Please Don't Avoid Strangers

Tuesday I didn’t do a lick of work; Wednesday made up for my slacking; I spend close to 20 hours in front of the computer correcting minor glitches in the proofs of Strangers On The Earth.

That book is now published on my Bluefish Books Storefront. Along with a bunch of my other books.

I suppose I should write some fluffy promo extolling the virtues of Strangers, but truth is I’m sick of it and never want to see another copy.

It’s been a bear of a book to produce (as they all are).

I wonder if that happens to other writers?

My idea starts out as an inspiration and I get excited about it. I eat, sleep and live anticipating the book. My excitement mounts as I discover fascinating tidbits and back alleys in research. I write fervently until my system overloads and by the time I’ve battled spelling, syntax, reference problems, computer formatting, stupid mistakes — I’m sorry I ever started the thing.

The finished product becomes just another book to throw on the pile.

And then I meet somebody who has actually bought a copy of one of my books; “I bought one of your books,” he says.

I mentally prepare myself to respond modestly to a compliment; then he says, “Haven’t got around to reading it yet.”

Can’t tell you how many times that has happened.

Then, ages later, my royalties check comes in. And I wonder why I bothered. I’d earn more cash money in my pocket working behind the counter at McDonalds. But, by the time I think that, I’m already mind deep in writing another book.

Oh, in case I haven’t mentioned it -- and you haven’t guessed it -- Strangers On The Earth is an inspirational book. It profiles a bunch of people whose lives have inspired me to try to be a better Christian. The Bluefish Storefront offers sample preview chapters when you click on a book cover.

A shorter version of it was published years ago by InterVarsity Press and that edition was translated into several foreign languages before it went out of print, so I suspect that maybe it does inspire readers.

But right this moment, I only find it depleting.

I’m at my lowest whenever I finish a book.