Missed it by THAT much!
Q: Hey, February has come and gone, and still NO BOOK? What’s the holdup!?!
A: Murphy. Yes, that Murphy. The one with a law named after him that says: "If anything can go wrong, it will."
Technical issues? Check. Darn computers! You’d think that with all their secret pixie dust and magic electrons, they would never do us wrong.....Wrong.
Health issues? Check. I spent most of the weekend at the emergency vet clinic while one of my dogs underwent surgery to remove some kind of towel he ate! Good timing Henri! Oh, and after paying the good Doctor for his emergency services, my credit card is now in the intensive care ward, with some kind of banker-priest standing by, just in case.
Drama? Check. Don’t ask. Let's just say that I now have 30% less hair and my complexion has taken on a whole new level of fish-belly pallor.
Weather? Check. My outside thermometer quit last week. Just got up and left. It was last seen boarding a flight to ANYWHERE but here. But I must say, today it seems a bit warmer. We may get up to minus 20 this afternoon and the weatherman just downgraded the blizzard warning to “apocalypse-lite.”
Q: So when the book will be done!?!
A: Despite all the setbacks, the book is actually written, proofed, poked, prodded and massaged into super-fine form. It fact, it is basically done. The only things remaining are a few final tweaks to some photos--we were having color issues with one of my computers. Everything should be at the printer's by March 21, and the book should start shipping a couple of weeks after that.
Q: Is there any silver lining to all this?
A: Yes indeed! In order to solve one of the technical/design issues we had, we decided to actually expand the book. It is now a massive 384 pages! And at last count, there were over 400 photos with descriptions of over 50 different breeds, dozens of expert contributions, charts, graphs, appendices, an extensive bibliography, glossary and index. In fact, it is so big now that if you plan to order a copy, you may want to consider adding a buttress or two to the coffee table it will sit on.
And speaking of ordering, a brand new www.dogwilling.ca website will be launched in the next couple of weeks. You will be able to order the book directly from the site for quick convenient shipping to your front door (I hope you have a sturdy mail carrier!).
Stay tuned.
Wheels are in motion.
I just hope Murphy is on vacation!
GREAT news! Eagerly waiting to order our copy!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Craig! And hope Henri is feeling better.
ReplyDeleteAndrew
Je nous souhaite que Murphy soit en vacances et pour longtemps!
ReplyDeleteI actually only recently discovered your blog (and thus the fact that you have been working on this book for years) but I'm already looking forward to reading (and looking at) it!
ReplyDeleteAlthough in my case it will take a whole lot more than a sturdy mail carrier to get the book from Canada to Belgium! Then again, I'm confident that modern technology will get the job done (if Murphy doesn't interfere) ;-)
Thanks for your lovely site........
ReplyDelete