Building a book: Join me on the journey

On the spur of the moment, I thought I'd invite you along on a new literary venture

More than a decade ago, I sat atop the fruits of my labor after a book project. Now it’s time to undertake yet another one.

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YACHATS — I’ve been holed up on the sunny Oregon Coast — high 60 degrees Friday — to jump-start a new book. And it dawned on me that it might be fun to bring you along on the journey.

Back when newspapers were more robust, you’d occasionally see a series like this: a reporter/photo team would follow a woman through a pregnancy or a patient through brain surgery or a person who chose assisted suicide through their death.

Well, I’m inviting you to the development and birth of a book — and I’m hoping for the usual nine-month gestation period. I hope to release it in early September 2025.

I’m going to allow you access to my process, thoughts, victories and defeats as I organize, research, write, edit and publish a book I’ve wanted to write for years. It’s a how-to book about writing, an outgrowth of having led writers’ workshops for nearly two decades and thinking it’s time to gather that info into one place.

I was going to say there is a certain amount of risk in this “tell-all,” but I can’t use the word “there.” In my research this week I came across the first writing book I learned the writing craft from — The Lively Art of Writing — and author Lucille Vaughan Payne writes, on page 61, “Do not use the word ‘there’ — ever.” Ms. Payne was my first writing teacher in the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism so long ago that I had to thread my way to Allen Hall through lumbering dinosaurs. And I liked her — and agree that “there,” while not the literary party crasher she suggests, does signal a lazy, passive sentence will often follow.

So, instead, I’ll go with: This venture comes with a bit of risk. For example, what if I don’t make my deadline — or even come close? What if I lose interest in the project altogether and want to quit? What if you find my occasional updates mind-numbingly boring?

Granted, it’s not like I’m Evil Knievel trying to jump the Grand Canyon. Still, I could get egg on my face. (See metaphors.) I could look stupid. I could fail.

That’s a risk I’ll just have to take. Part of the spirit of Heart, Humor & Hope — just as part of the spirit of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail — is journeying into the unknown. And it would be hypocritical of me to beat the adventure drum while being unwilling to be adventuresome myself.

Besides, when it comes to books, many readers are like the four-year-old who thinks their new baby sister came out of the hospital with the ease of a vending machine. No, actually, that baby sister only entered the world after a nine-month process that had all sorts of highs, lows, ecstasy and agony.

So, let’s begin with my first update. In two days, amid some golf, I spent 18 hours:

— Brainstorming what I think the chapters of the book might be. I’m looking at about 10, interspersed with short interviews with nonfiction authors I know.

— Creating nearly 100 computer folders and sub-folders and sub-sub- folders into which I began siphoning files with info I’ll want to use in the book.

— Building a timeline of what needs to get done when: rough draft, final draft, editing, cover design, interior design, artwork and interviews with the authors.

— Changing the working title of the book from the humorous but too narrow Metaphors Be with You to the broader: Writer: From Idea to Print, How to Change the World with Your Words. Could it change again? Sure. Writing a book is often like riding a bicycle while putting it together. For now, it works for me.

— Photographing more than one hundred snippets of good writing examples — and a few bad — from books I’ve read over the last two decades. (They had been marked with Post-It notes.) I then funneled these examples into the aforementioned computer folders.

— Setting up a Dec. 27 meeting with artist Don White at the Red Robin restaurant in Albany to discuss a cover drawing I might have him do. Don did more than a dozen wonderful pieces of artwork for Seven Summers (And a Few Bummers) and I have an idea for the new book that fits his style. I was thrilled when he agreed to meet, but, then again, nothing is cast in stone. Therein lies the adventure.

I was pleased with my progress and with my discipline. I planned to play 36 holes of golf Friday at Florence Golf Links but was having so much fun planning the book that I canceled the morning round and worked from 5 a.m. to noon. (Given how I played, I should have canceled the afternoon round, too, but it was a beautiful day to be out on a coastal golf course; not a breath of wind, which is rare in these parts.)

So, it’s a start. I don’t know if I’ll update you weekly or every other week or what; I’ll keep that fluid. But for now, Houston, we have liftoff.

Photos of the Week

Taken from my seat in Section 35, this “Duck baby,” Avery White, got more cheers than anyone but the UO football team at Autzen Stadium Nov. 30 during the UO-Washington game. Each time Avery was shown on the big screen, fans cheered wildly, interspersed with boos when shots of Husky fans appeared.

As seen from atop Mt. Pisgah on Dec. 4, fog hangs in the southern Willamette Valley, making Spencer Butte look like a whale surfacing in the Pacific.

Speaking of the Pacific, a sunset shot from near Strawberry Hill the next day, Dec. 5.

The pond at Florence Golf Links between the fourth and fifth holes reflects cotton ball clouds on Dec. 5. (Not seen: a ball of mine that sunk in the watery grave after a pushed 7-iron on No. 4.)

No price increase for 2025

WHEN I STARTED Heart, Humor & Hope last January, I made you a promise: a column a week — 52 columns — plus four Q&A columns on Oregon trivia. With three weeks left in the year, here’s what I’ve offered:

— Fifty-six columns, with three more scheduled to run before year’s end.

— Four Q&A columns, one per quarter.

— Eighty-four total posts.

— The establishment, totally unplanned, of a “Photos of the Week” feature, Q&A conversations with interesting folks and a “40Below” feature highlighting “young ones.”

I’ve taken you on trips to Montana, Texas, Yachats, Central Oregon, the Pacific Crest Trail and Dari Mart, the latter after what some readers thought was an ill-advised walk in an ice storm in microspikes. I’ve introduced you to an array of intriguing people, from indefatigable Lynn Frohnmayer to “the mother in the cemetery,” Laurie Whitham; from my adopted sixth-grade class in Taylorville, Ill., to Garrett and Bethany Loveall, the young Bend couple who overcame much to find each other and to have two children.

I’ve interviewed folks from fire expert Mike Thoele to former Register-Guard editorial page editor Jackman Wilson to new Lookout Eugene-Springfield publisher Ken Doctor to reserve Oregon quarterback Brock Thomas.

Frankly, I’ve had a blast — thanks to you for making it possible. My paid subscription base allows me to do what I’m doing.

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Final thought

Have a great week!