To Preface …
During the last number of months (or years?) I have been writing blog posts here and on my BagpiperDon.com site about things going on in my personal life. This started with writing about a used truck I bought that needed attention (as-in repairs) and finally put me in the kind of vehicle I’ve dreamed of owning — I called these posts “Adventures in Truckdom”. When I started doing contract SCUBA diving work this past summer I wrote about those experiences, too — titled “Adventures in Divingdom”. Each of these have no shortage of sharing what has gone on and includes me laughing at myself. Today it seemed appropriate to write a different sort of episode — today I’m writing … book
ADVENTURES IN AUTHORDOM
Which goes like this …
For the past number of months I’ve been close to finishing my 2nd book — this being the Scottish & American military & patriotic Highland bagpipe tunes & tune histories book. For the most part I had to put it aside this summer — things just got too busy to give it the time and focus needed. The diving work (which was great!) took time, working on my day-job search takes time, juggling everything else takes time — priorities. I knew that once summer started winding down I could get back at it.
The project is nearly complete however there are some chunks to go. Chief among these are writing a chapter opening — in this case, history around a bagpiper who landed on Sword Beach on D-Day, unarmed, and played pipes in traditional military fashion to lead his fellow invaders ….. and even though he as under heavy German fire he never got shot.
I have gathered a good bit of information around this historic gent — I’ve even made contact with his son and grandson on Facebook. This piper holds a special place in the piping community, and it’s important to me that I get this writing right. The kicker though is this …..
Of the various information sources available, some of them have mixed degrees of inaccuracies. Part of my job is to sift through the minutia — do my best to separate the dubious bits from what appears to be the truth. To accomplish this I’m leaning toward the information that is consistent, the information that comes from cited sources, sources that are military record, and interviews that were from the man himself. Part of the reason why I want to get my writing right is to honor the man. Part of the reason is because of his importance to the Highland bagpipe community, and it is a HUGE honor to be writing about him. And part of the importance is to help keep history accurate — some of these sources are muddying-up the facts.
So last night I got my first real opportunity to dive-back-in. I reviewed all of this information, which includes these odd sections. It’s a bit overwhelming but I can see the work ahead. The long and short of it I know is this — once I have this bit of D-Day history written for the WWII chapter …. the rest of the work to complete the book project is all downhill eating cake wearing roller skates.
When will this be done? Well … soon enough! Besides, I have 2 other part-done book projects that are looking for me to get back to …
A year ago I started looking into becoming an audio book narrator. I developed a solid initial understanding of the industry and ways to get into it. This interest is still in me, however I have had higher priorities. I plan to narrate my own books and others — first though I need to get things stabilized with my day job.
