If it Were Easy, Anybody Could Do It …

Editor Bob and Author Carole Jean

And we’re not just anybody! 

Efrén, Carole Jean and Evelyn

As a newly self-published author, I have a heightened respect for anybody who ventures into such a project. It takes a village! I would have been lost without my village. At times, it was the blind leading the blind, but we did it! And had fun along the way.

Writing the book was the easy part, and that was NOT easy. Bob Brashears is a man of many talents, one of which is brilliant editing. He not only found blatant errors, but made gentle suggestions for improving my stories. He helped me learn nuances with Microsoft Word, the DropBox program, and how to share and edit files while in two different locations. This may seem elementary to some, but to me, it is rocket science.

Speaking of rocket science, the talented printing team at Edinexo Printing, Efrén and Evelyn perform miracles and embrace me as family.  I was introduced to this amazing team by Deacon Blake, author of “Mercenary Justice,” and the soon to be released sequel “Mercenary Vengeance.” Deacon publishes his books online and Edinexo handles his paperback printing.

This is the third project I have completed with Efrén and Evelyn, and each time they have displayed more talent and dedication than the time before. I had set myself an unreasonable  deadline for the completion of “Flying High with Carole Jean.” It came about because of a posting made on a Facebook page called “Stewardesses of the 1960’s and 70’s.” Yes, there is such a page, and it has over seven thousand members. There was a gathering initiated and planned by Nancy Duke and Coni Binkley scheduled for May 1 in Atlanta, Georgia. I had written a few chapters of my airline memoir, and with this meeting coming up, I vowed to attend with book in hand. I had a built-in audience!

When I told my good friend and editor, Bob, my plan he shook his head. The best way to get me to do something is to tell me I can’t do it. Although I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, I spent my second and third year in Kansas City, Missouri. The “Show-Me” state must have rubbed off on me, because it only takes that challenge for me to set my jaw and dig in. I had sixty days to get my manuscript to the printer! My goal for the book was fifty thousand words, which translates to about 250 pages. If I wrote a thousand words a day, I could do it!

Some said, “Impossible!”

I said, “I’ll show you!”

I dug in. I spent days at the keyboard, sometimes only leaving for the necessaries, and to take Toby, my extra-large Chocolate Lab, for his walks. That is a given. If I wait too long for the walk, a giant paw comes thwapping down on my keyboard and the writing stops. Mid-sentence, mid-word – When Toby has “had it,” it’s time for the walk. Period.

I discovered a new technique. I carried a notebook and pen with me on the walks. The problem was the glasses – even though they are progressive, with the reading portion at the bottom of the lens and the “distance” section at the top, I kept looking through the wrong part and stumbling around on the hilly road, looking like an uncoordinated idiot. Fortunately, there are very few people on the road so the only ones that would laugh and snicker were the ever-present weed-whackers, and they barely noticed me as they focused on their work-at-hand cutting tall grass and dodging snakes.Yeah, my neighborhood, Roca Verde, in Atenas, Costa Rica is known for snakes.

I had asked Bob, super-editor, if I should send him chapters as I wrote them or send the whole book at once. I did not like the answer: send it all at once!

I got to forty thousand words, looked at the calendar, and decided to cut myself short. After the editing, we ended up with about forty-five thousand words, and a polished piece that made a decent showing at just over two hundred pages to just abut fit the attention span of the average reader in today’s mega-busy society.

Bob and I suffered many challenges, including sitting side-by-side editing printed manuscripts while burning embers from the Roca Verde brush-fire were flying by with ashes landing on the pages. I refused to stop in spite of it. I had a deadline dammit! I had to get the final Word file to Efrén by the next day to assure delivery in time for the Atlanta event.

Carole Jean in the jet engine

Hooray! We did it. And a book was made! It was well received at the event. I carried seventy pounds of books in my suitcase, and I-don’t-know-how-many in my carry-on.  It was worth it, but it wasn’t easy.

Well – if it were easy, anybody could do it.

And we’re not just anybody!  

Carole Jean with Books

Available on Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Flying-High-Carole-Jean-Connolly-ebook/dp/B00XD7ULWE