READ THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS OF "DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT"

The experience of getting a book published resembles childbirth in many ways--you conceive an idea, labor over it and carry it along to fruition, and then you anticipate the day you will catch your first glimpse of it and hold it in your hands. It sounds like a ridiculous exaggeration, but to an author, it's pretty close, and today I was sent the final cover. I think it's gorgeous!

It will still be a few weeks before we'll be able to handle a copy, or see it on a book store shelf, but I've...