The Story Behind the Sarah’s Legacy Series…

Recently I realized that although I’ve told a lot of people about the book I’m working on, Diary of A Series, The Story Behind the Sarah’s Legacy Series, I haven’t posted anything about it on my website or on Facebook. So it’s past time for me to let you know that we’re in the final stages of preparing to publish this book, which is only for those who’ve read all four books in the Sarah’s Legacy Series. Otherwise, it would be a spoiler for sure! Below is the information for the back page of Diary of a Series.

Diary of a Series is the fascinating account of how the Sarah’s Legacy series came about. You’ll discover how Daisy and Donn became residents of Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, the setting of the Sarah’s Legacy series; how Daisy’s interest in doing research was piqued by researching the history of the Potter place; how information obtained through her friendship with Isabel Dye whetted her appetite to write a fictionalized version of the lives of some of the former residents of the house they purchased at 81 Broad Street; and why the writing of this series spanned a period of almost twenty-three years!

You will enjoy following the unfolding of the research Donn and Daisy did as their focus changed from a desire to discover the age of their house to a desire to discover everything they could about the former residents. You will learn that Daisy’s original purpose wasn’t to have a historical fiction series set only in Sandy Lake.

Daisy discovered one of the most satisfying aspects of writing about characters based on real people was getting to know the descendents of those people. When one of them told her, “It feels like you’re one of our family!” Daisy replied, “For the past few years, I’ve spent more time with your ancestors than I’ve spent with my own family!”

Besides all that, you’ll get a sneak peek behind the scenes to find out that real life goes on for an author, regardless of her health or the health of her family, and why it’s truly miraculous that this series was finished in a timely fashion.

UPDATE II

DIARY OF A SERIES

The Story Behind the Sarah’s Legacy Series

Last Friday, we went out to dinner to celebrate downloading our files to publish Diary of a Series. We had gotten verification that the files had passed the initial electronic approval, and that we would need to wait two to three business days to get visual verification. Since we had done things exactly the way we’d done them in the past,  what could possibly go wrong? Little did we know!

On Tuesday evening, word came from Ingram Spark that we’d passed the second round on inspections and my e proof was awaiting my approval. I opened it, anticipating giving it a quick once over before rubber stamping it. Let me just say, it was a mess!

Who ever gave the files “visual approval” needed their eyes checked or perhaps visual approval meant something different to them than it meant to me. The first word of the title page was missing, as well as a lot of other words throughout the book. The placement of the words on the pages was not how it looked on the pdf copy we downloaded to them. In all our seven years of publishing books, we had never seen anything like this.

Ingram Spark, with whom we publish, is one of the companies who no longer do phone support, so I tried to explain our problem in an email. The only response I received was another email a few days later saying my e proof awaited my approval!*

Needless to say, we prayed and put our heads together, trying to figure out how to correct the problem. I won’t bore you with the details, but we finally figured out what we thought was the problem—even though we still didn’t understand why. Donn dug out an old computer I didn’t even know still existed that had a newer version of Word on it because somehow he thought that might be the problem, although the older version  always worked before! (I’m still clinging to 2003.)

We asked Google a lot of questions and finally on Thursday evening, Donn thought he had corrected the problem. With high hopes, on Friday morning we downloaded a new set of files to Ingram Spark. This time they rejected our files almost immediately, saying that they were not embedded—something else that had never happened before!

Once again we bombarded Google with questions until, finally, I asked the right question that took us to a Forum where someone else had had the same problem we were having. She received an answer that gave Donn the information he needed to fix the embedding issue using the older computer. Then, for the third time, we downloaded files for Diary of a Series before we left to go to the chiropractor (for some reason, my lower back was giving me fits!) and to visit Sarah who was sick.

At noon I got an email from Ingram Spark saying our files had been approved, so we knew the embedding issue was fixed but no guarantee the page layouts were correct. I didn’t open the new e proof until we got home much later that evening because if it was a mess, I didn’t want to know until we got home!

Praise God, this time the manuscript was as it should be, and we were able to order a physical copy to look over before placing a bigger order. Today I received an email saying our physical copy had been shipped.

As I’ve said before, I think publishing a book is like the Ground Hog Day movie. You keep doing the same things over and over until you finally get it right! I am so thankful for Jesus and for this man He gave me who is every bit as committed to persevering until we get it right as I am. I will let you know when Diary of a Series is available, and I have dates for book signings. (In the first update above, in case you missed it, you’ll find information that will be on the back of Diary of a Series.)

*(Today, over a week later, we received an email from Ingram Spark saying our request for support had been received!)