Meeting the Publisher and Editor

Much has happened since my last post at the start of a vacation week. Importantly, I finished a story that week titled The Trust Jesus Society about the underground religious group that spray paints all the Trust Jesus graffiti on the interstate highway signs. My new editor is now looking at the story. I was also lucky enough to harvest a trophy-sized turkey on my vacation, with a 12 1/4" beard.

Two days after getting back from my cabin in Paint Rock Valley in North Alabama, I had a two-hour meeting with Jefferson Press publisher David Magee, who happened to be in Jackson on a book tour for his new book The South is Round. A very funny read www.david-magee.com. His editor Henry Oehmig was also there for the meeting, at which we agreed on next steps. We set a tentative schedule for an official April 1, 2008, release date, but will shoot for having finished books in our hands in mid-February in case I have an opportunity to appear at any conferences next spring.

My next duty is to finish another story or perhaps two. Last weekend during the long Easter weekend I travelled to Dauphin Island to write and finished 3,000 words of a new story that may go 6,000 words. More on that later.

The contract is about finalized and should be signed in two weeks or so. And a final schedule will be confirmed. Then the edits must be completed, cover art finished and materials prepared for the catalog. Work calls....I'll be back later for another post....thanks for reading.