MAKING FRIENDS WITH BILLY WONG. Many, many versions...

In case anyone thinks a book springs fully-formed from an author's head, let me say that's not my experience. Most of my writer friends go through many drafts, many versions, and tons of edits before an editor ever sees a word of what they've written.

While writing/ revising/ editing, I use a terrific software program called SCRIVENER.
Read a few of my thoughts on Scrivener here.

Today, while pulling together a few things for my soon-to-be updated website,
I found this page. 
One of my early drafts of my soon-to-be-published book, MAKING FRIENDS WITH BILLY WONG. 
(Coming in just over a month!)

First of all, I almost fell off my chair reading the date.
And then I almost fell off again.

What on earth could I possibly have been thinking? UFO's?

You know that writing advice that says "What's the worst thing that could happen to your character? Write that!"

Well, a lot of things could have happened. And, thankfully, didn't. 
Aren't you glad I didn't have Azalea and Billy chasing after a UFO?