Can I confess something to you guys?

I’m officially Concerned about publishing my book, and it is due to something that is out of my control.

Which I think makes this worse…

My book design is coming along. I’m in the process of reviewing the hopefully final version after my designer made a round of changes.

However, I haven’t heard from my cover designer in a while.

That is concerning primarily because I know that he has personal health circumstances which sometimes make him difficult to reach. I hope he’s all right.

Secondarily, and much more selfishly, I am waiting for him to send the final files for my cover design. Due to miscommunication and just not fucking paying attention on my end, it turns out I never actually received the final version of the beautiful book cover he designed for me.

The file I have is a ‘preview’ of 1376 x 1000 pixels, which is far too small to use as a real book cover. That means I can’t publish until I have the final version…

I’m not here to blast him. Communication issues abounded when we were working on this project, because he is in Russia, and I’m pretty sure some of our emails simply did not make it through whatever firewalls they surely go through between our two countries.

I’m resisting the urge to email him each day, but I last contacted him on Monday. I’ll probably reach out again this weekend.

Anyway, that’s been a damper on this week. I’m excited to review my book design and finalize that piece, so that will be my focus this weekend.

Fortunately, we also have some visitors coming in. My sister-in-law has been staying with us this week to shadow my wife as an externship for her PhD. Her boyfriend is coming in tonight to spend the weekend with us, so the wife and I are looking forward to taking them around Baltimore to all of our favorite food and drinking spots.

And next week we’re going to London for a wedding!

…not that wedding. A wedding for people we actually know, with a handful of other people we know. London is always a good time, so I’ll likely be posting updates from there. With any luck, their weather will be better than the constant rain we’ve had in Baltimore.

Goals for 5/25

1. Complete my review of my book design and finalize that piece.
2. Get in contact with my cover designer to be sure all is well with him (and procure my cover files).
3. Have a nice weekend with family.
4. I should probably schedule some posts ahead of time for when I’m in London.

Steve D