My entire book — the dedication, acknowledgments, twenty-nine chapters, and the epilogue — have been typeset. This means the book has progressed from the writing and editing stage, which was all in WordPerfect format, to the pre-printing stage. I just made the final revisions to the photo inserts and captions today. The photo insert contains thirty-two photos, most of which I provided. To see all the photos organized with the captions in the insert was thrilling. The photos both tell and add to the story.

I will have one more opportunity to review the typeset copy, which I should get by Friday, but from here on my discretion to make changes will be limited. This causes me to feel both relief and fear at that same time: relief because there are really only so many times I can review and revise the pages in this book, and fear because it doesn’t quite seem possible that I will get it all perfect.

While final editing continues on the book, about seventy advanced reading copies (“ARC”), with the disclaimer that it is an “uncorrected” copy, have been sent out to get journalist, magazines, and book reviews to get endorsements and reviews before or when the book comes out in February. I spent a lot of time putting together my own wish list of individuals to read my ARC, and am very excited about the fifteen people from that list who agreed to do so. Now, I just have to wait and see who likes the book and what kind of endorsement or review they will give it. In the meantime, I am finally crossing the finish line, at least with respect to all my work on the book!