The Long Wait
After the author pair handed over money to the editor and signed the contract with Milton, they waited patiently for the editor to check over the manuscript over and over again, searching for mistakes.
Ally began to grow fidgety after two weeks had passed, not from the wait, but from the fact that it could mean that there were many mistakes in the writing. School had ended, and eighth grade would soon begin, and after three weeks, there was still no response.
Aaron knew how worried Ally was, and he emailed Milton asking how the book was coming along. He responded that the editor, named Cassidy, had many books to read over and did them in turns, and their book was receiving the fifth read over, and that it would be over in about a week. Aaron relayed the news to Ally, who sighed in relief, the anxiety lessened.
While Aaron and Ally read books and grew tanner from the summer sun, Milton was hard at work, finalizing the book's final reading, and then finding a cover artist to create a mystical cover that embodied the Magical world and the Human world, both Cece and Jay, the fairies and the humans.
Ally and Aaron finAlly received contact from Milton when three cover artists were the top choices and they were to decide which artist would create the cover.
The first artist, name Tracy, had a very cartoon like way of drawing the cover envisioned, and Ally knew she couldn't do it because she wanted everything to look very realistic but whimsical.
Monica was the artist Aaron liked, who drew whimsical very well, with deep blues and purple exuding magic from the Magical world and fairy wings with unique shapes. But again, there was no realistic-ness in the Human world, just more swirling colors and no sinister appeal.
Stephanie turned out to be the perfect artist for the cover, with all of Monica's charming taste put into the Magical world and then some, and her own unique way of making a fantasy seem real. Ally and Aaron chose Stephanie and she agreed to create the cover of the book.
Fall break had come, and Stephanie sent a copy of the cover to Aaron. He shared it with Ally, and they sent back their expression of gratitude.
"I know there is still a long way to go, but I feel like the dream is finAlly coming together," Ally smiled at Aaron. Aaron grinned back.
"I know, right? But of course, there's the blurb, the pricing, distribution, author descriptions, printing, and distributing left. It might take until eighth grade is almost over, right?" Aaron said, never one to be awash in dreams.
Ally's smile faded. "Maybe not that long, but I'm not actuAlly very sure about the whole process. So maybe we should look into it before we come up with an estimation of that."
"Don't worry, Ally. The dream may take a while, but if you work hard, it always happens. Let's go get some ice cream and not think about it." Aaron took her hand and they walked to the ice cream parlor, smiling and joking as all worries about the book faded away.
