OUTSIDE: Not How I Planned It - a memoir series

As I gain experience in writing and publishing, I've learned about book award programs. When I published Launching into the Unknown, I entered two contests. I was an Award Finallist in the Best Book Awards. It feels good to be able to say I'm an Award Winning author. I think that Life in a Tumble Dryer is better than Launching into the Unknown, so I've applied to three places for awards. We'll see how that works out. I've also asked for a professional review from Literary Titans. These will be helpful in making my book known, but reader reviews are the BEST of all gifts that you can give an author.

This weekend is my first virtual launch party. At long last, Life in a Tumble Dryer is available. I had the joy of discussing the book with some of my fans, and you can listen in on what they thought of the book. Harriet, as in Dear Harriet, makes an appearance you don't want to miss. Some of my fellow authors joined in as well as some of my readers. It was a delightful conversation hosted by Kathy Smith, one of the few people who came to visit me during the time-span of this book. You can watch the party here.
 

These days, there are so many ways to publish a book! One can self-publish, hybrid-publish, or get an agent and have a publisher. There are pro's and con's to each choice. If you go with a standard publisher, they will indeed do everything for you, except promote your work. Unless you are in their top 10% best sellers, they will not help you. That means you may get stuck paying for the Book Launch, any travel to do a tour, purchasing copies of the book you may or may not be able to sell (or store). It is also difficult to get an agent. There are a lot of scams out there.

Self-publishing has become very popular. You can send a pdf to Amazon and have your book visible in days. However, if you have not paid a developmental editor (several thousand $), you may not have a well-written book.

Being away from home for 10 weeks did not help my publication schedule! My next book, Life in a Tumble Dryer, should have been available last weekend, but I haven't yet seen the final copy to approve it. Still, it is coming soon, so don't give up hope. Harriet agreed to read it for me (a pre-publication copy) and found it was more serious and more structured than Launching into the Unknown. That's because I refered more closely to the letters I wrote to my parents while I was away. I tried to write each week, and share bits and pieces of what was going on in my life. It's amazing how much I had forgotten. Hopefully, this added information will give you, the reader, a better picture of what life was like. 

After a year of work, Life in a Tumble Dryer, Working in the World's Hottest Capital, has been sent to the publisher. There's more to do before it comes out in July, but those are simpler tasks than completing the manuscript. You may wonder what that process is like. Well, here was my process for this book.

First, I used the relevant stories from my original book, Every Day But Not Some. It was published in 2006. However, when I finished running those stories through ProWritingAid and improving the style, language, and use of commas (my weakest point), I only had 50,000 words. I wanted the book to be 70,000. So, I pulled out the letters that I had written to my parents over those years. I discovered I had forgotten many details. In November, I wrote up new stories and ended up with 40,000 words. Whew! All the editing pared down the word count to 75,000.

I'm writing the second book in the Not How I Planned It series. This book is currently titled: Life in a Tumble Dryer. Here is part of a story about meeting the Shilluk (Cøllø) king.
We learned that the king never looks behind. So, it was with great interest that we watched how he would sit down. He backed up until he was standing on the leopard skin rug in front of his chair. Then someone made sure to position the chair where the king was about to sit. I don’t think the person placing the chair would have had his job for long if he had miscalculated the location of the chair and allowed the king to crash to the ground.

I admit it; I was too confident. I’m fully vaccinated. I tested negative when I got on the plane. Then I got to Uganda and was in contact with two COVID-19 positive people. Sometimes I had failed to wear my mask, after all, I’m vaccinated. Right? Wrong.

For the past few days, I felt achy and lethargic. I dragged myself to class, returning to my room to collapse on my bed. My allergies started kicking in, so I started treating them. Then I got the “runs”, which I still have. I think that may be giardia (my not so favorite friend and frequent companion in Africa). Today the tiredness was just beyond what I could stand, and just walking around made breathing difficult. I felt like I had a low-grade fever, so asked Margaret to give me a COVID test. Yes, I’m positive. I’m the 3^rd teacher on the course to fall to this.

When we chose dates for the iDELTA course six months ago, we had no idea that the evening after the majority of students and staff arrived, the country would go into lockdown! Wow! Talk about timing!

A second wave of COVID-19 has hit Uganda. Each of our staff and students have been tested (sometimes several times) and found to be negative. The conference center staff are staying on the center, and so not exposed to outside factors. There are quite a few protocols in place like wearing masks, socially distancing, washing hands, using sanitizer. We even provided face shields for students who wanted to be even more secure. We have spread the students out as much as possible in the classrooms, so we feel we are being reasonably safe. Our tea breaks and devotional times are held out of doors in a very beautiful setting. The weather is very pleasant, feels like a lovely spring day.

As you can imagine, preparing for a course with students coming from eight countries and staff from several more countries, there is a LOT to do. We went into the office on Tuesday and met the staff working there. We enjoyed a nice meal at what is currently my favorite Entebbe restaurant called Muti. They have wonderful juices as well as delicious food! It is a bit pricey, but at least I know what I’m getting.

Richard caught me up on the plans that have been put in place and we also prepared for the teacher briefing to be on Thursday and Friday. Tuesday was a short day, and I was ready to go home and lie down on my bed. It definitely needed to be an early night.