I have to admit to being very excited by the official launch of my book. I didn’t think I would be. The process of writing and publishing is long…it took me twenty years to get to this point. Although the effort was not sustained from the beginning, some very cool questions came up during the party and I thought they are well worth reviewing.
Size matters to me in writing. I had a goal of one hundred thousand words which, I felt, constituted a fairly intensive and action filled story. That was my standard. A novel of 50-60 thousand words is acceptable but not for my first novel.
My manuscript did not languish forgotten for those twenty years. In fact I had prepared a very basic and unappealing presentation of the book, on 8×11 sheets in a three ring binder with a title page. Anyone who wanted to read it, could. But, it was incomplete and very poorly done. After all, the story was written originally on a pad, in pencil and transcribed on to a commodore 64, or one of those early pc’s.
Three years ago, a friend read it and encouraged me to publish it. When I got around to thinking it over, my original plan was to do that online because, by this time, my fanfiction stories were growing in number and readers.
All I needed was someone to type it for me. Easier said than done. I did it myself in the end because the format of fanfiction makes it easy. It was a good thing to do it myself anyway. I realized that the story did not sound or feel complete.
Deep in some old boxes, still preserved in a plastic bag, was the manuscript for part two, hand written in pencil, as I did in those days, and waiting to be completed. I had to write ten more chapters, 30,000 words this time but as I did the work, I fell in love with my characters, the story and the message all over again. What I can do now, I could not have done twenty years ago. I have learned that patience and persistance are truly virtues if life is to be fulfilled.
After a year, I completed the novel, had close to the 100,000 words, felt secure that the story could hold up under scrutiny and posted it online. To my surprise, it out performed my other stories. Confident that it could hold up undermore intense and professional scrutiny , I sent it to the publisher for printing.
No book is ever completed in isolation. My thanks, first and foremost, goes to my sister who read it and edited much of it. What is not corrected is only what I couldn’t afford to redo. She did a beautiful job.
The Gershwin family, through their lawyers gave me permission to use the words from a Gershwin song. That process was interesting. I love the cover and thank the photographer who took it. The clock, the bird, the leaves all fit with this time of year and the revelatory events in the life of the heroine. My aw
ard winning brother in law deserves credit for taking a great shot of me (Bryan Davies photos) and thanks to all those who read the manuscript before the final priniting and encouraged me to just do it! The publishers, iUniverse were also extremely helpful and supportive.
I am not one to push my own work, so I appreciate our colleague, Shelley who offered to be my publicist for the launch.
Nothing is ever done in isolation. The women whose life stories contributed to this work deserve my thanks for sharing their intimate selves with me and contributing greatly to the wealth of information about the emotions attached to just getting by, day to day, when life seems to hold you down. Disappointments, doubts, stress and violence are not confined to the poor and disadvantaged, nor the wealthy. It is a circumstance of this life in which we all participate. We must therefore strive to understand those around us whose lives may not be what they seem on the surface. Be a friend. That is the moral of my story.
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The Will to be True Blog 
Launching the book
Posted in Comments, tagged book launch, friendship, The Will to be True on October 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »
I have to admit to being very excited by the official launch of my book. I didn’t think I would be. The process of writing and publishing is long…it took me twenty years to get to this point. Although the effort was not sustained from the beginning, some very cool questions came up during the party and I thought they are well worth reviewing.
ard winning brother in law deserves credit for taking a great shot of me (Bryan Davies photos) and thanks to all those who read the manuscript before the final priniting and encouraged me to just do it! The publishers, iUniverse were also extremely helpful and supportive.
Size matters to me in writing. I had a goal of one hundred thousand words which, I felt, constituted a fairly intensive and action filled story. That was my standard. A novel of 50-60 thousand words is acceptable but not for my first novel.
My manuscript did not languish forgotten for those twenty years. In fact I had prepared a very basic and unappealing presentation of the book, on 8×11 sheets in a three ring binder with a title page. Anyone who wanted to read it, could. But, it was incomplete and very poorly done. After all, the story was written originally on a pad, in pencil and transcribed on to a commodore 64, or one of those early pc’s.
Three years ago, a friend read it and encouraged me to publish it. When I got around to thinking it over, my original plan was to do that online because, by this time, my fanfiction stories were growing in number and readers.
All I needed was someone to type it for me. Easier said than done. I did it myself in the end because the format of fanfiction makes it easy. It was a good thing to do it myself anyway. I realized that the story did not sound or feel complete.
Deep in some old boxes, still preserved in a plastic bag, was the manuscript for part two, hand written in pencil, as I did in those days, and waiting to be completed. I had to write ten more chapters, 30,000 words this time but as I did the work, I fell in love with my characters, the story and the message all over again. What I can do now, I could not have done twenty years ago. I have learned that patience and persistance are truly virtues if life is to be fulfilled.
After a year, I completed the novel, had close to the 100,000 words, felt secure that the story could hold up under scrutiny and posted it online. To my surprise, it out performed my other stories. Confident that it could hold up undermore intense and professional scrutiny , I sent it to the publisher for printing.
No book is ever completed in isolation. My thanks, first and foremost, goes to my sister who read it and edited much of it. What is not corrected is only what I couldn’t afford to redo. She did a beautiful job.
The Gershwin family, through their lawyers gave me permission to use the words from a Gershwin song. That process was interesting. I love the cover and thank the photographer who took it. The clock, the bird, the leaves all fit with this time of year and the revelatory events in the life of the heroine. My aw
I am not one to push my own work, so I appreciate our colleague, Shelley who offered to be my publicist for the launch.
Nothing is ever done in isolation. The women whose life stories contributed to this work deserve my thanks for sharing their intimate selves with me and contributing greatly to the wealth of information about the emotions attached to just getting by, day to day, when life seems to hold you down. Disappointments, doubts, stress and violence are not confined to the poor and disadvantaged, nor the wealthy. It is a circumstance of this life in which we all participate. We must therefore strive to understand those around us whose lives may not be what they seem on the surface. Be a friend. That is the moral of my story.
Read Full Post »