History of the Weekend: Wednesday Wanderings

You were expecting me to lead my blog story with some other picture?  Not from Tom "Shameless Plug" Strait.

Five day weekend!

What to do?  What to do?

Being instinctively lazy, the thought of reading entire novels, eating chocolate bonbons, binging on television, and bonding with the dogs - they all seemed tempting and worthwhile activities.

But not this super extended weekend.

I had goals and dreams to pursue.

And, even though it took me hours more than I anticipated, I moved the goal line into the red zone.  I have a book.  Repeat.  Houston, I have a book.

Thursday was final edit day. Painstakingly going through the novel for the umpteenth time,  the neverending quest of catching typos and inconsistencies.  I also added a dedication and an afterword.  The dedication was like giving an Oscar speech - for as many people whom you thanked, you still had the nagging feeling you had left others out.

When I got to the ebook, I had to edit another four times (mostly formatting issues) to get the book to get into an acceptable condition.

On Friday evening, my son Doug came down to visit us.  I would drift off to my "project" now and again. but for the most part I enjoyed his company.  We saw X-Men: Apocalypse (8 Rips out of 10). and ate at a new restaurant in downtown Brunswick, The Farmer & the Larder.

If you remember my review of Captain America: Civil War, I commented how I was not fond of the Heroes vs. Heroes storylines, but that movie had pulled it off in a way that was far better than I was expecting?  Well X-Men Apocalypse did not pull it off.  I found the divide of heroes arbitrary and over the top.   They were pared up with a villain responsible for massacring what had to be millions.  How do you come back to being a hero after that?  Particularly egregious was the behavior of Magneto. His disturbance of the magnetic field is indicated to be worldwide, and you cannot convince me that it did not result in a horrendous loss of life.  Which brings up the other problem with the movie - the damage done is like Superman:Man of Steel times 100.  There were pluses, with entertaining characters and some good action sequences. A standout is Quicksilver, particularly in a wonderful rescue scene played out to the music of Eurythmics' song, Sweet Dreams.

The Farmer & the Larder was a wonderful place.  We had to make reservations, making them for when they opened at 6.  At first, we worried about the place because we were the only ones there.  But by 6:30 the place started to fill up, and by 7 it was packed.  I had the Double Oink, which was a pork chop wrapped in bacon.  It was very delicious, as was Alison's pecan and goat cheese salad, Benjamin's Farmhouse Burger and Doug's Veggie Fritter. It is a farm to table restaurant, with fresh, local and homemade ingredients, and I highly recommend it.

On Sunday night, we played Exploding Kittens, a new game played with cards,  It;'s a highly charged version of Old Maid, really.  To everyone's surprise, including my own, I was the family champion.

So back to the novel!  After successfully launching the ebook (now available from Amazon Kindle for only $3.99), the next step was the more difficult - prepare the book for hard copy production; an honest to gosh 'feel it in your hands' paperback book!  This was worse than the ebook.  I kept stumbling down blind alleys, doing all the wrong things.  But with the help of my fellow guild members, via the Internet, I was finally able to plough my way through the process.

We had other guests on Memorial Day (still not a holiday in the school system), inviting them to our home for grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.  The guests were a hard working mother and her five children, who had moved to Texas where she was getting a college degree and making a great life for herself and her family.  I identified with her struggles.  She moved to her find her own identity, as I did when I moved from Michigan to Georgia.

Back to the novel!  After step after stubborn step, plagued with problems and false steps that had to be backed up and tried again, I have a proof that will be arriving at my home tomorrow.  After reviewing, I can give the ok, and I will finally have a published book.  Self- published, yes, but published nonetheless.

If you would like a copy, let me know.  I will be glad to sign it for you!

T.M. "Shameless Plug" Strait