like midwives that gave WTLLM regular check ups to make sure the story was developing properly. That it had all its proper parts, five fingers and toes. And that it was healthy.

In the case of WTLLM, the supporting caretakers had its prior four siblings to use as a baseline for development purposes. Some of the recent readers’ circle helped birth some of those earlier books in The Claire Saga family. So this wasn’t their first rodeo and they had the existing literary DNA to work with and compare to WTLLM.

That made it easier for me to trust the process.

Still, a family’s legacy is measured by all of its members.

My inner readers’ circle have unanimously assured me that WTLLM may be the baby of the family but has the potential to be the best of the lot. Time will tell.

Given that all of my literary children have been delivered by C-Section (good enough for Caesar) with fixed dates that were known from the moment the pregnancy was confirmed, my eyes have been fixed on April 16th for some time now. The birth date.

There have been recent cosmic harbingers in the weeks leading up to WTLLM‘s scheduled delivery.

We had the penumbral lunar eclipse on March 24-25th and the magnificent total solar eclipse on April 8th.

“Solar eclipses are also often seen as opportunities for a new beginning, whereas a lunar eclipse often signals the end of something.”  https://www.romper.com/life/what-it-means-if-you-give-birth-during-a-solar-eclipse

So the lunar eclipse could have signaled the arrival of the final(?) volume of The Claire Saga series of books, while the solar eclipse signaled its new beginning as a consolidated, unified and now complete story of Claire the magical mule and her motley crew of mystical misfits. To go forth hereafter as one unit into the universe to entertain all who discover it. With any luck, and it has all been luck, The Claire Saga will meet with the same success of other historic and/or recent epic fantasy/sci-fi literary sagas.

Since I have no idea if I will write another book, I will pay close attention to the ephemeral birth date of WTLLM, the end of The Claire Saga, and study it carefully as it launches into the public eye and proceeds individually, confidently and collectively with its four siblings into literary history.

An ephemeral moment with lasting value.

Now, enough rumination. Time to deal with the Thursday before me.

You fine, five readers have that last cuppa and go dance with Friday’s handmaiden. Try to get your work week wrapped. The weekend is within reach.

I know that since March Madness is behind us, so, if you are not racing to finalize and file your taxes, you may find just enough free time this weekend to peruse TWA, AAA, KMAG and FJM one more time so you are all set to engage and fully appreciate WTLLM when it drops this Tuesday, April 16th.

Indeed, if a human ever needed an opportunity to embrace fantastical escapism, it is on those days directly leading up to April 15th.

I’m going to go cuddle some kitties and do my rounds.

And no matter what else we get up to, let us make today a great one.