I sent out this update yesterday via email, thought I'd post it here as well.



Dear friends,

This will be the first of 2 updates on the progress of the Shadow Work book.

We originally expected to have printed books by Labor Day, and therefore described our release date as Summer 2007.

Two unexpected things -- a change of title/subtitle, and my mother's illness -- have delayed things by something like 6-8 weeks. I'll know more certainly about the new release date in a week or two, and that's what the 2nd of these updates will be about.

I feel bad about the delay and very much appreciate your understanding and continued patience.


THE NEW TITLE/SUBTITLE!

I'm very pleased to have a new title and subtitle that do, I think, a much better job of describing what the book is about:

Practically Shameless: How Shadow Work Helped Me Find My Voice, My Path, and My Inner Gold

We'd heard from several people with considerable experience in publishing that the book's old title (Shameless: Life Beyond the Box) didn't say enough about what kind of book it was. Thank you again to all of you who participated in our "test marketing group," we're so grateful for your feedback!


BOOK DESIGNER

This week, I signed up a book designer who will design both the front cover and the interior of the book -- Nick Zelinger of NZ Graphics in Denver. In case you're not familiar with the publishing process, designing the interior involves choosing fonts for the body text and headings, as well as anything unusual. It also involves wrapping the text around illustrations while avoiding "orphaned" sentences at the ends of chapters, and in general making the interior of the book attractive and easy to read. I've seen 4 books that Nick designed, and all were really atractive.

Nick has been designing book covers for quite some time; here are some samples of his work:




Mark Stevens' new novel Antler Dust, shown above, is currently 2nd on the local bestseller list.  I was in Borders Books yesterday and saw that they had added to the copies of Antler Dust on the shelf with the book facing outwards, which is a sign that the book is popular.

Nick is a great guy whose clients rave about how easy and pleasant he is to work with. He expects to start work on the cover design this week.


ILLUSTRATOR

Practically Shameless will contain about 25 line drawing illustrations, and this week I also signed up an illustrator -- Cindy Kalman of KalMarx Design in Boulder. Cindy's claim to fame, as she puts it, is that literally millions of people have seen her graphics on the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour on PBS, where she worked for some years. But she actually began her career as an illustrator and is thrilled to have an opportunity to resume it. She has the skill to convey the emotion of a moment in her drawings, and that's what was most important to me. She's also a delightful person, and I know I'll enjoy working with her. You can see samples of her work at http://www.kalmarx.com/


OTHER NEWS

It's a small thrill, granted, but I purchased ISBNs for the book last week, and they arrived a few days ago. An ISBN is essential these days for selling a book in the marketplace; it's used at Amazon.com and at bookstores, among other things. These days there are 2 kinds of ISBNs, 13-digit and 10-digit, the former beginning to take over for the latter. I'm also in the process of applying for Library of Congress information, which will come not from the LOC itself but from an organization called Quality Books until I've published books by at least 3 different authors.

This week's tasks include conferring with an attorney about a disclaimer and getting quotes from printers, proofreaders and publicists.

If you'd like to contact me, I've love to hear from you, you'll find my contact info here. Thank you again, so much, for your continued support!