It started innocently enough.
During National Novel Writing Month in November, I was to continue working on a book about my dad. Marcy, meanwhile, was to write a book for our nieces and nephews. Featuring, of course, them.
So off we went in week 1. Me with my dad's account of living in Vietnam; her with her chronicling of the adventures of the Dackticons. It was an adventure I soon found too tempting to resist.
(The Dackticons, I should mention, are the Adirondack Mountain division of the Autobots. They basically consist of me, Marcy, and our four nieces and nephews. Although the group involves all of them, Natalie always sends us "missions" through the mail and communiques detailing the last known whereabouts of the Decepticons. They're usually involved in some nefarious scheme to steal the world's supply of donuts.)
Before long, we realized 30 days was not enough time. Even topping out at 35,000 words, Marcy just didn't have the time to get this done. She began researching printers, too. We could get this book written, edited and published in time for Christmas.
But there are tricky things like copyright laws, which don't hold weight with a 9-year-old girl who insists we have to battle Ursula from The Little Mermaid. So mass production is out.
This set us on a course to become publishers ourselves, and in December 2019 Casa Mahoney became a bookbinder's workshop.
SO MUCH GLUE.
We made the book presses out of paint sticks bolted together. The pages were laid out in InDesign. Marcy drew our Dackticon characters and we printed the covers and interior pages in Burbank.
SO MUCH GLUE.
We delivered the books to the kids at Christmas. I got to read through the first four chapters, getting huge laughs any time butts were mentioned.
Hey - I know my audience.
Today I received the first reviews in the mail. Best reviews I ever got.
For the second printing, is it OK to have the author review her own work?
I loved the book! Espeshally the worlds biggest fart part!
Like I said: I know my audience.
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