Every Day is a Winding Road
Writing a book is never a straight path. As soon as I feel like I’m moving forward, it seems like something happens to set me back or send me off course. It feels like the lyrics by this song by Sheryl Crow.
Every day is a winding road/I get a little bit closer
Every day is a faded sign/I get a little bit closer
Mr. Bones and I left Indianapolis on Saturday, January 21, and headed south to finish our tour of the 48 lower states. We went to 30 states over the summer and had to reach the remaining eighteen in the Southeast and Southwest. It’s been three weeks and we’ve been through five more states:
We drove southeast through Chattanooga to Atlanta, Georgia, then east through South Carolina, all the way down the Atlantic Coast of Florida, out to Key West and then up the Gulf Coast. Next we drove north from Tallahassee northwest up through Montgomery, Birmingham, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and now, we;re in Mississippi. Like the song says, we never drive in a straight line, and the book is meandering as well. I am hoping the designer will finish it by the end of February. I’m dying to have it in my hands.
The author at the southernmost point in the 48 states in Key West
We’ve seen plenty of faded signs down south in the little lost towns on the old country roads that no one ever takes. They’re all on the Interstates hurrying here and there to do what, I’ll never know. We do not have a schedule to meet or a meeting to attend. We don’t have a firm deadline and we like it this way. We get to stop for the night in little towns like Russellville, AL, population 10,000, or more if you count the chickens. We stayed at a place called Lost Creek Retreat. Our host was a self-declared hippy chick from Chicago who moved south to get away from it all. I believe she has succeeded.
The cool little trailer home at the Lost Creek Retreat in Russellville, AL
While driving from state to state in the campervan, I have plenty of time to think about the book and what to do next. I have never launched a book and I don’t know how to do it. I hate selling things, and the thing I most hate to sell is myself. Selling your book feels like selling your soul to me. I want to give it to people, but I can’t afford to do that, so I have to ask people to pay for their own copies.
I’ve been terrible at every aspect of writing a book so far. The first edition drove my editor crazy. It was full of tangents and digressions. He wanted me to get the reader to Africa, start moving, and never stop. Next I had to work with a designer. He is extremely talented and can work miracles, but he cannot figure me out. I didn’t know the best way to present the pictures to him, so instead, I found the worst possible way. The poor man was going out of his mind trying to figure out what pictures went on which page.
The clueless author - close enough
I think we have finally arrived at an approach that will allow the designer to do his work in a reasonable amount of time. I’m sure that he would have liked a straight path rather than a winding road, but that is what I do. I’m a wanderer. My mind wanders, and so do I. I’ve always been a daydreamer and was never able to focus my mind and my energies the way some people do. There are just too many interesting things to see, people to meet, and crazy ideas that pop into my head and refuse to leave me alone. At least I’m never lonely with all those ideas bouncing around in my head. They keep me good company.
I am on tenterhooks wondering what to do when I finally have the finished book in my hands. I need a person who knows how to organize and carry out a book launch, but I don’t know such a person. I am terrified that I will botch the launch and kill the book that I worked so hard to create. They say that if the launch fails, the book never takes off. I am hoping for a miracle or perhaps a vision from God. That may be my only hope. Imagine if I sat down in a diner tomorrow and met a person who can actually help me launch my book?
