The Biography of a Book continues...
…characters, all with unique voices together in one room and create something magical. Some of my short stories are ALL dialogue. I didn’t know where this would all lead, but I had a dream, and it was soon to come true.
Chapter 2
I was writing a short story when my friend Darwin Bagshaw asked to read it. This is a moment EVERY author is terrified of. It makes you feel VULNERABLE beyond words. He read it, looked up and said, "That's pretty good, you should write a book." It was a life changing moment for me. I put the short story away and put down the first words to 'A Life Worth Livin' on 1/3/21. Over three years ago. His simple encouragement and belief in me, started my career and my dream was born. Thanks Bags.
Chapter 3
There’s a lot of ways people write. Some create complex descriptions of every main character in the book, so they can get a FEEL for how a character might react to any given instance. I simplified this by writing myself into the main character. Who do I know better than myself? The book flowed then flowed from my mind faster than I could write. It honestly felt like I was writing a story of something that had already happened. The one thing that I’d been terrified of was reaching 60,000 words. How could I possibly have that much to say? It turned out I had a LOT to say. ‘A Life Worth Livin’ was written from start to finish in under two months and turned out to be 152,223 words. Writer’s trance IS a REAL thing. Lost in a world my mind creates, I put it all down for you to enjoy. Big problem, my medium is handwritten cursive that pretty much NO ONE can read but me. So, I had to rewrite the whole first half of the book into readable print. Then the real fun began.
Chapter 4
I had a massive manuscript that needed to be typed in, and no one wanted to help. People have busy lives, and 152,223 words, come on! I looked everywhere, asked everyone I could but NO ONE was interested in helping me. I refused to give up. Asking everyone I knew sometimes 2 or 3 times. My friends too. ANYONE and EVERYONE. Then my friend Dave Mumford told me he was talking to his sister about it, and his Mom had overheard the conversation and wanted to help. I’d asked EVERYONE and was out of options, then out of the blue this precious little Mom wanted to help. It was the second huge moment in this book’s creation, and it brought me to tears as I thanked Dave for his help.
Chapter 5
I sent the RAW handwritten manuscript, by mail, to Cathy Mumford (my friend’s Mom). You want to know fear and anxiety, try sending your life’s work, 152,223 words right from your heart, BY MAIL and wondering if it would get there. It did, and it saved me from having a heart attack. ‘Mom’ and I did the math. She types 100 wpm, and the book is 152,223 words. So, it should take her about 27 hours to type it. WRONG! Weeks turned into months. Computer glitches, lost files and life! It took a LOT of phone calls and nearly 9 months to get done, but it was DONE. This book would not exist without Cathy Mumford’s hard work. It was rough and RAW and she powered through it and took my scribbles and turned them into pages people could read. I will be forever thankful to ‘Mom’ (I adopted her). She helped me when no one else would. Thank you Mom! I love you INFINITE!
Chapter 6
When you have a raw book, you need independent, impartial readers to read it and critique it for you. First Readers are one of the most important steps to writing a book, and it can seriously knock the wind out of you to get critiqued. FINDING someone willing to sit down and read 152,223 words of seriously unpolished manuscript is TOUGH!!
Mom, Enrique, Danny and my amazing brothers, Ray & John gave me feedback I needed. They may not have thought I was always listening, but I heard every word. Like I said, 3 rewrites, and 27 edits are in large part due to their sound advice. They helped me and I will ALWAYS remember and appreciate them.
Chapter 7
I had a digital copy and was excited as hell to get my book published. Going the traditional publishing house route seemed more work than it's worth. They take 95% of your book, pay very little up front, and 99.9% reject you unless you’re recommended by three well known published authors and a power agent. OK, some of this is a SLIGHT exaggeration but not by much. There are countless stories of great authors being rejected over and over. J.K. Rowling for instance got turned down hundreds of times as she tried to get ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ published. No. I decided to self-publish and I chose Cadmus publishing to help. THEY FAILED! I had to cancel my checks to get my money back from them, because they wouldn’t respond to calls or mail. First try was a total bust!
Chapter 8
I enrolled in this class, ‘Captain Your Story’ that’s taught by people from ‘My Story Matters.’ I’m feeling defeated, cheated and honestly really pissed. Amy Chandler walks into the first day of class, smiles and asks, “Do I have any authors in this class?”, I raise my hand. She walks over, hands me a piece of paper and says, “I’m going to publish your book for you.” I’m teary eyed and choked up just remembering that moment. I NEEDED HELP desperately and as if she were sent to me, here she was the answer to my prayers. I contacted ‘Authors Inside’ within days and started the process of getting my book published! The relief of having people working now to REALLY get my book published was intense! That was February 2022.
Chapter 9
Authors Inside is run by an amazing lady with a HUGE heart. With the collapse of ‘Cadmus’ a LOT of traffic funneled to her right when I was trying to get her help. Her small company couldn’t handle the publishing demands and I had to pull out. This was the second publisher I’d had to release. A miracle happened though that would change the course of my life forever.
Chapter 10
John and Ray, my brother and brother-in-law up in Vancouver took a real interest in my book. With the digital copy ‘Mom’ had typed up, Ray and John had something REAL, something they could see, touch, and most importantly READ. They loved it! I imagine they were shocked that I’d written a REAL book. They’ve become very excited! Now with them backing me and acting as my Managers and Agents ANYTHING is possible! They’ve helped me in countless ways, from setting up an LLC to handle the books, to a website, social media and most importantly publishing production. Ray and John are my miracles. Finishing 3 more rewrites and polishing the editing 27 times at least has created the book ‘I’ want you to read. With their help we moved onto the world’s largest bookseller, Amazon! NONE of this would be possible without them. Thank you my brothers, I love you with my whole heart.
Chapter 11
To be continued...