I'm Published...well, sort of.

OK, so it's not on Oprah's book of the month list. It's also not being promoted by Doubleday...

But, I've finally finished with my first novel: Seven Letters.

Here's the story behind the "Story"...

Last January I was at Barnes and Nobles looking for a book by Ann Lamont (Bird by Bird was the title). The book was Lamont’s memoirs on being an author. While looking for it a very young sales clerk “up sold” me a second book (he should have gotten a raise) called “No Plot, No Problem”. I had no idea what the book was, but since it was cheap, I added it to my pile of books to purchase.

When I got home Promise Ann grabbed, Bird by Bird, and we argued over who would read it first. She finally took “No Plot, No Problem” and as we read we both compared note on our readying.

It turned out that No Plot No Problem was not just a book on writing, but a book that challenged would-be authors to write a small novel IN JUST ONE MONTH! Promise got hooked on the idea and asked me if I would join her in the month-long project. I really wanted to encourage her, so I agreed and we set March as our “Write A Novel In a Month” date.

We both got off to a good start and it was a lot of fun sharing our ideas for our individual books – the plots, twists and other issues – for me it became an obsession – being the obsessive that I tend to be – so I pressed on, skipping TV and other personal pleasures and spending an hour or so every day writing.

At the end of week three – with nine days to go – I crossed the 50,000 word goal and still was not at the end of the story that was forming on my computer. I finally finished the story at about 60,000 words! With seven days to spare!

That was March 18th. What took three months to write has taken three months to edit and it's still rough. But the time has come to end my misery and get the thing out there for others to critize and wrestle with!

I've self-published through LULU Press (www.lulu.com) which is a print-on-demand company. What's cool is that I'm not out any $$$ and anyone who happens to actually want to read the thing can purchase it for about $12 (plus shipping).

For everyone else...just celebrate with me that I crossed the line and actually wrote my own "Great American Novel"!

You can preview the first chapter of Seven Letters at http://www.lulu.com/content/967008.

Now...to write the "Great American Song"...better go get busy!