Here’s June again, almost a year since the manuscript I submitted to Stoney Creek Publishing was accepted for publication. We’ve all had to learn to wait from the time we were children first aware of the notion of time. For me, waiting has never been all that easy. Some things I’ve had to wait for like the first day of first grade (why did summer that year pass so slowly?), high school graduation (surely this is when real life will begin), and a long list of waited for events were not within my control. Eventually, I realized that actually most things that involve other people are not entirely in my control. I had to learn to look for progress along the way, learn to celebrate each accomplished step toward some goal or event.
Part of becoming an adult is being able to live with necessary waits. So identifying milestones is important. A pregnancy can seem interminable, but there are identifiable marks of progress toward the birth day—changes in the pregnant body, first movement of the fetus, all those things that show progress help make waiting tolerable.
These months since the “yes” for A Good Family and the “big day” have been marked by plenty of progressive steps. I’ve never had a sense that the process was lagging. But still, for me waiting is only made tolerable by marking the steps AND finding other things to do. In the case of the months waiting for this novel to end up as a real book in my hands, finding something else to do meant starting another project, another novel. It meant joining a new workshop. And it meant allowing myself to spend more time reading the work of other writers.
One of the pieces of progress in the Good novel was an early one, the editing by the publisher’s editor. I actually enjoy having the feedback of an editor. The conversation in the margins often points to things that suddenly seem obvious. In the case of this current novel, the editor suggested altering the title slightly to better capture the essence of the story. Amazing, why hadn’t I thought of that? Now its title is A Family of Good Women.
A next identifiable bit of progress is when the cover for the book is approved. The designer’s work is magic as far as I’m concerned. From my general, borderline useless suggestions that the cover show dirt streets and wooden oil derricks, the artist came up with what I imagine the street where Imogene Good lived looked like in 1929. She chose a type font that echoed those old times, and relieved the house in the foreground of a second story when I pointed out that the novel describes a single level dwelling. The most recent bit of progress is that the book is listed on Amazon and other places as available for pre-order and promises a release date of September 9. On that date A Family of Good Women will be out in the world.
Yes, progress seems slow when I’m eager. It helps that I’m no longer six or eighteen. So when September 9 comes, this particular waiting will fade. I promise that identifying the milestones of progress, celebrating those steps, and finding other things to do make waiting easier.
Available for pre-order now. https://www.amazon.com/Family-Good-Women-Teddy-Jones/dp/1965766242/ref=sr_1_1?s=books Release on September 9, 2025