My book “Talking To Animals” has been scheduled for publication next April. I am very happy about it. For most of my life, my books were published by Random House, then my editor left, and I seemed to get lost in the corporate shuffle. My new editor did not seem to care much for my books, and I rarely, if ever, spoke with her. Last year she left as well and it was apparent I had to go too.

There was just no one to talk to, nobody who cared much about my work. I love writing on this blog, it is my writing and creative life now, but I have been a book writer for most of my life, and I felt a piece of my soul had been cut out and discarded. I have no complaints to make about my former publisher, I had a wonderful time with them, and in our world, nothing is permanent, this is simply the way the corporate world works.

You can love it or hate it, but complaining accomplishes nothing and drains the spirit. I took a gamble and left them, and was very lucky to get picked up right away by another powerhouse publisher, Simon and Schuster. They loved my book idea and yesterday I had a long phone conversation with the two people who will be editing and shepherding my book.

I was quite dazzled by their enthusiasm for my book and my work, their very thoughtful and insightful ideas about the final revisions for it, and their plans for publishing it. I felt whole again, I texted Maria that I was “very happy,” and she came running to kiss me and congratulate me, she is the sweetest thing on the earth.

She said she had not heard me say that about my publishing life or any book in some time. It’s true, my last few books were hard, a struggle everyone, there was just no one to talk to who knew me at all. Those of you who know what it is like to be patronized will know how uncomfortable I was.

I didn’t feel that at all, I felt heard and appreciated, we are on the same page. My blog is my creative soul now, but it is wonderful to love being a book writer again, I have been getting up at 3 a.m. all week to plow through the manuscript and get it into shape. Just one or two new chapters to go.

I also want to be sure and thank those of you who supported my Kickstarter fund two years ago to help me purchase a new camera, my wonderful Canon 1D. You have seen the photos and what it has meant to me to have it, and my editors were excited about my plan to put a link in the book so people can see the photos I took with it, I’ll set up a special page for them.

My camera has made an enormous difference in my creative and I will always offer my photos for free to anyone who wants to use them. I never bookmark them, they are my little angels, they go out into the world to spread the message of color and light.

This week, I am getting up at 3 a.m., and Red and I come down to go into the cluttered study and edit and write. In the late mornings, I put posts up on the blog. I love working on a book that I love, it means the world to me. And I am feeling reborn as a writer of books as well. I am nothing but lucky.