Book is In The Mail

There's less than 3 weeks left of my summer before I go back to working 5-days a week/7 hours a day, instead of 2 days and 6 hours. One of the guys I work with asked me if it was worth it--taking the time off.

"Yes," I said. "I got my book finished, and I'm sending it out." That was last Friday.

Well, it was sent yesterday. Monday, the fourth of August. I sent it Priority Mail so I could track it when it got there--that will probably be tomorrow.

My book, "Spell of the Black Unicorn" was actually done, with need of one more reading through for any type-os, or other alterations I wanted to make. And, being the perfectionist when it comes to my writing--or is it that control-freak thing again?--I had to alter a few things that just bugged me every time I'd read it.

After this, using the directions from Infinity Publishing (booklet), I went and did the formatting as they show. Having OpenOffice I had to figure things out on my own
but I think the directions, plus the human on the other end of the e-mail, gave me excellent directions. The "human" I speak of is LinDee Rochelle, a writer herself with plenty of background to help me in this venture.

With luck, the drawing I did for the cover--of my own design, etc.--will be used. The first proof I get will be in 5 to 7 weeks after they get it and go through it.
This is what I really liked about Infinity, if you're going to use any self-publisher, they send you an actual physical proof. I've yet to see it, and so I can say nothing about it, until I do. But other Self-publishers make you scan it on computer screen to see if it's okay. Things don't pop out at you--I can say this for myself, for sure--like it does on paper. The eyes tend to not pick certain things up on screen.

Yes, I did have to pay for this. There are a lot of self-publishers out there, and if you do your homework, you can learn a lot about them. I advise, anyone who's looking to self-publish, to really check things out. One main question is: do they print the book in America? If they don't, you may loose all your rights, no matter what they say.

Some also put your whole book out there for anyone to read on-line. That's not right. Infinity is placing a thousand-word section of my first chapter on their website (that I prepared for them), for those who want to peruse for interesting stories on their site.

Things can go awry in the next few weeks. I hope they don't, however. Assuming I did everything right, my first book will be out there for sale, and I'll be promoting it heavy, by November of this year.

For someone who began writing in high school--I graduated in 1972--who was told by my English teacher to forget going into writing because of my bad grammar, horrible spelling, I think I've come a long way. In later years (I was in my 40's) I learned I am dyslexic. Funny how no one ever picked that up. But, there you go. It proves that I had a lot of will and determination, I never gave up. I certainly wasn't going to listen to an English teacher who only liked marking up my papers with red ink. Well, kiss my mostly German glutaeus maximus, Mrs. Penson wherever you are! I never quit, at least not without coming back to writing. And, as it looks, I've finally got my most fervent wish: a book that I wrote will be published this year.

If any of you who have read my blog here, know that I've thrown in things about myself, about my struggles as a writer, pulling things out of my journals from the past, know that it has been a terrible struggle for me. While some people can just sit down and write something, and someone who has the power can say--why, yes, you can write, lets just get you published--I never had such happen to me. Of course, poetry, a short story, and a hand-full of other odds and ends did wind up in small journals, or little known publications, THE BOOK was my biggest desire to be published.

Since high school, I can't say how many novels I'd written, either whole, or in part. They were, of course, probably the worst crud a person could want to read. And when I'd retrieved them from my father's house, after his passing, I threw out three paper grocery bags full of said crap. If a twenty-something year gap between doesn't improve your writing skills, nothing can. I had improved, and saw that I had. You throw the junk out. Move on.

At this very moment, I have sequel to Spell of the Black Unicorn in a 5th draft (and am working it into computer, doing any re-writes on it as I go--a portion of it is stuck in a dead computer, which I will have to revive and pull from said computer).

I'm also writing a 1st draft of a different book--an urban vampire novel. Well, not entirely urban, since my character visits the city. I'm not revealing the title to this one just yet.

I don't know if other novelists work on 3 books at the same time. I suppose you could work on 2, in different aspects of their respective drafts. I keep on wondering--dreaming of the day--what it would be like to get up in the morning, knowing your job is to write, and that's it. I respect and tip my hat to those who do this. I also must confess, I'm quite jealous. This was the life I had envisioned for myself, back in the 1980's. I was still struggling, a novice. But I got better.

Since I'm rambling, I'll say here that, yes, I've written to two of my favorite authors, and both actually wrote back (Dean Koontz, and Janet Evanovich), both telling me to "get an agent".

Ah, if only it were that simple. No agent wants to sign on someone who has no track record. I have no reading base. I'm basically a nobody. And since I haven't put my memoirs on disk (and sent to Opra for a review), I guess my writing isn't notable.(I hope you all got that dig)

Agent-schmagent. In today's technology, if you have a way to get around them, and all you want to do is get a book out there, and hope for the best(with a lot of leg work on your part to get people to take notice), you can do it.

This isn't something I'm leaving my grand kids, y'all. I have no kids. Thus I have no grand kids. This is something I've wanted all my adult life. This isn't just something to do. Writing is not a little past-time hobby. I take this very seriously. And, if I'm wrong about Black Unicorn--that people will love it--then, I'll just accept it. But I don't believe I'm wrong.

Once I get my copies from Infinity, and I send one into the copyrights office, I will put the very first chapter on this site. Anyone who wishes is welcomed to make a comment about it. If you like it, great. If you don't, you may just not like fantasy. Which is fine.

The book is in the mail. Finally it is going to be published. Wish me luck.