moving forward....

....My Horse, My Heart is coming to life....

Look at this--it makes my heart skip a beat or two.

It's a BOOK.

How blessed am I to be married to a graphic designer?

Yes, good book design takes time--and it takes even more time when life happens all around you and book design is limited to weekends.

Only laundry is on the 'to-do' list this weekend, so yesterday my husband spent about seven hours doing wonderful design stuff to my book. Today, he will easily spend another seven or eight hours clicking on that mouse, moving stuff around, cropping, sizing and just simply being brilliant. The photos and illustrations could be in the book today. All of them.

That's really kind of awesome. *smile*

Wow!

Check this out:

Do you know what that is? Yup, it's my little book on my husband's computer.

Text is formatted! This is HUGE.

Did I mention THE BEST part of independent publishing? I get to work with the people I love the most...

My husband, Steve, Indesign Wizard, put in many, many hours this weekend working on My Horse, My Heart. He worked with a smile and told me he truly loved my words.

Steve is an honest, good man---so this compliment was sincere. He's not the kind of person who would say it 'just because' I am his wife--he doesn't work that way.

He also gave me some good ol' constructive criticism.

"The placement of your poems gets a little confusing," he told me. " You should think about a better flow."

Honesty. Gotta have it, gotta love it. 

I looked back on the manuscript, and by gaw, he's right.

See? This whole book design thing takes time. And, good book design looks effortless, like dressage. You see the rider just sitting there, seemingly not doing anything. Oh, but the rider is actually working up quite a sweat with every muscle getting in on the action.

Every book had its humble beginnings and a designer that made it breathe.



Thank you, sweetie.

Guess who...

young UC Ringmaster in a field of dandelions, copyright 2013 by Helen Scanlon.

Illustration for The Great Red Horse, go here to follow my second book journey:
http://greatredhorse.blogspot.com/