When I Came West (Part Ten)
Matt emailed me on August 9th, to say that he had received another strong publication endorsement via fax and added, "Well, the book is on its way to the approval committee." While I was elated with the news I was also faced with writing out a lucid response to all the readers comments and their suggestions for revisions. Not an easy task by any means.
Matt wrote and explained to me how to go about "drafting an author's response to the three reader's reports" and to also be aware that a fourth report was still expected. He said that the manuscript should be going to the approval committees in September. I was so nervous about making a proper response to the reader's assessment of my manuscript that I asked my personal readers to read my report. They did.
I revised the work several times over hoping that I was covering all the areas under discussion and trying very hard to focus on the positive remarks. On August 28th, I sent Matt Bokovoy my three page detailed response to the four readers, three out of the four had recommended publication with revisions.
On October 4, I heard from Matt again saying that When I Came West was scheduled to be presented for consideration on October 24th for the first committee and November 4th for the second committee. The manuscript had to be approved by both committees in order for OU Press to offer me a contract.
Sixteen months had passed since I had first pitched my memoir idea to Chuck Rankin at the WWA conference. Naturally, I did not simply wait for time to pass. I was very busy writing another novel and working on a new poetry collection.
