I just had a wonderful eye opening experience. As you've already read, I was dealing with the corrections my editor wanted me to make and at first I was able to go about it with a purpose in mind and a bit of amused self depreciation at how I had managed to mess up so horribly. Amazing how much that changed in such a short amount of time.

Last night as I was going through the final walk through, making sure everything was 'just so', I began to do what is equivalent to the kiss of death - I was second guessing myself. I have no idea how many times I had to stop my husband and ask to run a sentence by him, or get his opinion about the capitalization of a group even when the editor had marked it as a 'don't do this'. So there I was in the final hours (no joke, literally final hours) of my deadline trying to get the courage up to stand behind my belief that the Guardians in my story was a group, therefore needed to be capitalized. I had google going in search of examples, and my mind was swimming until finally after a serious discussion with Tony I decided to punt.

As I attached the final copy to an email to my rep, I sent her a short note explaining my dilemma and that if I was wrong to let me know and I'd fix it quickly and resend. Now this was at 1:30am, my husband was sound asleep, and all I could think of was 'if that's wrong, then the whole book is too... I'm a hack!'

This morning I woke to find an email waiting for me saying that I was right and sometimes even the editors miss a meaning occasionally. Of course I felt happy, I smiled, I even did my patented 'YES!'... but there was one other thing that I did and it confused my husband - I thanked him.

During this past week as I was trying to get the corrections made, he was the one who did his best to make sure I wasn't distracted (as much as possible with three kids at him, babysitting two grandbabies, a dog, and a small business to run). When I was practically growling at the kids and the dog alike, he understood. And when it came down to the wire, he pulled me through like he always does, helping me to stay on track and not doubt myself or my work.

I hope that everyone has such an island and goes to it every chance you get, you'd be surprised at how good it feels to have someone believe in you so completely even when you yourself are full of self doubt.