Love and Air Conditioning…

It’s amazing how time flies.  It seems I had just posted my first blog entry, but here it is, three weeks later.  I suppose it is time for another, if for no other reason than to keep a journal on the progress of the book.

First, a correction.  In the first entry I stated that I was just starting chapter twenty.  Well, I was actually just starting chapter nineteen.  Wishful thinking I suppose.  Or maybe it just felt like chapter twenty.  In any case, I still believe that I am a little over half way through the first draft. 

I have been plugging away (on chapter nineteen) when time has allowed.  Though life has conspired to get in the way from time to time.  Our air conditioning went out last fall so I had to sift through an army of competing heating and air conditioning experts to find a bid we could afford to replace the system.  I now know more about parts and labor warranties than I ever cared to know, but we did find a good local company that has been in business for a hundred years.  It felt good to give them the work instead of a national chain.  They had the whole thing done and the old system taken away within five hours.  Just in time too, because the next day was sweltering. 

Of course, at the same time all this was happening our washer decided that it no longer needed to service the household.  So after several failed attempts to buy a decent used washer and dryer off Craigslist, we ended up purchasing a new, reliable (we hope) Maytag set from Lowes. 

I really struggled with notion that I would have to rent an appliance dolly, buy some ratchet straps, drive ninety miles into Michigan, load my pickup with the used set, strap them down, drive them (carefully) ninety miles home, muscle them down into the basement, hook them up, muscle the old set back up the stairs, load them into my truck, haul them to the recycling center, (where we could collect about thirty-five dollars for the scrap,) then return the dolly and drive home before we could have clean clothes again.  With the dolly rental, ratchet strap purchases, time, gas, labor and hassle, I wasn’t completely sure that it would be much of a bargain to buy a newer used set.  But I was willing to give it a shot. 

After we had two sets sold out from under us, and a third postpone the pickup date, we said, “Fuck it,” and headed to Lowes where we got our set, on sale during Maytag Month, and received a hundred dollar rebate on top of it plus some free detergent, (that Sherila “forgot” but wished later that she had “remembered” because the new washer takes a special kind of detergent, don’t ya know?)

By the way, Sherila is my fiancé, my best friend, and the love of my life.  She also believes she is my boss, my mother and my nutritionist.  We plan on tying the knot this coming August.  You’re all invited to the wedding if you can find it.  Bring cash, we’re not registered anywhere.

So…  after all that, back to writing, right?  WRONG!  We went on vacation.  We had a planned trip to Missouri, about thirty miles outside of St. Louis to visit my best friend Gene and his family.  His daughter just had a brand new baby girl and we were dying to see him, and them and his lovely wife, and spend some quality time with them.  Long story short, we had a great time, ate too much, laughed a lot, and I did no writing whatsoever for a solid week. 

Now I’m back at work and we are back to our regular routine.  Our air conditioning works great and we have clean clothes.  I write when I can, mostly on the weekends, and sometimes in the evenings.  But I write.  That is the key.  Even if I only get a paragraph or two written, it is progress.  Progress pushes me forward.  Progress allows me to not only feel accomplishment, but it also allows me to catch a glimpse into the future.  It allows me to see what this novel can be.  It’s not just a book.  It’s my book.  My first book.  That is one hell of a feeling.  Especially for someone who has hoped to accomplish a task of this scale for most of their life.  I feel good about it.  I feel like I am doing some good writing, and I hope that its readers will enjoy it. 

Sitting here now, I can actually envision a day when people are reading my book.  To be perfectly honest about it, I’m a little scared that no one will read it.  I’m a little frightened that I won’t be able to market it properly or get it to the readers that would enjoy it most.  And I’m a little afraid that no one will care. 

Part of the research I turned up on self publishing covered building buzz.  So a few weeks ago, before the A/C bidding wars, before the washer/dryer saga, and before we took off on vacation I built a Facebook page.  In fact, the page was created just prior to my first blog entry.  (Another bit of advice for self promotion.)  Since that time, the page has received 45 likes.  I don’t know if that’s a lot or not.  It doesn’t seem like a lot.  It seems like forty-five.  I reached out to all two hundred and six of my Facebook friends, and to all one thousand, one hundred three of my LinkedIn connections.  Somehow, I don’t think they’re taking me seriously.  In fact, only one of my three children “likes” the page so far. 

Maybe they’ll all like it better when the book becomes a big hit.  Maybe not.  Maybe they didn’t get the invitation.  Most likely they just ignored it.  I wonder if they knew the invite was from me, or if they saw the invite as just another piece of spam.  It’s also entirely possible many of them just didn’t care.  It’s possible that they don’t like to read, don’t want to read anything by me, don’t care about action/thriller/sci-fi novels or don’t believe in ebooks.  There could be a hundred reasons why they didn’t respond.

I was advised through my research to put up a launch page at LaunchRock.com.  So far not one person has signed up to be notified of the book’s launch date.  I was also advised to blog about the book, and because there is no feedback yet, I can’t be certain that anyone has read the first entry.  So, what do I think about all that?

None of it, not any of it, can matter to me.  None of this can be allowed to affect me, my attitude about the project, or my writing.  Because I have to keep pushing.  I have to keep doing whatever I can do to generate buzz.  Because I believe.  I believe in the book.  My book.  My first book.  I believe in myself as a writer.  I know I can write.  I’m doing it now.  Writing words that tell a story.  Is it a good story?  Who knows?  You be the judge.  You.  The reader.  The one sitting at your computer right now reading this sentence.  You will be the judge.  Because you do care.  You care enough to follow the progress.  You care enough to like the Facebook page.  You care enough to someday buy the book.  And even though I don’t know you, and you probably won’t show up to my wedding with cash, I love you.  I love you because you care enough to read my words.

To like the Facebook page, go here: Germ Line: Revolution Facebook Page

To be notified of the launch, go here: Germ Line: Revolution Launch Page

If you read this, please let me know with a quick comment.  Do I sound desperate for feedback?