Exaltation (Insight #11)(101)



Steffini Walker, Sabrina Wells—there are not words to express how thankful I am to have found you both! Your love for these characters inspires me each and every day. I love you girls!!

Editors, they come in all shapes and sizes, each with their very own style and outlook on the words they’re reviewing. I struck gold with mine, and I mean that. It is hard to find someone who can not only edit the horrid mess I leave behind in my creative rushes, but to also find someone that can strengthen your story and not alter your voice. Someone who is not afraid to tell you exactly what you need to hear good or bad, to fortify your daydreams into words. Todd Barselow is a saint and I count my lucky stars each day that I found him in this crazy publishing world.

Graphic designers are one of the unsung hero’s of the publishing world. Which is sad because they’re the ones that give your daydreams a face, they bring the emotion and definition to your work that readers new and old will recognize over time. Emma Michaels is another gift; she not only helped me find the image for my debut novel, Insight, but also has been through each of my covers since. She has a way of understanding exactly what I envision and does not rest until that vision is there before us both. This cover was far different from the others, it had to be more than an image that may or not change over the course of time, it had to be a logo, a brand, something that could be identified with this story for seasons to come. Emma rose to that challenged and I have to say this is one of my favorite covers, it’s almost as if she saw the emblem in my mind clear as day and worked until it was created. Emma you are amazing!

My Betas are amazing. It’s their truth that makes them that way, how they are not afraid to tell me what they like and don’t, how they don’t bat an eye when I hand them a contemporary story, a YA story, or this story, they read each with an open mind and their feedback is priceless, and there is not a doubt that it always mirrors the feedback my readers will give me once the story is published to the world at large. I can’t thank Sherri Frye, Heather Newberry, and Alysia Kurtz enough for walking through the final stages of publishing with me each and every time. Thank you girls for sharing my daydreams with me!

Readers. I swear to you, to this day it blows my mind that there are people on this earth that I will never have the chance to meet that have shared these stories with me, people who get it, who leave reality and step into my daydreams with me if only for a moment. You humble me. I can’t stress that enough. Thank you so much for taking a chance, giving up your time, to read my work.

As you can clearly see, people often think that writers have solitary lives, and in some real fashion we do, but more so than not, the story you are reading was impacted by not only those that walked the publishing line with the writer, but the world at large. Inspiration is everywhere, in every dark and positive moment, in every song, drive, commercial, everything is inspiration, life is beautiful, even the dark stressful moments are. You just have to find that beauty and thankfully I have outstanding people in my life that ensure that I notice each of them.

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