Instead of this being a short, charming family history, this project has turned into the fulfillment of a life goal: writing a book. A real book. A 300 pages book. That’s probably 400 pages in paperback format. I always thought a book I’d write would be fiction but it turned out to be non-fiction. I had given up on this goal years ago. I just never thought I’d make it happen. Yet, here we are. When people ask me what my hobbies are I can honestly say: writing. Writing has always been a hobby, however somtimes on hiatus. The blog has been a good outlet for it, though, kept me back on track. And now there’s a book. I’m a writer with something to show for it.
The book is meaty with historical records as well as research. It includes fun bits and pieces – like our family’s personal history with the great J.L Hudson department store in downtown Detroit. It includes a page about myself (all this time I was pretty much going to record my academic degrees and one additional sentence – I decided to give myself a little more room). It includes the real recipe for Sander’s bumpy cake.
The famous Sept 1 deadline has just passed. Sept 1 was the date by which all writing would be done so I could concentrate on formatting. I was unable to stop myself from doing formatting work as I went along so much of that is done already. It’s not actually “crunch time” on formatting. I’ve set a new deadline for “end of writing” and that’s Sept 17th/18th. That weekend will be the “official” switch date from writing to what’s left of formatting. Oct. 1 is still the date to get all the materials to the printer in time for winter holiday delivery. I have no concerns about that date.
The quote I got on the book was for 170 pages. Turns out the book is going to be about 300 8 1/2 X 11 pages. The printing is not the expensive part of this process, it’s the binding, so this is not a big monetary problem (I promise, Uncle N!) .
My friend Seafarer is doing the cover and wow! is she doing a fantastic job. I was afraid I was going to have to do it myself which would have meant plain words would have been on the cover. She’s got images and text in various (subtle) fonts to make it look pretty and even stuff on the back. I am THRILLED. I’d post it but it’s not done yet. I’ll show you when it is.
So, progress report. The longest chapter is done. That was a lot of work. It’s about my great grandfather and his family and his grandkids (spare my mom and brothers who each have their own chapter – so in essence this chapter is about all my mom’s cousins and their kids). This is the guy that Davison ran away from and it turns out Davison wasn’t the only child to incur his father’s wrath. I had to do my own copy editing. Turns out I wasn’t real happy with my copy editor so I’m doing that part myself for about the last third of the book.
One other chapter would be done if I just shut up and let it be. That’s on my grandparents, to whom the book is dedicated. I just keep reading more about the 50s and wanting to put more stuff about the 50s in there.
The last chapter I’m not done with has a solid outline.
I’m waiting on one more essay from a family member to come in. His info is fascinating so I hope to get it soon.
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