Great News!

The feedback arrived and my Agent loved the second draft! She had some great suggestions which will help improve the book further which I have started working on. These will be more of a revision than another draft; an added page here and paragraph there, and won't take as much time as the second draft did. Following this she plans a red line edit, and then off to some agents she already has in mind. Hopefully one or more will share her opinion.......

Waiting

Well, the book now rests on the agent's desk. I'm awaiting her comments which I anticipate will result in another revision. The waiting is difficult, like a kid looking forward to Christmas Day, hoping that the comments will be good.

Maybe today.....

I've been bad

Obviously I have not been keeping up with things based on the date of my last update. There are many excuses and no excuses at the same time.

The good news is the time has not gone to waste. I've finished "hand" revisions to the draft of the book. Now I must apply hindquarters to chair, and complete the edits in the actual file.

Following that will be an e-mail journey for the book to my Agent in NYC for her perusal and critique. I wonder if I can type with my fingers crossed?

Revisions Underway

I dove into the book for the first time in a month at the recent writers retreat. It was very productive. As I had read would be the case, certain portions jumped at at me as "hey, this is pretty good," and others as "this stinks."

A complete first pass, marking things up by hand was completed, and now I am editing and changing things in the actual word document. Not as much fun, and more time consuming. I have about a hundred pages complete, two hundred plus more to go.

Hopefully this coming weekend, I can polish up a letter or two to query some agents I am interested in.

More to come!

Ambulance days......

The other day, I was telling a friend about the “old days” and some of my interesting EMS experiences. One of the most interesting areas we covered was the north side of Endicott which was the Italian section of town. There were fantastic restaurants and the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life. Ambulance calls up there could be interesting.

We’d get a call for an elderly male patient. The main complaint could be any one of a hundred ailments, but everything else was the same. We would know immediately it was an Italian household if, as we got close to the scene, we had difficulty finding a place to park the ambulance.

That was because before calling us, they had to call all the family member to discuss sending Nono to the hospital. We’d weave our way through the crowd in the living room up to the second floor bedroom where we’d invariably find him. After dealing with whatever medical issues were presented, we’d get ready to transport. At this point, stage two of the fun began. One of the relatives would be able to ride in the ambulance in front next to the driver. The debate would begin. We already knew the answer and could pick the winner, but there was no sense spoiling the fun. Eventually they would decide and the result was always the same. The most hysterical daughter was selected to go along with us.

The last part was inevitable as well. As we would wheel the old guy toward the door, the four foot nothing, tough as nails little Italian Grandma would wag her finger in your face and begin a lecture, naturally in Italian. We’d not a lot and smile and agree with everything she said, as we got him out the door and into the rig.

Happened to me at least fifty times…….

It's done. Kind of.

The first draft is done! About 320 pages, 78,000 plus change words; and almost two years work.

I printed it out, and had to resist the urge to dive in and begin fixing and revising. Most of the books I have read suggest letting a first draft sit for a month or so before picking it up again, and that is my plan, if my willpower holds out.

The working title of this book on three generations of fire fighters, a slight variation on this Blog, is “Keep Back 200 Feet: A Three Generation View From the Rear Step.” The stories involving my Dad, myself, and my son Michael range from the tragic to the hilarious, I think.

Now comes the hard part; completing the revisions, and most importantly, finding someone who wants to put it between front and back covers.

Some Assembly Required....

Christmas was always special when I was growing up. We were up before dawn to see what Santa had brought. I was a true believer. One year I had even heard the hooves of the reindeer tapping on the roof of our house while Santa was making his delivery.

One year, one of the presents I was getting was a multiple level gas station, parking garage type structure, in which you could drive and park and pretend to work on, your match box cars. My sister was receiving something called the Imagination doll house. Both were “some assembly required,” and apparently had somewhere in excess of a gazillion pieces.

My sister and I were in bed, sound asleep, which we knew was important, ‘cause Santa wouldn’t come if you were awake. Mom and Dad were getting out the hidden presents and the toys which needed assembly when the Grinch decided to pay a visit in the form of a house fire. The Plectron, the “pager” of those days, went off, and so did Dad into the night, leaving Mom to complete the present distribution, and more importantly, the toy assembly.

Dad did make it back before we woke up to greet Christmas morning, but just barely. As usual we were wide eyed and thrilled with everything Santa had brought. Mom and Dad were not; both a bit blurry eyed from lack of sleep.

Years later, after the Santa years, Mom would regularly retell the story of that Christmas Eve, and have us in stitches as she described the “millions of pieces necessary” to complete the assembly of the toys that year. She stayed up all night, the elf completing Santa’s work.