I have never been that successful in any endeavor in which I ever engaged, except perhaps teaching and supervising mathematics, my professional career for 41 years. I have always considered myself a "6" on the scale of 1 to 10 in everything I ever attempted such as swimming, guitar playing, TV production, and now book writing. Nonetheless, I never let that stop me from pursuing my dreams and goals. Even as a blogger I am a "6". Lately with these two books I have written, this is becoming more obvious to me. My two books are not great, really, except the second one is greater than than the first, maybe a "7". I do have a story to tell and can be interesting to listen to in conversation or in blogging (or hosting a TV show). I will just not let my limitations prevent my story from being told regardless of how imperfect I am as a writer of blogs, books, etc. Even my story might also be a "6" who knows. That being said I will now tell you how difficult it is to write a book. My goal in writing books first of all was to tell my story, but especially for my descendants to know who I was. My biggest frustration is not having known anything about my ancestors ! Even my own father and sometimes mother were a mystery to me. I will not let that happen for my grandchild, great grandchildren, or anyone else who might be interested to know who I was.
I am using the online publisher Xlibris as many of you know. They have been fairly wonderful, but the process has its limitations. For one thing, although they claim to provide editing services, they do not proofread to a large degree, especially names of people and places, and Italian words. Because of that my first book seems to have a few mistakes (as I have indicated here). Other than spelling Ric Hirst's name wrong, I apparently also misspelled the name of my friend and frequent guest on my show, Franc Palaia, the great artistic genius with whom I love talking. In the Table of Contents, no less, I spelled his first name, Frank. He also told me a few hours ago I also spelled the Biennale wrong (Bienale in the book). To me this is very bad, although in the long run, I meant no harm, only to laud those who have been kind to me and have had great impact on my life, and tell my story. Both gentlemen have been wonderful even though I botched their names, but that's probably why I love them as I do. In the second book, I have made those corrections, but who knows how many other errors are lurking. I have even made those corrections in the first book for yet another fee. Xlibris will publish your book and it will look professional. They will provide a lot of service for not that much cost, and many of their representatives are outstanding individuals. Some are not, however, that good at calling or e mailing back to me, although I must admit I ask for a lot from them usually. I would surely use them again, but with the understanding that it won't be the perfect process. They have even given me my own website (paid for actually), and even that has been a hassle. It is certainly for me better than writing a book and leaving it in a pile of papers somewhere in my house or on a computer, where someday nobody will know the story waiting to be told.
All that being said, I can tell you how difficult the book writing has been for me, reading, rereading, rereading again and again and again....., and suffering through a process that is very hard. Nonetheless, I have somehow managed to tell two of my stories in print, one out already and the other soon to be. I guarantee that the second book, Alan's Italy: My Personal Journey will not be perfect. I can guarantee that it will be a heartfelt, readable account of my experiences, truly honest, straightforward, and expressed from me to my readers with a sentimental and grateful slant. I have been to amazing places throughout Italy, and made wonderful friendships, and I believe those stories are very interesting. I have been a privileged person, and my only desire during my final years on the planet is to give back as much as I can to a world that has been very kind to me. I hope that anyone who reads my books forgives me for being imperfect, but can appreciate the story, the difficulty in telling it, and my sometimes poor judgement in revealing a really personal and intimate part of me that just yearns to be shared. Thanks again for reading.
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