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Sunday, August 27, 2017

Big News




I know these are long complicated links, but if you ignore that and just click on them you’ll get to pages that have my book for sale for $12. If you buy it from CreateSpace I get a little bit more money. The CreateSpace genies are wonderful people who have made it possible for poets who have spent a bazillion dollars on contest entry fees, searched high and low, hither and thither for an indie publisher, and gotten not only generally fed up with trying to get someone else to publish their book but suspected their wonky heart was up to tricks and they might not have an indefinite amount of time (well, none of us do, eh?) to find this someone else to publish their books.

Even with the help of this publishing site and the lovely voices on the phone, I think my project would still be in the project stage if a friend (more than that; he and I used to make art in our dance company days) named Paul Hindes hadn’t said “I can help you format your book. I know how.” (I clearly didn’t know how.) He is truly a shining knight who knows his stuff. I’ll leave it at that; don’t want to embarrass him.

We were slightly bogged down on the 22nd version when I had a heart attack on July 5th and 6th. Yep. A two day affair. I called Paul from the hospital (he lives far away in New York’s countryside) as soon as they’d let me and I thought I was relatively coherent, and said, “I had a heart attack—we have to finish the book before I die!” And he said, “Right. Okay. I’m on it. Rest.” —or words to that effect. My brother Peter had already drawn an image for the cover and although I thought it was perfect, I had to learn how to make it into a book cover, and when I was home from the damn ICU for a few days,(sorry nurses and doctors; you were amazing and saved my life, but no one likes being in an ICU, do they?) my brother Robert, who came down from Philadelphia to help look after me and cook fabulous meals for Peter and I, took an author photograph that even I like.

Over the last six weeks, with Paul’s help, CreateSpace voices on the phone, loving encouragement from family and friends, and some doctoring, my book got finished and now it is available—out in the world, eager to be read. Oh, and I feel pretty damn good. Apparently heart attacks come in all varieties, and although in my excitement I may sound a bit flippant, I am taking it seriously. I am grateful to all of you who have helped me get through these last weeks. As Czleaw Milosz said, “There is no one between you and me.” We don’t all understand this yet, but maybe someday we will.



7 comments:

Mathew Paust said...

Scrolling back up to order. Congrats, dear Lady!

Elizabeth said...

Congratulations, Nonnie.

david coyote said...

Well done, Cuz! On bringing your new book to life, and on surviving the heart attacks. Well done! Well done!

And a belated Happy Birthday, too.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, dear Nonnie, and tons of hugs and purrs!
Marja

Anonymous said...

Congratulations (again and again!!)
xoxo Maia Cavelli

Diana Ferraro said...

Congratulations, dear Nonnie, for your new book! A big hug and all my love!

Karen thisoldhouse2.com said...

Congratulations!!.. I love that Peter' art is on your cover, too.