Twenty years ago today, at around 2:10 in the morning, I finished a novel.
It took me 21 years to write it.
Now, over on my Wisdom of Gigi Blog, I spent last summer chronicling the advent of my journey into becoming a professional musician AND the beginning of “The Opus,” which was the only thing I called it for a long time because I couldn’t think of a decent title.
Weird, because I can usually come up with decent titles long before I’ve got a decent plot…but I digress.
There’s also an older blog dedicated to the time when I was in the process of finishing “The Opus.” Grand times, y’all. You can check that out HERE - (My Great American Rock Novel). There are also some anecdotes about The Groovetones' early days.
Mercy. Moving on.
“The Opus” was originally one big book, over 700 pages. Its main audience (most of my friends) was reading it, as I finished it. I’d spend DAYS finishing a chapter, email it to my “willing victims,” and twenty minutes later they’d write back and say…
“What happens next?”
If that’s not inspiration, I don’t know what is.
Then it broke up about four marriages. Mine not included. Again, grand times, y’all. Someone even named their dog after one of my characters. I was flattered.
Anyway…
The thing was done. Then it took another TWELVE years to publish it, with continuing sequels exploding in my head all the while (that’s another story). I was futzing around on Amazon one day and saw this little bitty link that read “Let us Publish Your Book.”
Or something like that. It was all downhill from there.
Once the next installment (what is now Book 3) was published in 2020, and “The Opus” was an official series known as "Rockin' Heaven Down" after the Heart song of the same name, I decided to do some adjusting and divided the FIRST volume into two separate books with new covers, right in the middle of starting ANOTHER series, mind you.
No one wants to read a book with 700 pages anymore (they don’t read anything with 300-400 pages, either, apparently, haha), so let’s split some things up. This, in turn, creates another book in the repertoire, thus creating more sales.
Or at least it was supposed to. (Yeah! How’s that workin’ out for ya???)
They ended up looking pretty cool though. (And yeah, I used Canva. So what?? Having to do book covers yourself, especially for paperback copies, is like being sucked into the tenth level of hell. I’m neither an artist nor a graphic designer, so you better believe I’m taking advantage of free AI training for that stuff. People can kiss my ass.)
Sorry…another tangent.
I guess what I’m trying to say is this: A labor of sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll came to its fruition on Sunday, March 5, 2006, right in the very same room it was seeded.
And there is more to come. That story didn’t end just because the Eighties did. Book 4 is in production as we speak. Along with Book 3 about the werewolf guy.
My brain is on FIRE, y’all….
I have prolific amount of work to my credit. It's just mostly in my head.
Check it all out:
(Oh, and I will provide Part 10 of the 1985 blog over on Wisdom of Gigi. I got sidetracked.)
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