Coming into the Home Stretch...

-

Well, I started this blog three months ago on March 30, 2011.  My goal was to follow my various journeys.  Some of those journeys have found completion, some are in process, and one is gradually coming into the home stretch.  Does anyone else look at their life like that?  As a collection of simultaneous journeys?  It's kind of fun for me.

JOURNEY TO RENT OUT THE FAMILY CONDO.
This journey has finally come to a happy close.  My sweet Mom passed away in 2009. After living there off and on, I decided it would be best to rent it out as a two bedroom apartment.  In May 2011 -- two great new tenants moved in.  They are young women studying animation at the School of the Art Institute.  My Mom would have loved having young artists live there.  So this journey has come to fruition.

JOURNEY TO FIND A STEADY BOY FRIEND.
I've met two interesting fellows on line, and have now talked to them by phone.  They have both passed the crucial phone test.  They are comfortable phone talkers. One is more outgoing than his pensive photo led me to believe.  The other is a bit of a talker but hopefully will be open to sharing.  One of them I will meet for lunch this Friday.  The other I hope to meet for a meal soon.  As fate would have it, they both called me for the first time the night before the Pride Parade.  I took that as a promising omen.  This journey is in progress.

JOURNEY TO FIND EMPLOYMENT.
Well, with the new income stream from have tenants in the family condo -- I have found some respectable employment as a landlord.  A new hat for me to wear.  I also started working part time for a local newspaper.  It's a special summer project to help archive decades of physical photographs to turn over to the Chicago History Museum.  It's low-stress work for a good cause with nice people.  And there are some journalist writing opportunities I can pursue there.  Having a regular part time gig would be the ideal supplement to being a landlord.  So I've never been closer to completing this journey than I am today!  In spite of this awful, unending recession.

JOURNEY TO SELF-PUBLICATION OF MY NOVEL.
I feel I am finally coming into the home stretch on the journey to self-publication.  I'm not sure exactly when the moment occurred where I chose to begin the journey.  I've been mulling the idea over for a year at least.  But I got serious about in at the start of 2011.  In April, I finished tweaking PROSPECT and send it off to CreateSpace, the self publisher.  On April 26, I had my initial consultation about the CS process and my book.  Three week later I got my editor Sarah G's brilliant analysis and edit of my full book, with suggestions for revisions.  Yesterday June 28, I got Sarah's great analysis on the newest scenes.  And now I'm pretty much on my own to finalize the manuscript, and move on to working with the designers of the book cover and interest.  The final stretch toward self publication.

I've also done a book giveaway on Goodreads.com.  950 strangers from around the country responded to my giveaway and the premise of my book!  I will send out 20 free hard copies of the book to the winners.  My strategy for a successful book launch in August one part marketing and one part spiritual.  I plan to do my Buddhist chanting that my book reaches every single person on earth whose life will be enriched by reading it. On the marketing side, I'm almost done creating a new website for the book ProspectOfMyArrival.weebly.com -- and I've finished tweaking a great book trailer which also resides on that site.

I guess in the business world this is what is called project management.  How are your own multiples journeys working out?

P.S.  I'm borrowing an idea from fellow blogger Christine Murray who has chosen one day a week to regularly post new blogs.  I've chosen Wednesday, hump day, to do so.  Keep me honest, guys.

Comments

Post a Comment

Comments are always appreciated! Thank you.

Popular posts from this blog

My entry to the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards

-
Image
It's Monday, Jan 28. I am part of a large blogging event called the "Re-Introduce Myself" Blogfest where I get to introduce myself to new audiences. My name is Dwight Okita. I live in Chicago where I design websites and work at a nonprofit for the visually impaired. I just finished writing my second novel THE HOPE STORE and I've entered it in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. You can learn more about the contest at www.amazon.com/abna Below is the pitch for my book: "We don't just instill hope. We install it."  That's the slogan for the first store in the world to sell hope over the counter.   Luke Nagano goes to sleep each night dreaming about hope and how to make more of it, ever since he lost his sister. He and his partner prepare the store for its grand opening. As media interest grows, an activist group called the Natural Hopers emerges with the mission to warn the public about the dangers of synthetically created...
Read more
-
Image
NOTE:  My colleague Dawn Raffel's lovely new book THE SECRET LIFE OF OBJECTS   has been published. It contains tiny, luminous pieces of narrative.  In celebration of that, I and other writers from LEA, the League of Extraordinary Authors, have been asked to write a piece of flash fiction of our own.  This is mine. "I Was At The Zoo"   by Dwight Okita I was at the Lincoln Park Zoo gift store, browsing the dizzying menagerie of toys on sale.  One stuffed animal called out to me -- a small, furry stuffed penguin.  My mother would love it. But as the penguin sat in my apartment that night, bashful beside the white lamp, I knew my mind was changing. I could not part with my new friend. The next day, I made a full confession. "I was going to give him to you, Mom, but he's just too cute to give away." "Oh, I have lots of stuffed animals.  You keep him. I've got stuffed animals coming out of my ears!" "Are you sure it's oka...
Read more

Messages from beyond. My late mother still sends me greeting cards.

-
Image
I was doing some major housecleaning for the new year. For a few weeks cardboard boxes formed a holy circle in the middle of  my apartment.  It looked like I was moving. I should mention that my dear, quirky mother had passed away two years ago.  Barely a day goes by I don't think about her and miss her.  I came upon a box of greeting  cards I had saved.  This one below was from four years ago (just over a year before her stroke) and is really amazing and touching.  For now it has a second  meaning.  It's just like my mom to continue to send me messages after her passing.  She was a woman who adored a good greeting card!
Read more