"I’m sorry, I have no gas. I can’t move my car away from the pumps until you reopen," my husband, Bill, explained. There wasn’t enough gas in the tank to turn the engine over to restart it.
We had come to the Washington D.C./Virginia area for my interview with the Christian writer, Catherine Marshall. It was during the summer of gas rationing. We had coasted on fumes all the way down the off ramp and around the curb into the station driveway.
"Well, okay," the service station attendant agreed and pumped enough gas to carry us out of town. By the time our tank was full, there was a line of thirsty cars out across the station drive and down the block. We felt badly for the kind service station attendant.
All of the angst and threatening gas gage were soon forgotten. My morning with Catherine Marshall was inspiring.
Catherine was shorter than I had imagined, but looked like her pictures with dark hair and smiling eyes. Even though she had been meeting with a Bible Study group in her basement, she took the time to answer all of my questions with grace and patience. The material I gathered was for an article I was to write for a new national magazine. The company’s decision to not launch the new periodical took absolutely nothing away from my trip to the beautiful rolling hills around Evergreen Farm in Lincoln, Virginia.
Before I left, Catherine invited me to take a tour of their new Chosen Books Publishing building in a former, eight-room, two-story red brick schoolhouse. There were two "classrooms" on each side of a wide center hallway, both upstairs and down. The old hardwood floors gleamed in the afternoon sun. The building stood just down the road from the home Catherine shared with her husband, Len LeSourd. My tour there was another priceless experience. I asked Catherine if she was involved in the publishing business in any way.
"Oh my no," she answered. "Writing and publishing are two entirely different talents in the book business."
Chosen Books was started on prayer, inspiration and a faith in the Lord’s Guiding by John and Elizabeth (Tib) Sherrill. The Sherrills invited their friends, Len and Catherine LeSourd to experience the dream and great adventure with them.
The June I was there, they had been thrilled by a recent addition to their small staff. A young man had contacted them with a proposal. He would come to work for them for one year at no salary, just for the opportunity to learn the publishing business from the ground up. The only thing he asked was that they might have a room in the building in which he could live so he wouldn’t have to pay rent somewhere else. The Sherrills and LeSourds thought they had caught the brass ring and the young man believed he was the one who was blessed. It was a win-win situation in a world of win-lose, or lose-and-lose-some-more.
It is with that kind of faith and trust that I have decided to offer my novel, Length of Days - The Age of Silence in hardback on the website www.directbuybooks.com. It is already available as an e-Book on www.amazon.com and www.bn.com and others, so why not offer it in a real-as-life, hand-held paper form? I had been reluctant to take that next step. I could hear Catherine Marshall’s words, "Writing and publishing are two entirely different talents in the book business."
The publishing world, however, has changed a great deal since the introduction of electronic books. Writers have had to learn to be marketing professionals, self-promoters, publishers, website designers, and more. The eBook is a wonderful opportunity to offer books, but some older readers do not have computers and many want to actually hold the book in their own hand.
For an author, an eBook is uploaded to an online book seller and is then available to anyone who wants to purchase it for their computer, eReader, android, or any other electronic device that has an app for eReading. A paper book must be designed, printed, warehoused until purchase, then boxed and shipped.
You have no idea how different business tasks are (supervising employees in every detail) from creative writing. To me, managing those details is like the hand wringing experience of driving down a D.C. expressway on an empty tank of gas, during an hour when the gas is rationed and the pumps are turned off.
I am however, determined to be obedient and to follow the will of the Lord as I understand it. I am happy to announce that Length of Days - The Age of Silence is now available as a hardback on the Direct Buy Books website.
Enjoy the read. Race with Christiana Applewait through the streets of her city in 2112 as she frantically hurries to find a way to overturn the Length of Days policy and change the fate of her beloved grandparents. She has until after Gift Giving Season to find a solution. Will she make it in time?
Doris Gaines Rapp
Copyright 2012 Doris Gaines Rapp
Monday, March 19, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
TWO GRANDFATHERS, OTHER TIMES
"Albert, the church trustees and I would like to talk to you," the Pastor called up to the gray haired man in bib overalls who balanced himself near the church steeple.
The old man moved his block and tackle across the steep roof ridge a little further and inched his body into position. "Sure, Reverend, just as soon as I get these shingles nailed down," Al agreed.
"Well, now, Albert," the minister stated respectfully, "that’s just it. It’s the roof we want to talk to you about."
