Ripped from public view...

Ah, it was fun while it lasted, eh?

I'm not sure if anyone was reading this thing anyway. If you were, and you find this message, hey, drop me an email at travis@english.net. I'd be interested to hear any comments from anyone who was reading the thing.

So, the blog is emptied. I took it all down. It's not gone, it's just not here. I'm assembling the whole thing together in a book manuscript. As of this writing, I've got about 180 pages of manuscript, which is probably a 140 page book. I was aiming to get to something that would print out at about 150 pages.

I have no idea if there will be any interest in publishing the thing. I'm trying not to think about that yet. My job right now is to finish it. Then, I'll concentrate on publishing it. It's haunting, though. It's hard not to think about publishing. But, the way I figure it, the worst that could happen is that nobody wants to publish the thing, and I take it to a printing press and buy a fifty copies of it for however much that costs, give a bunch away, throw one in the library, and keep a few on my bookshelf. If that's how it goes down, at least I'll be able to say "Hey, I wrote a book once." (It wasn't any GOOD, but I wrote it!) Of course, I'm more hopeful than that.

Fear and insecurity are amazing things. See, I'm not a writer, really. I'm an engineer. I know this because I went to engineering school. I have an engineering degree. I work for an engineering firm, doing engineering work. Hell, I even have an engineering license from the state of California. I can, legally, call myself an engineer. I can affix a stamp onto engineered plans and sign them as a registered professional engineer.

So, what do I know about writing books?

I took the blog down because I realized that it was a horrible mess. I've been editing the writing for a few weeks now. It was terrible. To call it a "rough draft" is to give it quite a bit of credit. Fortunately, it has cleaned up pretty well. In it's current form, it's readable. My kid sister, a grad student who is much smarter than I, has offered to read and mark up the thing over the holidays, so by early next year it should be even more readable.

I do want to find a couple of other people to read it and give me comments. So, feel free to email me if you want to volunteer.

For titles, here's what I have so far:

1. Confessions of a Dawn Patrol Surfer (my current favorite)
2. Diary of a Dawn Patrol Surfer (less St. Augustine, more Ann Frank)
3. The Hundred Day Wave (a friend recommended this)
4. Time Riding Waves (refers to the EPA article that I did. would require expansion of that theme)
5. Just a Surfer (reference to "Just a Housewife", a popular feminist book. The idea is to shake loose from the images and expectations society places on you.)

Thanks for reading.

See you out there.

-Travis

(And if anyone can talk Venice into doing an interview, put in a good word for me. I think she's avoiding me!!)