On this beautiful, rainy morning in North Dakota, I’ve just sent off the manuscript to my editor at Viking!

The second edit is done…in fact, everything is done: chapter titles, acknowledgements, bibliography, introduction, epilogue, and the manuscript itself—with all the footnotes condensed. The next time I see it should be for copyediting.

Now there’s a pause wherein I catch up on the rest of my life, first and foremost with friends who have been patiently waiting for me to re-emerge, then with important tasks like book orders for fall classes at Monmouth College, deeper immersion in my thrilling work with the Theodore Roosevelt Center’s digitization project here at Dickinson State University, and with the National First Ladies Library’s bibliography.

Next for the Daisy Low biography are fun things like settling on a title, choosing photographs for the book, and seeing what extraordinary cover the brilliant designers at Viking will conjure up. I’ll keep you posted!