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