Contract is Signed!

Our contract is signed, and we've met again with the publisher. Tom and I have a huge line up of book venues already! Our publishing agency really works hard with their authors and illustrators to sell the books. Of course whether we can do all the venues or not will depend on how fast Robert can illustrate. His bio is complete and we have sent it over to the publisher. We have a meeting with our editor again next week.

Please see our order form in right margin

Visit our Book Store
click here "Wrestling The ABCs"
A Children's Picture Book for Wrestling Fans of All Ages

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Oh Happy Day...We're Getting Published!!

Well, in spite of our plans to self publish, we have stumbled upon a local publisher who has offered us a publishing deal way too good to pass up. We get all, yes, ALL the royalties for the first publishing, and 90 percent of the second and subsequent publishings.
We do have to pay the printing costs, but hey, we would have had to do that by self publishing anyway. We really lucked out. They are new and looking for authors, and I was fortunate enough to meet these folks at my last conference.
So now, it's just a matter of meeting with the editor, working out a few bumps in the book, and forwarding the final manuscript to Robert. He's already working on our cover art. So yes,... I guess all good things come to those who wait!
And the best part of it is, is that we own all rights to the book, so we can pull out of the contract anytime we want! The books will even be delivered to our doorstep. Look out wrestlers!

Please see our order form in right margin

Visit our Book Store
click here "Wrestling The ABCs"
A Children's Picture Book for Wrestling Fans of All Ages

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Deal, or No Deal?

Got word from a publisher. I"ll fill everyone in on that soon. If and when we get a book deal going, we will keep everyone posted

"Wrestling The ABCs"
A Children's Picture Book for Wrestling Fans of All Ages

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Lazy Weekend

This past weekend was so relaxing. Izzy didn't have any games. The boys (well just Logan) had a meet Saturday morning out at Kensington, and after that we went out to Deidre's to visit with the cousins. Rem and Izzy decided to sleep over there, Logan had plans with a friend for the evening so he went back home with me. Sunday was Tom's Duathlon. He did great. He is getting so fit -it's very impressive. After the Duathlon I had a wedding shower to go to for one of our wrestlers who is getting married in December. I hate showers. Well, I sort of like baby showers, but that's it. After the shower Deidre brought Rem and Izzy home and that pretty much took care of the weekend.

I got asked to be the high school PTA President. I couldn't say no to that FAST ENOUGH! Doing the Reflections for Webster is more than enough PTA involvement for me thank you very much.

Speaking of PTA Reflections, our first workshop at Webster went very well. Two of my writers seem very promising. Gifted little rascals some of these kids.

Speaking of Webster, Izzy is so loved at Webster. All the teachers fight to have her help them after school. In fact, I never even have to pick her up. She usually stays with the teachers until at least 4:00, and then they bring her home. Plus, they all love Chewy and Lulu and like to visit with them when they bring Izzy home. It's fun being such a small community. We know every principal, most the teachers, and tons of the kids. I love it. Everywhere we go we see kids or someone that knows us. Very friendly and close-knit here. Even if I can't ever get to sleep because of our noisy neighbors, the good far outweighs the bad.

Rem had his bone scan Tuesday, and we're still waiting to hear from the doctor. I'm pretty sure it's fractured though, because as his skeletal system was appearing on the computer screen, I saw a large white area on his femur, and when Rem had a bone scan in 2005 (which also revealed a fracture), I saw the same type of image under his knee where the fracture was. So now as far as I'm concerned, it's just a matter of waiting for the doctor to confirm what I am pretty confident I already know. So he's been off of it for almost two weeks now.

Logan came home with some of his cross country friends after practice yesterday, which was nice. It was perfect timing for them too, because I had just cooked a big turkey breast with roasted potatoes, corn, and some apple crumpets with whip cream for dessert. High school boys can eat A LOT!

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The Waiting Game

I hate waiting! The two publishers that took copies of my "I Wanna Be..." series manuscripts at the conference I attended last month told me it could be weeks, or MONTHS before they get back to me regarding any interest. The one gal really seemed to like the idea that my ideas were directly generated from the students I work with everyday. She thinks that could make a bigger impact on marketability. The two manuscripts they took away with them were "I Wanna Be A Baseball Player", and "I Wanna Be A Rock Star". In progress are: "I Wanna Be The President", "I Wanna Be A Teacher", and "I Wanna Be An Artist". This is just the beginning! These kids are dumping ideas in my lap left and right! Every day I get a new idea. I simply have to determine which ones seem to be more popular with the kids, and Whammo!, new manuscript. It's fun, even if it goes nowhere. The hard part is trying to focus on just one at a time. I'm a tad ADD, and ideas are floating around in my head like crazy!

