Tentatively I approached a few of my friends about reading my first novel. They all expressed enthusiasm and I sent them out electronic copies.

Once again the waiting game began, nerve-racking.

I continued working on the second and third novels in the series, Becalmed and Capsized, and tried to stay focused on the process.

Then I received a card in the mail from one of my beta readers. It contained a Starbucks card and statements about how much my reader wanted to visit Crescent Bay, the fictional village where my story takes place. The Starbucks card was a reference to how large a part coffee plays in the first book.

Success! I still keep the card nearby to read on those days when writing is a challenge.

Then a couple weeks later I got an email from another beta reader. The beginning was a typical email from a friend but she ended it with “or I could move to a small village…” and she went on to describe the main theme of my book. Hurray.

Feeling more at ease with my first book, I dove back in to finish the race.

As an avid reader I have always enjoyed discovering a series that had been out long enough that I could binge read the full story. Since I am a self-published author, I can decide when my novels are published. I had decided to release all three books at the same time on October first, my favorite month of the year.

Hopefully Chronos would be on my side.

After almost a year of work, I now had three novels living on my Google drive, but were they any good?

I sent my first paper baby, Adrift, off to my editor and waited.

However, I have never been a very patient soul.

Two weeks later, I tentatively asked a longtime friend, and avid reader, if she would be willing to read my first novel.

She said she'd love to and I sent Adrift out into the world, and waited on pins and needles.

What if all my work and effort resulted in nothing more than a waste of time?

What if the characters I had grown to love were so terrible that only their own mother could love them?

A week later, on Father's day, I was sitting in a restaurant having lunch with my husband, when I received an email from my friend. She loved what I had written; I burst into tears of relief. My wonderful husband just smiled and comforted me by saying, "Of course she loved what you wrote, you're a good writer."

Later that afternoon, that same friend called me and she was bubbling over with enthusiasm for my book. She admitted that she had put off reading it, fearful of what she would say to me if my writing was bad. She had started reading Adrift that morning. She told me that she had quickly become absorbed by the story and had been bummed that she’d have to put it aside to take her husband out for Father’s day celebrations. He had opted to stay in and watch NASCAR and she had dove back into my book. She had finished reading Adrift in one day. She said it was so good she couldn't put it down.

Her enthusiasm boosted my confidence and I wondered about sending my baby off to a couple of other Beta readers.