Here we go!

I've had my first meeting with Marion, who is the lady putting this all together for me. She made copies of all my different Files and sent them to her computer; that way she didn't have to copy them onto disks to plug into USB ports. She will start putting each chapter into manuscript condition and any more revisions will have to be done on those. I am searching valiently for the Cover sketches I made, and haven't found them yet. (I sure put them in a "safe place.") She is going to write to the cartoonist David Fitzimmons, to ask permission to reduce the large poster cartoon he made of me, to add it to the "middle seat". My job now is to go over every chapter, and put it in final shape. She's coming back on Saturday afternoon, to start a website in my name, so that as I approach the deadline to print, anyone who googles my name will be directed to the website, which will include all my Blog site going back to 2017. Today's Zoom with the Writers Group was a talk based on The Four Pillars of Memoir writing. a very good discussion, and I was happy to note that my book follows all their suggestions. Big sigh of relief.

No longer on Facebook

Hi, Everybody! I apologize for the lack of a blog so far into February. One of the reasons is that I have cancelled Facebook, and while it is easy-peasy to join, when you want to get out, try to find "Unsubscribe" anywhere in their information. I have become disillusioned with Facebook: When I told my Writers Group that I was nearing publication time for my Memoirs, they all said I had to increase my "Platform" to reach more Buyers, and join Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Well, we all know who uses Twitter and the lies that proliferated every day to the point that even THEY stopped his account. And I have to confess that unless you just climbed to the top of Kilimanjaro, I'm not interested in where you've been, (Costco?), what you've done (baked sourdough bread?), or whether you got any sleep last night. I'm up until two a.m. every night and who cares? Facebook usually contains old jokes, older cartoons, or inane comments, and I'm wasting my precious time reading it all. Plus, all the Friends of Friends of distant Friends, whom I haven't exchanged an email with in 10 years. And finally, I don't like all the rag-tag organizations Facebook allows on their site. So I had my cleaning lady (she's a genius on the computer) stop vacuuming today, long enough to finally find that magical word "Unsubscribe" and voilà, I'm outta there! So, for those of you who recently DID climb Kilimanjaro, please send me an email and tell me all about it. janicefingado@gmail.com. I'll get right back to you. My holidays turned out to be really busy, along with the capricious doctors's appointments, etc. but I now have some interesting news for those of you on my Blog. I now have a Copy Editor and Formatter, who will be working on all the chapters, turning them into manuscripts. She's a former member of my Writers Group who is now in the publishing business, wants to get my book in proper shape and has given ME a deadline. To have someone who knows you and knows your "voice" is a big advantage, and at the same time be nicely "bossy" is probably the necessary "when push comes to shove" that I needed. My head is whirling with all that I must do, but I have the incentive that I needed to do it. And, to help all of you still struggling with the questions, I'll be forthcoming in future tweets on my Blog to tell you the sequence of what we are doing. It will still be printed by Amazon, so it will be on sale through them and to heck with Facebook. I'm excited. Whew, back to work, Janice