SwampLog 3.0

Pimpin' Ain't Easy

A few new ventures for Your Humble Correspondent, as we barrel towards 2006:

* I'm doing some occasional writing for a new baseball blog collective, called It's A Talkin' Sport. Other than my first post, there are a couple of "getting to know you" posts from John Leeming and Joni Hardin, folks I've known and loved for years. The writers getting ready to come on board are an impressive lot, and I'm looking forward to the coming weeks.

* I've gotten an invitation to join Metroblogging: Dallas, and this should be a gas as well. Every time I try to move away from Dallas, I always end up coming back. I hope to talk about some of the reasons why I love North Texas so damned much.

* My book is in the edit phase right now. At this point, I don't know when it will actually be published, since there's heavy work to be done to it. I may have to restructure the narrative at this stage. At any rate, I hope to have it on the street by Devinukah 2006.

Chapter and Verse

For the 500th post for SwampLog 3.0, here are the chapter titles for my first book, When the Blinking Stops:

First Things First
37 Things I've Learned in 36 Years
What Do I Want?
Growing Up Devin
Transformation
Musique Nonstop
Never Say Goodbye (HIGHLY tentative)
Hold The Line
Superheroes
They Teach Classes, Don't They?
Interlude with Inner Bastard
I Am What I Play
The Three Amigos
Somebody Scream!
The Lesbian Who Loved Me
Finding Your Inner Madonna
Three Hundred Sixty Feet
Radiation Vibe
Interlude with Inner Bastard
Buzz In Now!
Confidence Man
Tug-Of-War
The Period of Abject Stupidity
Thump
Songs To Roast Your Eternal Soul By
Last Call
When The Blinking Stops

The first draft will be done and to editors by 15 December, and I look to have the book available through Amazon.com and direct Web sales by the end of January, unless a publisher picks it up.

500 posts later, I'm still amazed anyone's even reading SwampLog. Both Marty and I thank you for looking in on our charmed little existence, and hope you stick around. The coming months are bringing a lot of changes, both in our lives and with DAM.com.

Mazel tov!

The Last Mile

I'm not done with the first draft quite yet, but I thought I would crow for a few seconds:

This morning, I cracked the 50,000 word mark, and rolled into the "winner's circle" on the National Novel Writing Month challenge.

There's still a helluva lot of work left to be done on my book, but I'll be done with it by the middle of December.  At that point, it goes into edit and polish phase.  Past that, I hope to have it available for purchase by the middle of January.

Wow.  I did it.  There's a real sense of accomplishment here.

Home Stretch

I just cracked 40,000 words on my book.  10,000 more to write before next Thursday, to beat the NaNoWriMo challenge.

I actually think the book will be a bit longer -- around 60,000 words or so, to make the story complete.

The hard part is writing about things in my life that I'm not terribly proud of, or still affect me thinking about them.  I've got a good device for dealing with 'em, and I think readers will get a clearer picture of why things turned out the way they did.

I'm a bit behind on where I thought I would be, due to my yearly work on the Newberg Report Bound Edition.  This year's book is now available for pre-sale, and as always, I highly encourage any Rangers fan to pick up a copy.  They also make wonderful gifts for the "hard-to-buy-for" baseball fan on your gift list.

Well, 'The Bible' Was Taken

I was talking to Mike G. this evening, and the conversation turned to the book I'm working on. When he found out it was autobiographical, his first response was, "Well, we have a pretty big opinion of ourself, don't we?"

He then went on to suggest a few titles for the book (regardless of my protests). Some of his ideas:

Luck Favors the Portly
Are You There, God? It's Me, Devin
Dear Internet, I Love You: One Man's Story of Courage
Chapter One: Things Go Badly
This Isn't Going To Turn Out Well: One Man's Tale...
Overdrawn: The Advance For The Book Was Too Small
Never Thin Enough: One Man's Battle With Bulimia
I Did So Write A Book by Devin Pike
The Only Flower Press Book You'll Ever Need
Full Count: How Baseball Ruined My Life
File Not Found: One Man's True IT Story
Thin Scalp, Thick Skin: My Struggle With Male Pattern Baldness

He says the title should have a colon in it, to add gravity to the subject matter and make the reader sit up and take notice. Also, it should have a four-letter word in it, to stir the controversy pot.

Thanks, Mike. Bastard.