A Right Turn At Jesus

Last night at about 8.07 PM my second indie novel was published.  It's a matter of uploading files, which doesn't sound exciting or sexy, it's watching the title in the queue, observing how each different electronic format is created by Smashwords' Meatgrinder, then set into fine, beautiful script for so many different manners of being digested.  It's the euphoria of months of hard work, moments of sheer fear, minutes of thinking, 'Man I'd rather be sitting out in the sun hearing the whir of humminbirds' wings than just watching from my work space window.'  But last night as Bob watched our future son-in-law attempt to sort the Linux on Bob's PC (another long saga that may or may not end up detailed here), as Jay and her best bud and another of my kids K1 chatted  in their neck of the living room (less than ten feet from where I sat, next to Brian busy sorting Bob's computer), a novel was released, a book published, a story freed from my hard drive.  That, folks, is what indie publishing is all about.

It's about the nuts and bolts, but it's also a testament to family.  Only Thea was missing, well Bud too, hanging out in his room.  He popped his head out a few times as K1 Facebooked on Jay's PC, Jay busy looking over new textbooks for her impending fall term of college.  Thea was absent, but present too, in my instant messages to her, that the book was up, that her dad was eating cake and that as soon as Brian was freed from Linux-maintenance, he would nom on his slice of cake waiting.  Yes, writing is a solitary passion, an endeavor carried out mostly alone.  But publishing is far more open-handed, in that I need all the support I can get!  It was a funny day, tennis-filled and treat-laden.  Brian was coming to our house not just to sort Bob's computer, but to get a ride to the airport this morning, off to spend the long Labor Day weekend with his beloved.  In return, of sorts, he put the last touches on the new novel's cover (which borrows heavily from Mister Downchild, a collection of stories by Peter Guralnick), then brought Bob's computer to some sort of fruition.  It really does take a village to get a novel published, as I said in The War On Emily Dickinson's Liner Notes.  It holds the same for A Right Turn At Jesus, and for all the subsequent books.  I really couldn't do this without my family.

Family isn't just those we're born to or marry; family is all that enters our realm.  Family are those so loved, what Rose instinctively knows in the new novel.  Rose Burnett has lived in the same town all her life, run with the same people since she was a teenager.  Now in her mid-thirties, she's a mom as well as a long-time vocalist for the covers band she started with Lovie Jones, Buster Cutler and the late Colin Emory.  Rose has been married to Gray Burnett for ages, has two precious children, a slightly ill older sister Petra.  And a sense of when those she loves are going to die.  That has hit Rose again, as it did before Colin killed himself when they were in their early twenties, also when her parents died in a plane crash only ten years previous.  Now she's preparing for her Aunt Margaret's death, but something else is bothering Rose.  Is it just that Gray wants another baby?  Is it that her eldest has started first grade, or is someone else headed for trouble?

Or is it even worse, not The Worst between Petra and her long-time boyfriend Garth, a breakup for that couple.  No, something that Rose can't imagine, but has been lurking at her heels for a long long time...

That's the plot behind A Right Turn At Jesus (No, I didn't forget about the book amid all the family carryings-on!). I stumbled into this novel quite by accident, at the funeral for my best friend's mother nearly two years ago.  The title stems from my own sister Lynn's directions of how to locate our maternal grandparents in the same cemetery as my friend's mother.  We took that right turn at Jesus, finding names on graves that I had never visited.  As Rose and Petra never go to see their dead parents, I'm not the type to hunt for those gone.

Not my brother, not all the elderly relatives that have passed.  Rose realizes why her parents were buried not in the family's hometown, but an hour away.  As she does, she still wrestles with Gray wanting another child.  but while those issues become clear, one eludes her.  One small nagging notion lingers, until it's stabbing Rose in the heart, too late to change it.

One of the photos I took for the cover, a warm day that was silent, but very peaceful...  July 2011

So, without further adieu, here's my second independent novel, A Right Turn At Jesus.  This book is exclusive to Smashwords, and it's completely free!  And if self-publishing is at all piquing your interest, let me just say that while it's a lot of work, it's also one of the most rewarding things I've done.  Not only for the sheer joy of offering one of my stories, but the camaraderie it engages.  I will remember last night for a long time, but not just for releasing a novel.  For Bob peering over my shoulder, then to Brian, checking Linux's progress and enjoying his cake.  For Jay and K1's giggles from the sofa, for the feeling of so many dearly loved close.  Even my sister Lynn called, getting in on the act!  She had to laugh when I told her the book's title, hanging that right turn.  But better is to love those close, leaving the rest to memory.  They're never very far, probably waiting for their slice of burnt almond cake.  I know Brian was ready for his when Bob took back his machine...