"Can’t stop just yet. I’m losing daylight." Albert Kime faithfully kept at his job.
Al was my husband’s grandfather, a strong, gentle man who began rearing his youngest daughter’s children when they were five months, two and a half, seven and nine-years old. Grandpa was seventy-six and Grandma was sixty-six when the children moved in.
Albert had already retired from the New York Central Rail Road as foreman of the bridge building crew after an accident that cost him the sight in one eye. When he started parenting the second family, he added to his eighty-eight dollar a month pension with his work at the church across the street. Nothing seemed to stop him. Every day, he would carry two, twenty pound buckets of coal ash in each hand, from the furnace in the basement, up the steps and out the door.
After the sun set and Albert had finished his shingle repair, the trustees finally met with their busy custodian in the pastor’s study. For want of other words, the chairman of the committee asked, "Albert, you just had your birthday recently, didn’t you? What am I thinking? Of course you did. The whole church celebrated."
"The thing is, Al," the pastor stumbled into the conversation, "some of the men are feeling guilty about you climbing on the church roof. The roofing company had refused the job. They said the slope was too steep for them—and, well, you are ninety-two years old now."
Grandma and Grandpa Kime were different from Christiana’s grandparents in my novel, Length of the of Days - The Age of Silence. Even though Christiana’s wonderful old ones were privileged citizens in 2112, at age seventy-five, they had come to the end of their Length of Days. They would be picked up and driven to the portal chamber under Howard Mountain. Grandpa Kime lived to be ninety-four years old and died at home, surrounded by his loved ones.
Each set of grandparents were loving and kind, good and steadfast people. But, in 2112 the country had forgotten about those qualities. A reverence for life had been driven from the heart of man.
Christiana is constantly pursued by the Chief Inspector of the Blue Guard. Will she be able to shake his stalking long enough to find a way to overturn the Length Days laws and save her grandparents from the never-ending-sleep? Will she be in time?
Doris Gaines Rapp
Copyright 2012 Doris Gaines Rapp
Length of Days - The Age of Silence will soon be released in paper form on Amazon. It is already available as an eBook on www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.
The old man moved his block and tackle across the steep roof ridge a little further and inched his body into position. "Sure, Reverend, just as soon as I get these shingles nailed down," Al agreed.
"Well, now, Albert," the minister stated respectfully, "that’s just it. It’s the roof we want to talk to you about."
"Can’t stop just yet. I’m losing daylight." Albert Kime faithfully kept at his job.
Al was my husband’s grandfather, a strong, gentle man who began rearing his youngest daughter’s children when they were five months, two and a half, seven and nine-years old. Grandpa was seventy-six and Grandma was sixty-six when the children moved in.
Albert had already retired from the New York Central Rail Road as foreman of the bridge building crew after an accident that cost him the sight in one eye. When he started parenting the second family, he added to his eighty-eight dollar a month pension with his work at the church across the street. Nothing seemed to stop him. Every day, he would carry two, twenty pound buckets of coal ash in each hand, from the furnace in the basement, up the steps and out the door.
After the sun set and Albert had finished his shingle repair, the trustees finally met with their busy custodian in the pastor’s study. For want of other words, the chairman of the committee asked, "Albert, you just had your birthday recently, didn’t you? What am I thinking? Of course you did. The whole church celebrated."
"The thing is, Al," the pastor stumbled into the conversation, "some of the men are feeling guilty about you climbing on the church roof. The roofing company had refused the job. They said the slope was too steep for them—and, well, you are ninety-two years old now."
Grandma and Grandpa Kime were different from Christiana’s grandparents in my novel, Length of the of Days - The Age of Silence. Even though Christiana’s wonderful old ones were privileged citizens in 2112, at age seventy-five, they had come to the end of their Length of Days. They would be picked up and driven to the portal chamber under Howard Mountain. Grandpa Kime lived to be ninety-four years old and died at home, surrounded by his loved ones.
Each set of grandparents were loving and kind, good and steadfast people. But, in 2112 the country had forgotten about those qualities. A reverence for life had been driven from the heart of man.
Christiana is constantly pursued by the Chief Inspector of the Blue Guard. Will she be able to shake his stalking long enough to find a way to overturn the Length Days laws and save her grandparents from the never-ending-sleep? Will she be in time?
Doris Gaines Rapp
Copyright 2012 Doris Gaines Rapp
Length of Days - The Age of Silence will soon be released in paper form on Amazon. It is already available as an eBook on www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.
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