Hi there!

When I told you recently that I had finished the writing of the 90 day journey, I said I felt a bit like a little gopher poking my head up into a vast and unknown landscape. So much has happened since then, it has sent this gopher-head spinning at times! I have learned a lot about this next phase of the project – enough to know that I have uncovered the tip of something huge!

Fortunately, I have learned this one thing along the way – we can only take one step at a time, so just pay attention to this one, do the best I can with it, then let go of it and see what comes next. There is no point in trying to guess what will happen ten steps from now – that’s just conjecture anyway!

So, here’s where we are…

• My friend John Stoeckley, an enormously talented artist who specializes in pen and ink drawings  is working on the map for the front of the book. It shows the entire graceful, looping course of the River from top to bottom with raindrops marking the towns that correspond to the stories that follow. It will be lovely!
• My friend Tim Buchanan  is working with me to create a complete set of perfectly-tweaked photographs on his mega-printer to serve as match prints for the publisher. God bless his patience and talent!!
• Heather Caldwell is my new intern. She’s an accomplished young woman about to earn her Masters in Communications and she will help with social media, marketing and promotion, which is actually all pretty fun and exciting!
• We are creating a new Author Facebook page and will soon be inviting you to follow it. I’ll post updates there and can receive your input and suggestions as we go.
• One of the first things we’ll be doing is having you help to name this “baby.” As perfect as “Surrendering to Serendipity” is for the blog, it won’t work as a book title. We are gathering tips now for what makes a killer title and will share that soon. So, stay tuned – we will soon announce a contest to spice things up a bit and gather your ideas!

Those are some of the first priority irons in the fire. Possibilities, opportunities, ideas and helpers are popping like popcorn for things that may happen down the road and while they are exciting to contemplate, I’ll wait to tell you about them as we get closer. Thanks for being with me – who knew that this phase of the adventure could be so much fun?!

For now – we are compiling a database of those who have asked to be notified when the book is available, so if you haven’t already done so, complete the form below to add any  person, organization or business you think might be interested.

I’ll be back with more soon, but until then, here’s a Mississippi River sunrise to slow you down and smooth you out for a moment. Enjoy!      Love, Gayle

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