After two and one half years of thinking, working, writing, planning, proposing and nail biting, we are confronting the reality of what the next two years will bring. We received our signed contract from Beacon Press a few weeks ago. We now have until December 1, 2011 to deliver our final manuscript.

Once published, we will be part of the Beacon stable that includes such luminaries as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Ntozake Shange, Paul Robeson, James Baldwin, Marian Wright Edelman and Octavia Butler, amongst many others. Just saying those names invokes reverence. These are some big footsteps to follow. We can only pray that we succeed in honoring a 150 year old tradition of excellence in publishing.

My humility says we don’t deserve the honor of being published by such a prestigious press. My arrogance says it’s about time. My pragmatism says we better get busy because there’s a lot of work to do between now and the manuscript delivery deadline.

As soon as we had our contract in hand, we headed for Tobago, where we spent two weeks celebrating and writing. We came back yesterday with three chapters in hand (first drafts). Preliminary review by our editor was very positive.

Sharon is ready to roll

That means we’re off to a good start!