In regards to our ABC book, Tom and I are currently working an an activity book to market with the picture book. We have features such as: crossword puzzles, word searches, fill in the blanks, unscramble the words, what's missing in this picture, coloring pages, etc. All of the activities will in some way connect to the picture book, and will feature a "freebie" to win when the book is completed and turned in to Davids Gold Medal Sports!

Tom also started working on a Wrestling 1,2,3 book last week. I'm not so sure that one would sell as good at tournaments though. It seems like it would be more appropriate for the very young set, and we don't get a ton of kids in that age group at our tournaments. Maybe we can tweak it and turn it into more of a math type picture book. We'll see. That is at the bottom of my priority list right now.

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Do The Mash...The Monster Mash!!

Most of you should be getting these tomorrow or Saturday at the latest (I popped them in the mail today). Hope to see everyone there! We've yet to have a Halloween without hosting some sort or party. This year plans to be no exception. After the party, all the kids that want to spend the night are going over to Grandma Dodd's, and all the adults that want to party are welcome to stay here with us. We will be sending out separate "adult" invites in a day or so. And sorry grown ups, costumes ARE required. Tom and I are going to be "All That" (me), "And A Bag Of Chips" (tom). Watch for your invites!

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Kids Can Drive You NUTS!!!

Izzy's enjoying band (probably because she gets out of class!), although it was a struggle to convince her that my trumpet from when I was in band is just as good as any that she could rent. Rem and Logan both played it in 6th grade. Rem switched over to baritone at the junior high, and then totally abandoned band. Logan never did have any interest (like Izzy, he probably only joined in 6th grade to get out of class). Anyway, she's the most mule-headed child ever, and was convinced my trumpet was "no good". So begrudgingly, she took it to school last week or so for the band teacher to inspect (Rem had already lubed and adjusted the valves for her). He gave it the green light, so she's fine with it now. It always takes someone other than MOM to convince that girl. She is loving it though. Her and the little boy across the street is trumpet too, so they sit out front on the lawn and practice together. It's soooo cute! Sounds pretty darn good too.

Izzy's team beat Vardar Friday, so she was pretty excited about that. They had tied them the weekend before. Logan's time was pretty good Saturday (22min. 04 seconds). His best time this year has been 21 min. 35 seconds. Rem didn't run on Saturday, the coach thought he should rest his leg more (it still hurts him to walk on it even). We got a referral to the orthopaedic surgeon, and is going for a bone scan on Friday the 5th.

Tom and the A.D. at the high school have been pretty busy organizing the Hazel Park Michigan Cities 5K. It should be a blast. A lot of elementary schools have put together teams of students to run. Hazel Park has a team together (izzy is going to run, or Logan, for the "Under 19" age group, since Rem's leg is still bad). I got one of our Michigan State interns to run in the "20 year old" age group. Tom's running the 40 year old age group.

Dad Davids had his procedure and is doing well. That is one part of getting old that I am not looking forward to. I really don't mind most aspects of the aging process. I feel that all our wrinkles and grey hair are earned. Not everybody is fortunate enough to grow old, so I'm grateful for that. But...the medical invasion of my body....well, I'm going to stall on most of those as long as possible. Tom and I both live and eat very healthy so we're doing pretty good. Neither of us takes any medications (except when Tom gets a sinus infection), so..so far, so good! We both still work out regularly (me 5 miles a day, Tom triathlon training almost everyday). So, that hopefully will help fend off physical ailments. And as soon as the kids all leave, our mental health will be on the mend! (ha, ha). But seriously, kids can drive you nuts!

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I Am MOM!

Man! We have been soooo crazy busy. Hardly have time to sit down these days. This will be brief, cuz I gotta go to a PTA meeting. Between Tom and I writing, Izzy writing, the boys running, izzy's soccer, PTA board duties, ROAR writer duties, dogs, foster dogs, helping Tom train for the triathlons, etc. I barely remember who I am. Oh ya, I'm MOM! I even get that at school. "Hey, you're Izzy Davids' mom!". That word...mom... it's almost profane sometimes.

