A Friend Read my Book and Laughed and Laughed!

If my book was a sad tale and I wanted to evoke sympathy for my struggling hero, that 'Laughed and Laughed' response would have worried me. But "Dog Buddha's Thoughts" is a humorous tale about Buddhism from a naughty, slightly snarky hound named Buster the Dog, and I'm thrilled with the response - Laughter is the best medicine for this author's self-esteem!

So the reader of my book loved it and found it hilarious, that is certainly a good first step! This book isn't 'out there' yet, but it is due to be launched on July 29, at the P/A Hotel in Gawler, during the Adelaide  Plains Festival of Words. This Festival is an important part of my writing life, and an important part of the writing group I'm President of, Adelaide Plains Poets Chapter and Verse.

And this funny book is "Dog Buddha's Thoughts" which I now know as the third book in the Buster the Dog series. When I wrote the book that I now call the first in the Buster the Dog series, the book that this whole blog is named after, "Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs", when I wrote that book, I had no idea of it going as far as it has, I just wanted to have a little bookish fun with my artistic friend, Ally Hean.

The first book has sold well enough that I keep on needing to order some more copies of it, and the second book, "Doggone It! Mindfulness from a Dog's Point of View", has been selling copies every now and then too. I've been happy about the books selling, of course, but I have a funny feeling this third book will out sell the first two, and who knows, may actually make money into four figures, rather than just three figures ... Books are strange things, readers of books can be strange too, and you never know what people might want to read ...

Anyway, I have this set of three books, I'm getting ready to launch that third book, in a fortnight, and it's all fun and games. I just have to get the final editing of the book done, and corrections sent off to the printer, and all will be good. I imagine before next weekend, my car/office will be loaded up with the copies of "Dog Buddha's Thoughts" and my nerves will have begun upsetting my tummy! Nah, I'm not nervous, I've done this heaps of times, what could go wrong?

Hmm, I could get the books and my car could catch fire, I could crash into a bank and my car could be take by the police, I could suffer from amnesia and forget who I am, someone could say all of these Buster the Dog books are totally stupid and I should be ashamed of myself for selling them, cats could finally take over the world and ban books that are nasty to cats. Or cat owners all over the world could lobby and do the same thing on behalf of all cats. Or I could suffer from an acute case of low self-esteem and crawl into a small hole and refuse to come out again ...

I am a writer. I have sold my books. Some people have enjoyed my books. Some people have even found my books inspiring and have been helped by them (not any of the Buster the Books). I am aware of my ability to make others feel better about life, and smile. I am a writer, I will launch this new book and people will smile. Life continues to be good ...

Dog Buddha's Thoughts Book Gets Bigger

Well, I've been further editing my next book, fiddling with this and that, and the book just keeps on getting bigger and bigger! I'm seeing the Illustrator (Ally Hean) next week, and hope to have more thoughts and insights about the project arriving with the coffee and possible cake that will be a part of our discussions.

Self-publishing books is an interesting thing to do, I feel, I just wish I was an absolute star at doing it, rather than just an ordinary person doing it ... But hey,. I'm doing something many people will never do in their lives, and next month will be launching my fourth, no fifth self-published book, and I'm proud of myself for that.

Yes, it would be nice if someone else did all of the tricksy marketing things, and book setting up things, and getting it in libraries things. I'm certainly not great at those things. I'm a writer, I write, that's who I am. But I'm a self-published writer too, which means I'm a writer, a publisher, a book marketer and whatever else goes with getting the book 'out there'.

But this book "Dog Buddha's Thoughts" has been lots of fun too, it isn't a drag to get it done. I had so much fun writing the bits of text, thinking up the thoughts, and then thinking up Buster the Dog's responses to those thoughts. Buster and I are a great team, and who knows how much fun we might have with the next book, whatever it ends up being. And who knows, maybe one day a real publisher might want to re-publish the three books Buster the Dog and I have already done?! Haha as if!

This is one of Ally's illustrations. It needs a little editing still, but I love it! There is a great image for the front cover, and I have two more illustrations as well. This book is close to my heart, and I'm glad to be working with my friend Ally again on one of Buster the Dog's books!

This book is (I hope) going to be finished and printed soon, and then launched at the Adelaide Plains Festival of Words. The Festival, is also a project that is close to my heart. That project is organised by  Adelaide Plains Poets Inc, and we're getting more and more excited about this event, our third Festival. We're a small group, but we're doing big things!

Dog Buddha's Thoughts Progress Update

I'm pleased to be able to tell everyone that I have some progress on the book to report Yay! I have taken the material from one version of the file, and moved it to the new version of the file. Um yay? Really?

Yes really - getting these two files organised was a huge task, and having them separated was playing with my head, so it was well worth spending the time to copy stuff from on file and paste it in the other file. It may not sound like much, but trust me, it was.

I now have something I can call a first draft in progress, whereas before I just had two files playing at being something, without much actually there that looked like it could become a book ... The first draft version is in the proper order, and while there are still quite a few words to be added, I know exactly where they need to go now.

I may have written that a couple of times, but it's an important thing, knowing what you're doing. If I was still adding "thoughts" randomly as I was before, with no idea of which section these thoughts should be it, that would be a useless thing. Please believe me when I say I'm working well, and this book will be ready in time!

I love book launches, especially when it's my book being launched, and I'm certain "Dog Buddha's  Thoughts" will be finished and printed by the end of July, which is when this book is scheduled to be launched. This special date is during the Adelaide Plains Festival of Words festivalofwords.info go there for a look at the great program of word related things planned.