It is past the new year and I had a two e-mails along with one friend I saw at my LHS yesterday who asked where is my Veranda Turbine "biography": it was supposed to be out by year's end. so, for anyone else wondering about that . . .
It has been delayed by about a month to six weeks because:
Lawyers - 19 states have laws that prohibit the commercial use of a person's image, reputation, etc., without their permission. In my original draft I mentioned 337 real actors, producers, directors, and TV-radio personalities (i.e., Veranda had an affair with a very famous American Hollywood icon who name everyone would recognize, etc.). Out of that many characters, someone or someone's family would sue. My attorney told me I'd almost certainly get every lawsuit thrown out of court but that it could cost up to $5K each time. And frankly I understand the law and it makes sense - I might even feel that way if someone did it to me. And maybe that famous icon, even though long dead, wouldn't want me to claim he had an affair with her (Oh yes he would! Look at her, guys!). Anyway, I had to re-write the entire book making all the characters fictional, except public figures represented exactly as they were. I did not just change names, but changed all the characters (she now has an affair with a fictional French actor), etc. I was a lot of work to do this, and I actually think the book is more interesting because of it . . .
More model trains - as I re-wrote it I put in a lot more trains, and a lot of model trains. In many cases I had to make models of those model trains (of a 1870's compressed air mining locomotive, the O-gauge "1947 V-1 Missile Defense Radar Train set") for the photos scattered through her biography, and in all but a few cases, when I am talking about real trains in the book, I set up vignettes on my layout and took pictures of models - maybe that's too cute but I like it. And it was fun. That took time but, again, makes the book better I think, if not as understandable in places to my wife and the editor doing the proofreading - you have to be into trains and O-gauge to "get" a lot of it now. And there is now Veranda's famous quote which is so true throughout the book: "If the movie was set on a train, it was a hit. If I shot a spy during the movie, it was a hit. So I shot a lot of spies on trains."
Much lower cost: I had done everything up to the last draft so the book would be normal "big" paperback size (6" x 9"). It would have been 400 pages and cost about $23 dollars, with 11 pt type. I am now halfway through the final draft and changing it to 8.5 x 11 inches. It will be only 275 pages, and up to eight dollars cheaper, have 12 pt type and 1.15 line spacing (easier on older eyes), and with the 61 photos in the book larger and easier to see. Amazingly it costs almost nothing more to have bigger pages in a book but costs a noticeable amount to have more pages in a book. I may be able to get the price down below $12, but my target is at least below $15.
I think it will be done and out of door, and for sale on that big river website, within a month.
