If you've wondered

      If you've been wondering where I've been, I spent the last several days working on the book formatting for Murder by Dewey Decimal. It has taken all my time and most of my energy, but today I finished it. Well, I finished the manuscript formatting. I still have to create a front and back cover for the book. Sigh.
      I am going to publish it with Lulu.com. I don't quite understand their cover format yet, but I thought I'd get the contents ready to go. I'd like to have it published by the end of June, and I don't see why that won't be possible. I sent the file to Crystal tonight for proofreading. She has a particularly good eye for that.
      I'm going to end the excerpts of it here after Chapter Five. Then I'll start posting excerpts of Darkness, Oklahoma, which is going to be my summer project. I intend to have Darkness finished by the end of August. Once again, I don’t don't see why that won't be possible as long as life doesn't throw me many curves.
      After that, I'd like to finish Figments (a play I've been jotting down scenes for) and Dragons Gather. The latter is a difficult project. I have a lot written on it, but I've never been able to complete a couple of chapters in the middle to my satisfaction. The story sort of flails around there. I like both the beginning and the ending of the book -- yes, I write out of order -- and several chapters in the middle so I think there's a story there if I could just dig it out.
      I had another doctor's appointment Thursday afternoon. A follow-up on the diabetes. I guess I'm doing all right. It's been somewhat depressing to see how my high my blood sugar is, but I'm running consistently below what I had been when I started so I think I'm winning the war slowly. There was some liver damage, which is what we discussed Thursday, but I should be okay as long as I get my blood sugar down. At least that's that my doctor thinks. My blood pressure is good, and most everything else is checking out okay.
      I sure have been looking forward to these three days off. It's so nice to not go to work for a few days. I look forward to the day when I'm out of debt and can seek a less stressful and more rewarding occupation. That appears to be several years in the future at the moment, but it does seem possible someday.
      I was asked by Randall and TL why I'm self-publishing Murder by Dewey Decimal. Several reasons. First, I don't expect it to ever be published by a commercial publisher. As must as I like the book, I recognize that it would never be a blockbuster. It would strictly be what they call a 'mid-list' book. In years past, publishers worked on developing a strong mid-list, but the blockbuster mentality has swallowed up publishing, and mid-list inventories are smaller than ever, especially for mysteries. I know a writer who wrote good mysteries back in the 80s, but she was dumped when her publisher cut back on its midlists. She eventually found another publisher, this one in the romance field, and she's making a living at writing, although not as good a one as previously. The rights have revered to her on several of her out-of-print mysteries, and she's thinking of publishing them herself to put them back in print.
      Second, self-publishing isn't the black mark it used to be. There have been many successful books that were originally self-published. Admittedly most of them have been non-fiction, but many fiction self-published successes also exist, Eragon and The Christmas Box to name a couple. I don't expect that type of success, but I'm not going to be ashamed that it's self-published, either.
      Third, as I've gone through this process, I've learned a lot and will continue to learn as I figure out how to produce the proper covers for it. I've always wanted to know about how a book becomes a book. Now, I'm learning.
      Fourth, if by some wild chance, it does sell okay, the sales figures supposedly will help me land an agent for other works. I don't know about that. Seems an agent might be suspicious of a self-published book, even one that sells well, but the writer mags say that sales are sales.
      But fifth and most important, I'm going to like having it in book form. And if it only ends up as Christmas gifts for my friends and family, I'm okay with that. The journey is worthwhile.
      Enough justifying. Other than working on MBDD, I don't have any big plans for the weekend. I might hit some sales on Monday, but I mostly intend on taking it easy and wasting time on the computer. What are you doing this holiday weekend? If you're traveling, drive carefully and watch out for the drivers who don't.
      And now I think I'll close and watch a movie. Y'all take care, and I'll see you tomorrow. Night.