Speaking of Tom's triathlon, he did great this past Sunday. It was an olympic style triathlon, so it was much more grueling than his last one. But, he still beat all his friends, and they performed as relays-Tom did it all himself! That's my man!!!

My writer's conference on Sunday was, to say the least, phenomenal. The absolute best one yet! I met several awesome editors and publishers. Two are interested in seeing my manuscripts. One wants a marketing plan included, so I'm going to be working on that when I get time.

Rem had great news on two fronts. First of all he was selected to be a Student Mentor for the Freshmen, and secondly, his design for a new Viking's logo won first place in a school wide contest, so all the new Viking wear will feature his design! How cool is that?!

Izzy's got a few writer's workshops coming up in Ann Arbor soon. What's so cool, is the kids' workshops are free (that's why I had to pay for mine...gotta offset the freebies!). She has one in October, and two in November.

My Reflections Workshops will start next Monday, so I've got to get myself ready for that. Hopefully we will have a good Reflections turnout. Historically, our school has done a totally awful job of organizing this event. The only time we ever did much with it was the two years that I was on the board. We'll see. The class I subbed for today (5th graders), were all talking about it, and trying to decide what type of project they wanted to enter and such. Sounds positive anyway.

Rem hurt his leg in a fall (home based injury-thanks to Chums and Lums), and he can't walk without limping so I took him for an X-ray Saturday. Doc said there was a ton of swollen tissue going on around the bone. Told him to limit his walking, eliminate the running. So he's off this week. Hopefully he'll be able to run in the meet this Saturday.

I've been asked by teachers to sub all week this week at Webster, and two teachers want to book me for long term subbing (one while on maternity, another while a teacher has a surgery requiring 3 week recuperation time. Sounds good to me!

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Princess

As usual, we are with another foster dog. This is one we rescued ourselves. No tags or collar. She was just wandering around the middle of Ford Street without a care in the world. And never mind the traffic. Surely it is canine senile dementia. Such a pitiful little thing. She only weighs 7 pounds, and about 1/2 of that is fur! And she's as old as the day is long. At least 12 years old (judging by her teeth and breath...ya, it's that bad). But she is soooo lovable and devoted. After just one day at our house, she owns me. And for all her tininess, she's not one bit afraid of Chums and Lums. In fact, she tells them what to do..and where to go (or not go). Like in their own beds for example, because they are hers now of course. Hence her name--Princess.

The boys have been doing good at their Cross Country meets. Logan's time on Saturday was 23 min. 33 sec. Rem was 21 min. 50 seconds. Its a tough course too. Lots of narrow winding paths through the woods with vines and roots everywhere. It was a great day though. The weather was perfect.

Unfortunately, Logan was home sick today so won't be at their meet today. He has a stomach flu or something. Low fever, bad stomach pains and a monster headache. So Princess had company today of the human sort instead of Chewy and LuLu.

Rem got asked to be a Student Mentor at the H.S. for the Freshmen. Izzy decide to join band.

Book Updates:

Robert now has our manuscript and is beginning the illustration process of the book. He plans to do the cover art first so we can get going on promo stuff.

My writer's conference is at the end of the month, and I'm so excited because I have two more manuscripts done ( from my "I Wanna Be" series) that I can present to the editor in attendance. I'm not that excited about submitting our ABC Wrestling manuscript, because Tom is convinced he wants to self publish, but I might show it to her anyway.

We got a quote back from a printer, and we will make so much more money off our books by using a printer and just being our own publishing house. Davids Gold Medal Publishing. How's that sound? With the quote Tom got, and the quantity we plan to order, we should make at least $10.00 per book. Of course we'll make less than that on the books that are sold through Tom's dealers and such, but the ones we sell ourself at meets and school visits will be high profit.

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Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

You should see the other girl!  

This is what happens after a night of playing "Beauty Parlor" with Izzy and her friends. Of course I'd already scrubbed off several layers of makeup by the time the girls snapped this pic, but look at the hair! My goodness.

Tom worked hard on the book last night (so he wouldn't be in the doghouse for abandoning me today!) It's just about done. I really need to call Robert. I keep neglecting to touch base with him. I also have to proof the manuscript my grandma's author emailed me so she can put her finishing touches on that. Then it can go to print! Speaking of grandma, her party was awesome yesterday. I did a pretty good job on the party planning if I don't say so myself! We had over 70 people-it was a full house! Grandma was literally beaming with pride at how many friends, and relatives showed up for her 90th! She's the greatest person ever.

