March 6, 2013
Casual Lies ─
A Triple Crown Adventure
Dear Readers,
With a huge sigh of relief I’ve just
clicked enter on my computer. You may
ask, what significance does this have? For me it was massive, after fourteen
months of extremely hard work, the final manuscript of Casual Lies ─ A Triple Crown Adventure
was sent off for print review prior to publication.
If you’ve never formatted a
manuscript into a book , trust me it is not for the computer concept
challenged.
For years I have fearlessly declared my
membership in the point and click society, doing so with a sense of pride. After all I am a horsewoman, computers
are a convenience that I use for email, shopping, and scrabble.
Staunchly I have defended my
ignorance, by stating: “If it doesn’t come up in a Google search— who needs it.” I now
stand before you, exposed as the computer no-nothing that I am.
I spent a very long weekend in
full out combat with Microsoft Word, confronting, page
layout, inserts, headers, page breaks, footers, the
list is endless. And those pop up boxes, what do they mean; “are you sure….yes
or no.” Are you kidding me? Of course
I’m not sure…the only thing of which I am certain is I have no idea what I’m
doing. But they’d given me a clear choice—yes
or no? So there I sat paralyzed in fear. What if I made the wrong one…after
all its either-or, how bad can that be, 50/50 is good odds, right?
I had
to be honest with myself and so I made the obvious choice, I pointed, clicked
and selected...no, because after all I was anything but sure. As you can well imagine, this
only took me right back to where I’d started. Hours would pass without any
semblance of progress as that—“are you sure” box,
continued to haunt nearly every path I ventured down.
Eventually,
albeit reluctantly, I had to select yes—with
a click of the mouse, more often than not and as I had feared, I found myself
staring at a mess. Margins had moved, page numbers had no relationship to the
one before or after. Whole sections had shifted and no amount of enter,
backspace or delete would put it back together again.
Finally
I was forced to try the help feature, unfortunately this function also required a degree
of prior Office Works knowledge. There was, simply put, no help for dummies.
Suffice
it to say, I did successfully format the memoir. I didn’t want to do it, I would
have preferred the publishing house I had chosen do it. Regrettably their quoted
four month turn-around for a review ready proof was untenable, leaving the
project still weeks away from a print for distribution stage. Unwilling to
wait, I was left with but one option, and thus the weekend long nightmare began.
Exhausted
after this merciless Microsoft boot camp, I am proud of the result, deservedly
so. Flushed with success I soldiered on to design the cover. Keeping in mind,
Leonardo Da Vinci’s words—“simplicity
is the ultimate sophistication,” I kept the cover simple, yet powerful. Am I
now an expert on all things Microsoft? Not by a long shot. Will I
enthusiastically step forward to format another book? First I would have to
write another book, this one took fourteen months. It is highly doubtful I will
retain the fortuitous order of point and clicks I stumbled upon, beyond the
next fourteen hours.
The
physical book proof will be here no later than March 13, and if all is well, I
will be able to make Casual Lies ─
A Triple Crown Adventure available for purchase.
The
next project on my agenda is to create a web-site
to showcase the completed memoir, Casual Lies ─ A Triple Crown Adventure. The shelleyriley.com
website will showcase the book and some of the pictures included in the book. I
will be looking into an electronic version of the memoir and if there is enough
demand an audio edition.
I also wanted to let everyone know there is a
Photo Gallery included in the book, it features twenty photos, and you will be
surprised by some, while understandably moved by others.
The
book is nearly here now and I will keep you posted as to its availability, while
I continue to negotiate the publishing process. I will look forward to hearing
back from each and every one of you after you have read the book.
Finally,
I am accepting and scheduling appearance dates, which include book clubs, book
stores, racetracks, pony clubs, women’s groups, charitable events and many
others. While attending, I will be reading excerpts, signing copies of the book
and answering questions. If anyone has an event they would like me to appear
at, please contact me and if it is at all feasible, I will do my best to fit it
into the calendar. This is something I enjoy and I am looking forward to.
Again thank-you
for your interest,
Shelley
Riley
