The Long and Winding Road
This book had quite an adventure of its own and it seemed that it was trying to influence me in a different direction than I was planning to go. I knew from the moment I started writing the manuscript that something very intriguing was happening. What happened that very first morning after I got up that I have already talked about in my post Merry Christmas to Me, and the story about the profound statement from a fortune cookie that I talked about in the book’s preface, but strange things continued to happen after that. After I typed the final words: The End, I sat back on the couch and looked at the TV. I immediately saw a shooting star fly across the screen on a commercial. I had finished writing the story, but a new one had already begun. Thus began the long and winding road.
What followed was not fiction, although at times I was having a hard time believing all that was happening to me and around me. The story itself had a path that stayed fairly steady. The words that had collected and put together formed a completed story for me; still no intention for passing on to other eyes. However, there was no way that the story was not going to pass another set of eyes: my wife’s.
It was a Saturday afternoon. She kicked me out of the house so she could read my manuscript without my set of eyes looking over her shoulder. She made herself a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and then put a cherry on top. It was April and she had not had one of those all winter. Ironically, toward the end of the book the main character Mackenzie sat down in her chair with a cup of hot chocolate and whipped cream with a cherry on top before watching a video.
When I finally got the courage to return home that day, I arrived just as she was finishing the story. With fear in my heart, she looked at me and told me that it was a great story. Even though she was my wife and she was a supportive wife, she was not a good liar.
I was confused. I wasn’t sure why it really mattered, but it did. Still, I gave her the benefit of the doubt that she was my wife and she was just telling me it was good so she wouldn’t have to deal with a bruised ego of mine. We passed the manuscript along to a couple of well trusted friends who read it and gave their well trusted response that matched that of my wife. I gave them the same benefit of the doubt.
It was August when my wife signed me up for a four-week workshop with a credible author, without my knowledge (or permission). After that point I hired him, again at the encouragement of my wife, to perform a professional edit. His expert opinion provided me the first real thoughts of taking this a bit more seriously. He told me that the story was good and I wouldn’t be embarrassing myself by pursuing publishing the book.
I thought the publishing part would be the easy part. For me, the writing turned out to be the easy part while the publishing side of things, not so much. Earlier in my life I worked in the music industry with marketing and promotion. I thought that it wouldn’t be a big stretch doing it with books and publishing. A lot had changed in the past forty years with the invention of the internet. I was having to start from scratch if I were going to publish the book myself. I thought I was too old to go shopping the manuscript to a literary agent and then a publishing company.
So, I decided to publish it myself. I was a smart man with marketing experience. Well, I wasn’t as smart as I thought, particularly when it came to technology. Now, I do believe I could’ve done it in less than five years if it wasn’t for all the other detours along my journey. The road was filled with many twists and turns that were mostly out of my own control.
In November, I took a contracting job with the company my wife had worked for 24 years. I was only supposed to help with a transition of new ownership. I anticipated a three-to-six-month time frame. It was around the six-month mark that I was offered a full-time position. A lot of work that needed to be done. I was enjoying the work and the steady paycheck that went along with it. These were all my choices.
Work on the book continued, but at a much slower pace. Further editing and waiting for lyric permissions were taking some time. I still wasn’t all in on making the book thing happen so there wasn’t any sense of urgency on my part anyway. The problems that occurred next were not my choosing by any means.
January, 2018. My wife was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia. She was immediately sent to RUSH Medical Center in Chicago and spent nearly seven weeks on their isolation floor. For the next eight months she would be going to chemo treatments and spend time recovering. For me, everything else took a back seat; basic survival took priority. That meant being supportive to all things related to my wife and my 90-year-old mother living on her own. I was responsible for taking care of everything: our parents, our kids (cats), our household, our jobs, me and everything else. These were all things my wife had been doing. I was not much good at any of it-especially gratitude for all she did without complaint. I had a lot of learning to do and I had to do it on the fly.
All of this had put my life in a very clear perspective of the things that are really important. I had had my round of cancer and I had learned how that can change everything. Now, my wife had her turn with cancer, and for me, that was much more difficult to experience. It took some time. She came out of it pretty well but going through something like that, from either side, changes your perspective on everything, or at least it should.
For some strange reason, as we were coming out of this, the idea of finishing the book journey seem to become more important. I can’t say for sure why, but it did. I thought that the road was now open for us to continue with publishing the book. Apparently, the universe felt otherwise…