I have two more manuscripts that I've been working at on my own that are ready to submit. They are from a children's picture book series I've been working on for the past year or so. I'm taking them with me to my writer's conference later this month. Attendees have the opportunity of hand delivering and discussing their manuscripts face to face with the editors at the conference, so I'm pretty excited. In addition to those two, I have three more for the series that are not too far along, but the main ideas are there.

Writing has become one of my favorite "spare time" activities. I still enjoy reading more, and steal away to read almost any chance I get! I've recently begun cataloging my books...we have soooo many!

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Ball's Bridge

According to the currently available statistics, our dog Chewy is the first official canine member of the "Ball's Bridge Jump Club."

Actually it was accidental, but when Chewy is chasing butterflies, nothing can stop him! I was just glad the nutball didn't get hurt-the river was pretty low, and, he nearly landed on the abutment. Whew! At any rate, it was a great long weekend up at our cottage with my sisters, all their kids, and a few friends thrown in the mix. No injuries (other than paintball welts), no bee stings (even though the bees were totally insane at the beach in Goderich), no rain, hot enough to swim, but not too hot, and no problems at the border. Now that my mom and dad are retired, I'm going to force them to go with us next summer (and stay longer!)

Tom worked on the book last night after I went to bed (we're almost done!) We have to check with Bobby and see how long he thinks it will take to do the illustrations. Hopefully he can do it quick! Tom would like to have the books in his hot little hands to sell at wrestling tournaments this year.

Speaking of Tom. He is a stark raving lunatic. He trained so hard this past weekend in Canada for his upcoming triathlon event. He got up before everyone and went for runs, he swam each day at the beach, and then biked in the evenings. The last triathlon event he did was a sprint. The one he's training for now is harder, longer-it's an Olympic Triathlon. He's hoping to eventually be able to do an Ironman. Crazy is all I can say about that. But he is serious about it. He even has a wet-suit for the swim training, a new racing bike for the riding portion, and as for the run, well, he's relying on his God given gifts for that part.

The kids started school today. It's nice having the boys at the same school (and doing cross country together). Sure makes the morning drop off easier, especially since all the schools start at the same time.  I did get nabbed by the new art teacher who asked me if I would chair the Reflections Program with her- for the writing part. Naturally she will take care of the artistic end of it. She also asked me if I would be her partner for an after school art enrichment program. They both sounded way to good to pass up, so I'm in for a few extra commitments this school year, but that shouldn't be too demanding.

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Dan Gable

Great News!!! Dan Gable called today, and he's anxious to write the introduction for our book. He said he'd love to write at least two or three paragraphs, and is looking forward to seeing the rest of our manuscript. Tom and I have set an informal deadline for ourselves of September 30. Tom actually did quite a bit of work on the book on his own the other night after I pooped out. Sometimes we work better separately I guess.

Izzy's poetry book arrived in the mail today. Since she was one of the top 10, she had her own page! She was so excited. She ran right down to Gramoo's house to show her!

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Camp Canada

What an absolutely perfect weekend in Canada. Of course "perfect" is a very subjective adjective. You see, it was too cold for most of us wimpy adults to go to swimming, but not too cold for the crazy kids to go swimming. So we just sat on the beach and drank. Perfect. Although Tom, Carey and Adam did a mile swim in prep for their next Triathalon sprint. 


Also, because it was cool, it wasn't buggy at all. I didn't even get one mosquito bite. Chewy did get stung on the ear, but he's so dumb, he probably just thought it was another one of those nasty burrs we had to chop out of his fur. 


LuLu and Chewy stayed right around the cabin (except for the few times they stole away together for a dip in the river). Perfect. 


No rain, which was perfect for us but bad for the farm (it's so dry there!). 


We had just the right amount of food, and Remington brought a friend who was a human garbage can, so nothing went to waste. Perfect. 


Gramoo and Grampoo got there Sunday afternoon, and we didn't have to leave until late Monday morning, so we got to visit with them. Perfect. And, gramoo made me fudge. How perfect is that.

About our book. I got an exciting email from one of my friends in Ann Arbor about an author's conference she thought sounded perfect for me. There's that word again, "perfect". At any rate, I checked out the website for the conference, and it just so happens that one of the workshop presenters is the chief editor of the publishing house Tom and I originally had tailored our manuscript for, and then found out their house wasn't accepting manuscripts, so, our manuscript has been altered somewhat. Anyway, I am going to take our original manuscript with me to the conference, as one of the sessions is "share time". Fingers crossed everyone. You know how lazy I am-I would much rather have a house take on the project than to do it all by myself.

