Okay, finally…here's the big reveal.
Late last Spring I announced, truthfully, that I had completed writing the Sikh War Source Book (SWSB). However, upon turning it over to Patrick Wilson at TVAG and while expecting a quick turnaround for a late summer, even late fall publication, things began to fall apart.
Without going into details, while the book was completed, it was not "complete" as far as a final product was concerned. Patrick and I both wrangled and worked with this issue, but it soon became apparent that we weren't quite on the same wavelength. As time passed communications slowed down and eventually ceased. We both took stabs at getting in gear from time to time, but all for naught and when the holidays rolled around, the book was dead in the water.
The silver lining in regards to this incident is that Patrick and I had a long and frank conversation earlier this year and after several mea culpa's from both parties, our friendship has strengthened and I am still going to be writing that long awaited Dahomey War book for Patrick in the near future, he's even helping me with the artwork for this book.
On a completely unrelated matter, I had made the acquaintance of an overseas publisher a few years earlier and asked him for his advice in regards to how to proceed with the book. To my amazement he knew all about the book and expressed immediate interest, as long as I could meet certain legal requirements, which I did. So the offer was made and Voila, the contract signed; the future was looking bright.
Except, again without going into details, more barriers were placed on the road to progress. One involved a publisher requirement regarding the submission of maps, artwork and sketches, which really began to weigh me down; especially since the original book was slated to be very "artwork" heavy and now it seemed that all of the accumulated "eye candy", which both Patrick and I had exhaustively collected may not make the cut. I expressed my concerns to the publisher as time passed and he asked me to send the artwork CDs to him so that his artwork department could go through the collection and weed out those that would make the cut. A few weeks after receipt of the CDs the publisher wrote and informed me that a large amount of the artwork did make the cut and that he would be sending them back to me via CD so I could go through them, caption them and move on with completing the book. With this problem solved, a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders and another hurdle crossed.
Simultaneously, though, my personal life was going downhill and it became an absolute struggle at times for me to get anything accomplished. The upshot of this event was my becoming a member of the Deering Estate and starting a bi-weekly exercise program at nearby Coral Reef Park; which has not only greatly assisted me but sometimes is the only way for me to keep my spirits up and on track.
Quite frankly, there have been days where I wonder why I even try. But I do. No matter how small the baby steps I take on any given day to get something done with the book, at least I've accomplished something and the book is one step closer to publication.
The truly good news will follow directly in a succeeding post.
