Well....got a job....but that's not the importiant part...

Well I finally got a source of income. Granted there isn't much work for a Stage Manager and Technical Director in a small town in Northern Arizona, but it's just until the begining of the second half of the season.

But, more important: I'm getting one of my books published!!!

I sent in a copy of one of the manuscripts I've had kicking around for about 4 years to my mom's publisher and expected them to send me a nice rejection letter in about 6 months.

Turns out, they actually want to try to publish it...for MONEY!!!

Granted this will take at least 6 months before I start seeing ANY money from it, and it will be small to start with unless for some reason a TON of people buy it, but it's a start.

Let's see if I can actually get anything out of it.

 

It's actually a fiction book based off of a great uncle of mine who worked for Piaggio right after the war when he was a teenager. The basic premise is about a 19 year old kid living in a fictional province on the Northern Italian/Southern Austrian border who gets a job with a plant who is trying to start making motorbikes after producing aircraft for the Facist party during the war. The book covers a 2 year span of his life to his 21st birthday which coincides with the surprise construction of the Berlin Wall in Germany.

Along with all the basic stuff one faces in their first job, it's also an analysis of the beginnings of the cold war. At the plant he's apprentice to a team of machinists: A veteran who still firmly believes in Mussolini, a German expatriot who is a member of the then newly formed National Democratic Party, and an old guy who's half Italian/half Russian who is an ardent Communist. As time goes on, the plant goes from experiment to actually making a profit, and the issues of workers wanting to Unionize, building fear of Communism Dari's family (the protagonist of the book) trying to rebuild a new life with capitalism on one side, and communism on the other.

Granted this is my first attempt ever at attempting this, I've got a writer in the family who's going to be a great resource with all the editing that will be surely attempted. It's only one step in a LONG process, but I'm just shocked that they accepted the manuscript.

 

Heh.... will hardly become famous off this. After a year I'll be happy to break even.

Remember: This is the age of the PSP, iPod and American Idle... nobody reads anymore unless it's another Harry Potter book.

My mom's got 4 books under her belt and she STILL has to have other projects to just make a living.

 

Heh.... the LAST thing I would want Oprah to do is endorse something I wrote. It's not full of trendy ideals or tragic people that the Oprah audience can "relate" to.

Anything she touches turns to commercial crap. You get one of her "endorsements" then kiss any other chance of unique work suceeding goodbye. Everyone will demand the same thing as before. It's the only reason RK Rowling is popular: She produces the same crap over and over and over like a coca-cola plant. She'll never be able to publish anything different because the buying public won't let her now. It just won't sell.