Today, I submitted my files to the printer. Like anything creative, the work is never complete; it can always be improved. But there comes a time when the painter must put down his brush to signal that the piece is finished. Finished is not the the same as complete, which implies that nothing is lacking. Since my last blog post, two proofreaders read my manuscript for errors. During this time, I reread it and made a surprising number of changes, including the addition of a final chapter.<\/p>\n
In the days before self-publishing, the author would hand the manuscript to the publisher. In my case, I uploaded my text and cover and clicked on a button. The action had as much fanfare as submitting my taxes electronically. Not the sort of thrill to mark the culmination of seven years of work. I do feel accomplished and excited for the future, wondering how well the book will sell. When I hold a printed book in my hand, then I will have something tangible to testify to my labor and my excitement will peak and I will celebrate. But I will rest on my laurels for only a moment because there is more to be done. I must begin marketing my book. I plan to create discussion questions for my book as a downloadable PDF file. And I already have a concept for my next book, which I am eager to start working on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today, I submitted my files to the printer. Like anything creative, the work is never complete; it can always be improved. But there comes a time when the painter must put down his brush to signal that the piece is finished. Finished is not the the same as complete, which implies that nothing is lacking. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Hhvw-f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/why-the-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":0},"title":"Why the book?","date":"February 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In February 2007, I had a dream. I dreamt that I was sitting in a college religion class. The class was discussing a book that presented a world where God had created only one person. The story described the growing relationship between this person and God. When I awoke, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":108,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/four-in-the-garden-is-making-an-impact\/","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":1},"title":"Four in the Garden is Making an Impact","date":"February 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The feedback I have received from readers has been encouraging. For many, Four in the Garden has reaffirmed their belief in God's love.\u00a0Most everyone has said that they want to read it again and take notes or highlight favorite sentences. Some have ordered additional copies to give away to friends\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/removing-the-trappings-that-trip-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":2},"title":"Removing the Trappings that Trip Us","date":"September 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Four in the Garden takes place in a primordial world, before rules and before religion. There is no church, no organized system of worship, no predefined code of conduct. Just God. I found this the ideal\u00a0setting to depict God because I could describe a relationship with God without all the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":250,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/trust-versus-fear\/","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":3},"title":"Trust Versus Fear","date":"December 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The opposite of trust is fear, and fear causes us to make wrong choices. Trusting in God frees us from desperate actions because we believe God will take care of us. When we don't trust in God, we are left to rely on ourselves. But when we doubt our ability\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":286,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/the-purpose-of-pain\/","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":4},"title":"The Purpose of Pain","date":"October 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve noticed a growing trend in our society marked by an aversion to pain. I suspect this trend is due to the easy availability of drugs that mask pain. It seems as if pain is another malady to be conquered by science, along with cancer and heart disease. But pain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/finding-peace-within-chaos\/","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":5},"title":"Finding Peace Within Chaos","date":"October 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"With everything going on in the world, people are responding with fear or anger. They don\u2019t realize that trust is a third option. Fear or anger doesn\u2019t bring peace to our lives. So what does trust look like? And will that bring us peace? Crisis or chaos threatens us. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trust"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}