I have to stop doing this. Every time I turn around, I’m saying goodbye to Maureen. Again.

This time, she was minding her own business, saving the world she lived in, the world of Sharpsburg at the time of the Civil War. And this time, for a change, I didn’t want to disturb her. This time, I wasn’t going to push her a little farther, make her life a little more tormented. Instead, I just wanted to make sure everything was in its place: no misspelled words, no errant commas (found one), no funny line breaks.

That required reading it again and, as usual, I needed a hankie handy. I wrote it and I still get choked up by the story.

Saying goodbye to Maureen this time was happier than usual. It means she is one step closer to her introduction to the world. Black Rose Writing’s design director has done a masterful job of turning my manuscript into a real honest-to-goodness book. I look forward to holding it in my hands.

I know we’ll meet for another edit and then she’s off to the printer and the e-book whatever-they-call-that. So I’ve started the countdown to July 27, 2017.