From typos to…triumph?

Ok, that title is a bit much—but I can’t help myself. The alliteration was right there!

Let me back up…

About two weeks ago, I was putting together a quick social media post for #thirstythursday and realized--to my horror—that I had somehow used the same adverb twice in one paragraph in my first book, Gathering of the Four.
(Confession: I had an adverb problem. I’ve known about it for years and still struggle to overcome it in all of my drafts.)

Y’all I was mortified!

If I had allowed this to slip through, what else had I missed?

I cringed so hard! I’ve sold my books at cons! Given out review copies! I worked so hard to get my book where I thought it needed to be, but somehow missed what I now perceived as a great error.

Ack!

I posted about this on Bluesky. I hung my head in shame. But then I decided to do a reread of the entire book. I figured this would help me in two ways: I’d (hopefully) discover any lingering typos, and I’d get reacquainted with a part of my saga that I hadn’t really sat with since 2022.

As y’all know, I’m working on Book Three, which is going to be another chonker. I adore my thick books, but I don’t recall every detail—who could?—so a refresher was in order.

And I was right! Yes, there were a few more typos and a couple of run-on sentences I wound up correcting, but I was also reminded of a few crumbs I dropped and had forgotten about. Whew!

I also experienced something unexpected.

I…became proud of my work!

Gathering of the Four was first published in 2021 and while getting it out the door did fulfill a life-long dream of mine, I did rush things and wound up with a bit of a mess on my hands. I fixed what was wrong, but the process took a toll on my self-esteem. I did my best to fake it, but I didn’t consider myself a real author.

“But Bennett!” You might be thinking, “You’ve published five books since then!”

Well, yeah. That’s true. And I think I’ve improved with each one—but I still didn’t have faith in myself as an Actual Author.

Even when I hit and surpassed 1,000 subscribers to my newsletter. Even when I was sitting at my very own table at my first con last summer.

Every time I thought about my writing, my mind returned to the same thought: Every other indie author out there is better than you. You are not the real deal.

Well, I’m here to tell you that I no longer think that. Sitting with my first book again after so much time away from it made me realize that the five star reviews I’ve gotten aren’t lying.

I am an author.

My story is good.

And I’m proud of myself!

I now have plans to do the same with my second book, Test of the Four. I’m actually excited about it.

There’s a lot of bad stuff happening out in the world right now, so it feels really, really good to (finally) have faith in my art.

It took me years to get here, but I have arrived.  

(Also, if you’re interested in a, ahem, typo-free review copy, go ahead and reach out to me via my contact page!)

Until next time…stay safe and well, y’all!

“Self-trust is the first secret of success.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson