That’s what I’m waiting on: three publishing items. The first two are within my control, once the proof books get here. Those are the print version of the home school edition of Documenting America, and the print version of The Candy Store Generation. I ordered the proofs Saturday, and they should be here today or tomorrow. Assuming they are good, I’ll pull the trigger right away and get them listed on CreateSpace. Not that hoards of anxious fans are waiting to buy them.

The next is In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. This is only partly in my hands. Well, I could publish it as an e-book immediately. But my wife is proofreading it right now. Last night on the phone she reported she was well into the book, less than a quarter to go. Since she’s finding a few things that need correcting, I’ll wait on her to finish. At the same time I’m waiting on my son to tweak the e-book cover. I don’t know when that will happen. But the cover he sent me would be acceptable as is (though not optimum), and Lynda says the typos are minor, so I could really go ahead and publish immediately. I think, though, I’ll wait.

Oops, there’s actually a fourth item. My short story “Whiskey, Zebra, Tango” is actually ready to be published. I’m sure it can stand another reading or two, and maybe I’ll find a few things to correct or improve, but I think it’s ready to go. I’m waiting on a beta reader to give me her comments. She’s the person the heroine is patterned after—and I even use her name—so I’ll wait for her. But then there’s the issue of a cover. I want to do it myself. I know what I want, and have played around with some graphics software to create it, but so far I’m not happy with the results.

So there you have it. Four items, not three, already in or just about fixing to enter the publishing stage. Next post will be about my current work-in-progress, The Gutter Chronicles, which really is almost complete as a novella.