A Fine Cast of Characters - J. Dane Tyler [69]
She’s been there from early on. I was posting an online serial-form novel on my blog, and somewhere in the ether, Raga found it and started reading. She read it straight through in a couple of sittings, only stopping for bathroom breaks and the occasional meal for her family. She adored the story and my writing style. And one day, when I challenged lurking readers to come forth and say hello, she did. We’ve been fast friends ever since.
But Raga isn’t the first one who believed in my writing. That credit goes solely to my wife, who knew from dreams she had before we even met that I did something—or would do something—in the world of editing, publishing, journalism or writing. Somewhere, somehow, it would fit.
She loves me and offers me her not-inconsiderable experience as a reader for everything I write, including these stories. She struggled to find a nice way to tell me my first full manuscript stunk, to gently dissuade me from self-publishing the 140,000 word tome at the expense of almost a thousand dollars, plus any additional (read: “hidden”) costs for “marketing” the doorstop. She fell in love with the same serial that Raga did before Raga ever saw it, and encouraged me constantly to continue writing it. Even when I didn’t want to.
And now, some six years after my first pie-eyed look at vanity publishing, my wife is here again, encouraging me to self-publish an e-book full of stories she loves, has read and re-read a hundred times, still cares about, and hand-selected. They’re stories we both felt wouldn’t be published because the industry just doesn’t like short story collections anymore. But they’re also stories we felt people would enjoy, which might make someone out there happy and offer them a little bit of entertainment. And so here they are.
I got a lot of help from friends Bryce Beattie and John Simpson along the way. They helped me decipher how to do this and do it well, to make sure the product I turned out is a quality one. (We’ll see if I followed their advice adequately or not, I guess!) Their input was invaluable in producing this book, and I’m grateful they were there to support me when I needed it. Thanks guys.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5