When You First Hold Your Words in Your Hands

Many people who write fiction have those stories in their heads for many years before they feel brave enough to actually write them.

Many people who write fiction know, deep down, they will never see their work traditionally published.

Even when people who write fiction understand they can self-publish and share their writings with a few, the process feels so daunting they never tackle it.

And many people who write fiction also know that, however they publish, few actual people will ever read those words, even if they sell their books.

Knowing all of this, writers still, somehow, write.

And no joy can match the the joy when the first proof copy of your first book arrives in the mail and you can actually hold your words in your hands.

Pictured is the real Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara (yes, he's a real person), holding the proof copy of Ruthless, his first novel.

His wife Nancy, a beloved art teacher who made the front page of the Daily Southtown when she retired from Brodnicki Elementary School in Justice in 2014 - and was subsequently given the keys of the city - created all the interior and cover art.

Rebekah created the actual cover and did all the formatting.

I did all the editing - except for one round of copyediting that Colleen H Robbins did - and am currently copyediting the proof.

But nothing matches the work Ed himself put into this novel.

You see, Ed is extremely dyslexic and scatterbrained - his own words. And he's also said he's never finished anything. 

My kids say this is not true. He's worked as a supervisor in newspaper delivery his entire life. And he always finished his routes.

Nevertheless, this book is a huge accomplishment in many ways. He wrote it to fit into my BryonySeries and developed some of my characters in ways I didn't imagine.

He asked for deadlines from, and he met every one.

And to ensure he met those deadlines, he worked through COVID.

Not "COVID" as in the pandemic.

But his own battle with COVID in November.

I'm very honored to be part of his publishing journey.

And I'm inviting everyone reading this post right now to be part of the celebration.

Calkins Day 2021 will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. Calkins Day (Feb. 13, 2021) on Zoom. 

Real food and drink available if you bring your own ingredients. 

Calkins and his sidekick “The Goddess” will chat about author collaborations, how to legally  fictionalize a real person, literary nonsense. Irish vampires, deep time psychosis, and Astro-Time Physics.

He will also answer questions but doesn’t promise you’ll understand the answers. Calkins will also randomly give away three copies of “Ruthless.”

And we will celebrate the release of “Ruthless,” by Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara, is a work of absolute literary nonsense about the last seven seconds in the life of an Irishman and his afterlife as an Irish vampire, most of which never happened.

Local author and WriteOn Joliet co-leader Tom Hernandez will emcee. 

Chef Tim will give three demonstrations. Menu and ingredient list provided after registration.

Calkins Day is free. To register, visit bryonyseries.com/registerforcalkinsday.