Way back in 2004, I started writing a book collecting all of the strange crap that's happened to me in my life - strange men stalking me, women nuzzling up against me in bookstores, unnecessary altercations with retail workers - that kind of stuff. Guess what? It's still not done. But it's more than halfway done, which is something. It turns out writing a book about your life takes some time. Actually, just remembering and categorizing all of these tales has taken a huge amount of hours. I have no one to blame but myself.
Though the book's interior isn't illustrated, I did develop a front cover image, as well as illustrations for nine of the stories' subjects. I took a different tact with these illustrations, severely limiting the color palette and using only very basic geometric shapes. I really enjoyed working this way, and besides being a fun alternative to my usual cartoony style, it helped me retain the anonymity of my subjects.
It Must Be Me: Anecdotes from the Life of a Weird Magnet will be available through Xlibris in (cross your fingers) 2009. In the meantime, you can read a sampling of the stories on the site.
It Must Be Me
Credit to my wife Sharon for giving me the book's title. It was perfect and, surprisingly, the domain was available a few years ago. That made me happy.
Someday, I would very much like to write a book of my own. Oh, how I envy you.
ReplyDeleteThe website is gorgeous, by the way. Kudos to you for creating something fully functional, another accomplishment for which I envy you.
Thanks, Steven. The book is going to be available through Xlibris - they're not a traditional publisher, but a publishing services company - so like CafePress and Zazzle, they don't do any kind of gatekeeping on their offerings - anyone can pay for a package (I chose the $1,100 package) and have your book on their site - and once someone buys it, they print, bind, and send one copy. So you could, in theory, write a book and make it available for online purchase. I bought my package way back in 2004, thinking it would spurn me on to complete the project quickly. If only...
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the compliment on the site - that's another artifact from 2004. The caption on my photo initially said my "girlfriend" hated the picture, then I had to change it to "fiancée" and eventually, "wife" - highlighting my slackerness.