Anglican Prayer Beads  Prayer Beads  Anglican Rosary Rosaries  Natural Soap  Handmade Soap

First a Christmas story update. I'm in the middle of chapter five of the as yet unnamed Shepherd Story. Eight chapters will have to be finished by the end of August. I will go into the studio the first week of September and hopefully have the second audio book in the Christmas series ready by November 1. At the same time, I'm giving the manuscript of last year's audio book, "A Christmas Story You've Never Heard," to a woman who will take it through the entire process of getting it edited, checked, arranged, and printed. It will be published by a publishing company I'm forming as of now - Con Safo. That should be ready the first of November as well.

I THINK I've found an investor to fund the printing of 2000 copies of last year's Christmas story. The price gets real low at 2000 copies. If you can't print at least that many, you run into the classic self-publication problem. The book ends up being too expensive. Mine will sell for ten bucks.

So this Christmas I'll have last year's audio book, this year's audio book, and last year's audio book in print form. Coming Christmas of 2007 - my favorite story in the series - "Three and a Half Wise Men."

It's a lot of work, but I'm on schedule...for now.

Why Con Safo? Well, there aren't any traditional publishers who will give me credit for bringing any readers to the table. Traditional publication isn't setup to handle new authors who nonetheless have a fair number of readers. So if I let someone else publish this, they will get the publication rights, almost all of the money, and I will have to put up with their incredibly long and drawn-out editing/publishing process. Why? Why should I do that? If I do it myself I have complete control, can do the entire process in a couple of months, and I make as much or even a little more money even if I sell less copies.

So for now, it's Con Safo publishing for me. If someday a publisher wants these stories, we'll talk then.

And now for something completely different, AV Monday:

We so classy in Texas

rlp

Hey, I thought I'd check in and mention a couple of things. The Christian Century accepted my last essay submission, and they are going to use it in both the magazine and on the website. That's the first time that has happened, which is good news for me. But it does mean that it may be a couple of weeks before it will be online. So that was what I was going to post today or tomorrow. Instead you're getting updates, music, and photos.

My friend Ben King has given me some interesting music for the intros of my growing audio file collection. The latest is a rough cut from a new CD by "Ben and the Sidewalk Saints." This is pretty interesting stuff. It's old time gospel music with a serious attitude. They re-create the music played in the South and Southwest by sidewalk preachers and the "church bands" that used to play at brush arbor meetings and country suppers. I love it, and I bet you will too. Ben gave me this early mix, but he has a real Salvation Army band coming to play some parts that will be in the final mix.

If you like it, you can email Ben at talktaco@stic.net, and they will notify you when the CD is available.

And finally, here are some photos I've snapped recently with the camera on my mobile phone. The quality isn't much, but the subject matter is rather interesting. Click any image for a larger view.

rlp