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Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs

Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs
a book for when your dog gardens too, too much!

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Taste of next Buster book - Dog Buddha's Thoughts

There are two books 'written' by Buster the Dog, (with help from me). These two books were fun to write,and have been well accepted by readers. Now it's time for the next one, and I'm enjoying the process again!

Once I have enough material I will forward the text to my illustrator - the clever lady Allyson Hean who illustrated the first two books, and she will give me some excellent pictures yet again. This process is an easy one - trying to find a publisher is a pain and self-publishing cuts through the bull, and I love the freedom of doing or organising it all. A publisher might not like something I love, and want me to change it. I don't have that problem! I'm a little bit precious about these Buster Books ...

The first of the books, "Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs" was never going to be the first in a series of books. Neither was the follow-up book, "Doggone It! Mindfulness from a Dog's Point of View", published this year, going to be the second book in a series of books. This third book though, "Dog Buddha's Thoughts", this book was going to be the third book in the series from the moment I conceived the idea of it. This made me realise the first two books were actually a part of a series ... and who knows where it might end...

I've been collecting possible 'thoughts' the Dog Buddha may have about life, in the meantime, and it's fun! I'm thinking after this third book, there may be another book called Dog's Dinner or Dog's Breakfast. Dog Days is another possibility or Dog Day Afternoon ... They will both require much research though. A cookbook called Dog's Dinner is the most likely out of these possibilities, I feel ...

Enough of such talk, I still have to finish book three, and find some more thoughts of the Dog Buddha, and then write up around 250-300 words about each of the thoughts... A fun task, but Christmas has got in the way today and the weeks before.

Cheers,

Are you looking forward to 2017? I am, having a writing project to work on always keeps me happy!




Friday, December 23, 2016

Things are Becoming Increasingly Progressingish!

Well yesterday, a Thursday, was the day for me to be at my favourite Cafe in Gawler or possibly in the entire world - Poetic Justice Cafe Gallery. On Thursdays I go to Poetic Justice Cafe Gallery (PJs), and basically stay there, talking, writing, have food and coffee, until it's time for me to head off to another Gawler venue for my writing group meeting.

I've been a little sidetracked recently with my writing, I'm certainly blaming Christmas for that ... Things are all skew-if, that's for sure. Anyway, I decided to do some pre-preparation, and printed out some things to do with my work-in-progress "Dog Buddha's Thoughts". When I arrived there were people I needed to talk to etc, but eventually, I had the chance to get to work on my own writing. And work I surely did.

By the time I left PJs yesterday, I had my next book in the 'Buster the Dog' series organised and I had the writer for the foreword of the book organised (Michelle Kynenburg, who did the same thing for me for book two (Doggone It! Mindfulness from a Dog's Point of View). This is a great thing, but even greater is the way I managed to get all of the snippets of book put into separate sections. I whittled my original plan of eight chapters down to three sections, and assigned all of the 'thoughts' I've written so far to their correct chapter.

I need more thoughts still though. around another four thoughts for each section I think. And then once that is done, by the end of January 2017, I hope, I will send the thoughts all off to my illustrator (Allyson Hean), and also send the manuscript to Michelle for her to begin thinking about and writing the foreword for the book. This is fun! And then once those parts are all done, I do a final read of it, give it to a couple of readers for feedback perhaps, and then off to the printer for getting the books done!

I love the freedom of doing it myself, instead of the tedious and sometimes disappointing method of the traditional method of getting books out into the world (or facing rejection after rejection and then giving up, another disappointed wannabee writer ... I am perfectly happy to be a self-publisher. These days, this form of publishing has gained far more respect, and most people no longer look down on those taking this path.

So that's it, my next book is well on the way to being ready to be launched at the Adelaide Plains Festival of Words 2017! And that Festival was also talked about yesterday, and some tasks assigned to sub-committee members. All good again!


I love my life!