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Gettin’ The Lead Out!!

Talked to Robert the other day. He said he's not on a job right now, so it would be a great time for him to illustrate our book. In other words, he wants us to "get the lead out!" Literally! Well, at least that will serve as additional motivation for us, because we really, really are dragging our heels on this. It just never really was high priority for us, just kind of a fun thing to do. And now we've got Robert involved, so we more or less have to do it!

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Happy Anniversary to US!!!

I can't believe Tom and I have been married for 20 years! And we dated for six years steady! We are truly more in love now that we ever were.

We did a little bit of work on our book today. Tom's going to talk to Robert tomorrow-see how illustrations are coming along.

VBS got postponed this week, so our schedule has been lightened a bit. More book work planned for tomorrow!

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I Think I’m Turning Japanese....I Really Think so

I do think there is a secret conspiracy out there keeping us from getting our book done. I just found out today we will be getting some Japanese wrestlers to host next week. We only need to host them until we leave for Canada on the 16th, but that will make it a bit harder to focus-and I had planned to kick butt on our book this next week or so. All of our weekends from here on in are booked solid. Tom seems semi-agreeable about me contacting the publishing house that is interested in our manuscript, so I really want to hustle up on getting it done!

Tom and Logan did great at the Allen Park street run yesterday. Logan had a pretty bad biff on his bike Friday night, so I wasn't sure if he was going to be up to running, but he sucked it up and did just fine. Tom had to follow suit of course, and wiped out on his bike out at Stony Creek this morning. It was hilarious, (only because he wasn't hurt of course-although he is complaining of a stiff neck this evening). Crazy man that sweetie of mine! What 46th birthday would be complete without making an ass of yourself anyway?

Izzy's getting excited for VBS (which starts tomorrow night). Tom made the banner and signs that are outside the church advertising for it, like he does every year (and the t-shirts too!).

Getting excited for Rem to be home! We went out for Tom's birthday tonight with Logan-we had steaks, which Rem would have loved much more than me or Logan. Izzy was at a party with friends, of whom are now here and sleeping over! Yikes, where's the mercy?

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Top 10!!

Even though Tom and I have been in a slough regarding our book, I can very proudly and excitedly say, that Izzy's poem which was previously selected from amongst thousands of poems to be published in a children's poetry anthology book, was just selected one of the top 10! She received a $50 savings bond, a free copy of the book, and a press release. We are so, so proud of her! Maybe we should have her finish our book for us???

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Triathlon Training

Just to let you know, we STILL haven't progressed any on our book. We have been just way too busy with other things. 


For one, Tom and Izzy have been busy training for a Triathalon-Tom's is a sprint Triathalon, which is a half mile swim, then 18 miles on the bike, then a 3.6 mile run. Izzy's is a mini triathalon which is 8 lengths of the pool, 5 miles on the bike, and a 2 mile run. 


Unfortunately we recently found out that Izzy has a soccer tournament that same weekend, so she won't be able to compete. Tom's competition will be Sunday the 12th of August. It's in Windsor. If Izzy's finals (assuming they make it to the finals on Sunday) are late enough in the day, we'll shoot over to watch Tom. He's been working his butt off! He runs after work, then swims, then bikes. Every day! He makes my daily five mile run look like a stroll in the park! I'm just not that ambitious, but at least I can keep up with the boys.


So...as far as the book goes....whenever!

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There’s No Need to Fear....Underdog is Here!

OK. So it has been a long time since the last post! 
Well we HAVE been busy seeing Remington safely off to Japan, and I've been getting the Underdog website up and running.http://www.underdogwrestlingclub.com , and Tom and Izzy have been off with the Underdogs camping and attending a wrestling camp since Sunday, so Logan and I have just been total slugs. Laying around all day, playing with the dogs, playing board games, just chilling!

Book-wise, I received an email today from a publishing house I had queried a long, long time ago about our book. I had given up hearing from anyone, but this house was interested and wants to see our complete manuscript. I have to wait until Tom gets home to see what he thinks about that. He has his mind made up about self publishing. He likes to be the one in control. Whatever Tom wants to do is fine with me. I'm not sure what to make of it. I personally am in no rush. It's just a fun book idea, not the focus of our lives!

