I'm a big fan of editing and keeping only the interesting bits in. - Sarah Vowell

If only completing the task of editing could be a simple one.

Working with my Content Editor, whom I absolutely adore (Ciar Cullen), with Decadent Publishing, I've learned a lot about both myself and my writing. When I received the first round of edits back from her, she was kind enough to write a really long and encouraging email, bracing me for the cold hard truth of the edits to come. After reading the email twice in its entirety, I took a deep breath and opened my manuscripts.

There were most likely thousands of edits, and almost four hundred comments. Talk about a daunting task. But instead of pouting as we are prone to do, I held my head high and dove in with both hands. Some of the comments stung, some made me laugh, but more than anything, reading them made me grow as a writer. I know I'm not perfect, nor do I pretend to be, but the whole experience was very humbling.

It took me three solid days of mulling over every comment, making corrections where needed, adding in places, and as an overall beefing up my manuscript. To say the least, the entire experience was exhausting, yet a good road to travel. I learned more about myself and my writing than I ever hoped to know. Afterwards, it only took one small final round before the manuscript went to my Line Editor.

Two small rounds of edits with my Line Editor later, Pillars In Time is now with the Sr. Editor for final review. I've been given a release date of March 2nd. It's so close I can taste it. It makes all the hard work with my editor pay off. I cannot wait for Pillars In Time to be released to the public, and am looking forward to the feedback I'll receive.

In the end, I think the only reason why I survived the daunting task of editing is because I went in with an open mind. My Editor does what she does for a reason and I'm glad for her pushing me as far as she did.

So, when faced with the overwhelming task of editing, remember it will serve to only keep the interesting bits in, and throw out the garbage. You're manuscript will be better for it.

I make my weaknesses my strengths and my strengths stronger. - Lisa Fernandez, Pitcher, Team USA

Today is Katelyn's first day of her softball team's practice. Well, that's not entirely true. It is the first day that Katelyn will be attending. We signed her up two days ago and yesterday, she was assigned to the team Pink Jaguars.

This will be her second year playing the sport. She has height to her advantage and a rocket for an arm. It has been neat for the past two days to go out to the greenbelt in our apartment community and toss the ball back and forth with her. I love watching her try to pick the ball up off the ground with her mit (it isn't broken in yet, so it's hard for her to do so). Throwing back and forth with her brings back memories of my short career as a child playing softball and it makes me even happier knowing my daughter is entering the sport so young.

To see my daughter's face light up at the prospect of playing softball brings on the warm and fuzies. I love it that she wants to be an active participant in a team sport.

As parents, all we ever want is the best for our children. We want them to explore this world and have fun doing so. I try and teach both of my kids that they can be whatever they want to be, they just need to put the work in to get there.

This is part of the reason why realizing my dream of being a published author is so prevalent. Katelyn has watched me pound away at my keyboard, or heard me talking about my book. For her, she sees the hard work I put into something I wanted, and how I'm rewarded in the end.