Timeline Part 2

Once I’d finished writing Blackbird, it took quite a while for me to figure out that I hadn’t finished writing Blackbird. I realized that I had only written a first draft, of course, and took appropriate actions: I selected some friends to be my “beta readers” and sent them some proof copies using Lulu.com. Then I eagerly waited throughout August and September for those proofs to be returned to me, covered in edits. But despite all that I was still convinced I was nearly done.

I really wasn’t...