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Touching Base

Tom and I touched base yesterday with Robert. We wanted to get his opinion on some ideas we were playing with for the book. We didn't do a lot of work on our manuscript this week. It's been so crazy, trying to get Rem ready for Japan, Izzy had conditioning camp this week in addition to her Indian Ed camp, and we've been trying to get our patio done before summer zips right by us! 


So.. we really didn't write much. What we did do was sit down and put together a pretty gosh darn good marketing plan. But hey, marketing is a big part of writing a book. A biggie! We'll post again when we hear back from Robert and some of the other folks that are helping us with the book.!

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Can Two People Be a Writing Group?

Well, Tom and I are back into our groove, and we spent several hours today writing together. Sometimes our ideas clicked, sometimes we locked horns, but in the end, we got something done!

I must say, writing a book after you're committed to it is a lot harder than just plucking away at it for fun, that's for sure.

We should be able to send Robert a few pages of our manuscript pretty soon so he can get a feel for how to illustrate it.

The fact that he was so geeked about illustrating this for us is such a blessing. He truly is our savior!

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Great Minds Think Alike

It seems there are quite a few famous writers out there that decided for various reasons to go the self published route. Here are just a few: William Blake, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lord Byron, Tom Clancy, e.e. Cummings, T.S. Eliot, Benjamin Franklin, Zane Grey, John Grisham, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Stephen King, Rudyard Kipling, Louis L'Amour, D.H. Lawrence, Christopher Paolini, Edgar Allen Poe, Beatrix Potter, Marcel Proust, George Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair, William Strunk, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Walt Whitman, Virginia Woolf...and countless more!

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You’ve Got A Friend In Me...

Well, the verdict is in, and YES!!!, Bobby Lence wants to illustrate our book for us. He seemed pretty excited and thought is sounded like a great book idea, very unique. I wish everyone reading this could see the silly ear to ear grin I've got on right now!

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A Big Debate=A Big Decision

O.K. After much debating, Tom and I have reached a decision. We are going to self publish our book.

This has been Tom's desire from the beginning, however I had wanted to go the old fashioned route and try to get a publishing house to print it. Tom, on the the other hand (and I do now believe he is right), feels we could sell way more books if we market it ourselves, which you can't very readily do with a publishing house. Additionally, Tom has an illustrator in mind who knows a lot about wrestling, and he seems to think he would be the ideal person to illustrate our book. Of course if we went the traditional publishing route we'd never be able to select who we want to illustrate our book for us. We really have been wrestling with these options for a while now.

Of course we could hire an agent (which would most likely get us published-that's their job-they find the right house for you, but then your agent gets a big chunk of your royalties), but then here again, Tom says, "Why pay someone a percentage of our royalties, just to get it published, when we can do that ourselves relatively inexpensively?". And, we still wouldn't be able to pick our illustrator, and when you take into consideration that royalties on "House", published books are fairly low, and couple that with having to pay an agent at least 10-15% royalties, well then, he has a good point!

The glitch with this route is we will need an illustrator. The illustrator that Tom wants for our book is Robert Lence. He's going to contact him to see if he'd be interested in illustrating our book. We also have several other artist friends, but Bobby would be our first choice, considering he is a former wrestler and would be able to "capture" the image better for us. We still have to finish our manuscript and send it out for him to look over.

I actually am pretty excited now that we've come to this mutual decision. It sure does eliminate the waiting game! Additionally, I really think we will be able to sell quite a few copies. Considering the fact that we go to several children's wrestling meets every weekend for about 5 months of the year, and wrestling camps go on throughout the summer, and wrestling practices run 7 months of the year, we will have lots of opportunities to sell. Heck, we have to be there anyway, might as well set up a book stand while we're there! Tom also said he has at least 20 different accounts with companies that sell wrestling books that will gladly add our book to their sale list, and he has quite a few wrestling magazine contacts who will advertise our book too. Sweet. And just because it is going to be self published doesn't mean it won't be on the bookshelves. It will still get all the same treatment, but we have a lot more control and get much more in royalties (possibly more than 50% per book).

I'm a happy camper right now. It's funny, one of the editors I spoke with at a conference was fascinated with the idea of a kids wrestling book (he said he wrestled in high school and college), and said he'd love to see one out there, but he didn't think it would be a very marketable "shelf" book. He must've been done with wrestling long before all these darn kids wrestling clubs cropped up everywhere! Tom said there are over 1,000 kids wrestling clubs in Michigan alone!

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