Back to the Book

When last I wrote I discussed an increasing tendency to be super cautious.   This post is different.  You see, I've done a couple of things in the last two weeks which I think are progress.   First, I completed the final chapter in the section on philosophy - that is focused on values.  It proved more difficult to write in part because the subject  is not an area where I have spent a ton of time studying the issues.  The ratio of economics and finance books and articles in my library to religious texts is perhaps 879:1.   (That is not because I only have 879 books on finance, economics and tax issues.).  I sent it to three friends more qualified than I to look at the draft.

Second, I got out the conclusions chapter which I finished almost a year ago.  The opening meme (A glass is neither half full or half empty but refillable) is still on point.  But believe it or not since I got that first draft done my thoughts have modified, a bit, in many areas.  Writing a book like this is an iterative process - and thanks to the people who have read chapters also an interactive one.   So I have begun to redraft that last chapter.

Third, then there is Filomen.  One Sunday night two years ago as  Quinlan and I were going out to dinner with some friends  we encountered a burro parked on the street, standing there calmly.  I thought the photo was evocative of many issues raised in the book and thought it could be a perfect cover photo.  I went to the guy who is doing design and he said my photo was a bit thin. (Not enough pixels). So I tried a bunch of techniques but could not get to the density needed.  So I called a bunch of friends in SMA who gave pointers to the Burro Guy in SMA (Armando Rivera).  I found him, talked him into coming up to the original site of the photo. He spends many Sundays with Filomen posing for pictures around the Centro.  He noticed my facemark and remarked "Tu cubraboca es Filomen!" (Your mask is Filomen).   We walked up - I shot several pictures.  They may not be enough. If not I will ask him again to help me so I can shoot one more shot in RAW image. (Which is 25 Megapixels).   When I started this project one friend told me based on his experience of writing a book - that at one or more times you will become obsessed with a detail - either running down a fact or something like this photo.  Ok, so that obsession thing seems to have passed, for now.

Fourth, a book written by two friends came out this week, called Mitka's Secret, which is about Mitka Kalinski. At the beginning of WWII Mitka was orphaned from his parents and then spent all of the war either in concentration camps or as a slave of a Nazi sympathizer.   He then spent a couple of years in post WWII relocation camps and eventually was relocated to the US.   He started in the East, married and then made a life in Sparks, Nevada.  He never learned to read and write.  But he worked hard and became comfortable retaining an indomitable spirit.   The book is hard not to read it in one setting - It is an inspiring story of the indomitable human spirit.  Mitka's Secret has a much different focus than Of Course It's True" but it showed me there is light at the end of tunnel.

Finally, beginning next week I will go through the entire draft one final time before sending it off the my editor and the designer.  With luck, Of Course It's True Except for a Couple of Lies (Por supuesto que es verdad, excepto por un par de mentiras - if there is ever a Spanish version), will be in print by the end of the year.