I spent last week making copies with my laser printer, punching holes in 1100 sheets of computer paper with my three-hole punch and then attaching with painstaking accuracy 3300 of those support circles around each punched hole. I thought the job would never get done!

Let me explain how I got myself into such a predicament.

Several years ago I was at a mall sitting behind my table displaying my books and attempting to entice shoppers to wander over and examine my mini-library.

I enjoy marketing my books this way as it provides me opportunities to visit with many interesting people and on this particular day I met a fellow author who shared an idea with me that ended up keeping me very busy last week.

The author I spoke with was not any ordinary author. He shared with me that he liked to produce his books one at a time. That meant he constructed the front and back cover as well as completing the internal parts of the book himself.

There was no publishing company to deal with or no editor to argue with about changes that should or should not be made. The author was his own boss.

I remember thinking what a novel idea that was and I was intrigued by it. You see by that time I had experienced publishing houses and editor battles a time or two.

That visit stuck in my mind and little did I realize in just a few short years I would have the opportunity to publish my own book from start to finish.

After thirty-four years of teaching the biological sciences I retired with the vision of becoming a full time writer. That lasted for three years.

During that brief three year hiatus I made the decision to become a member of the board of directors for the Bonanza Education Center.

The Bonanza Education Center was an environmental learning center located in the Big Stone Lake State Park in western Minnesota.

“Heck,” I thought, “I’m retired now so why not volunteer to become a board member.” That would be a sign that I was officially retired when I reached ‘board of directors’ status. 🙂

Boy was I wrong! I had been a member of the board for a little more than a year when the coordinator resigned just before the beginning of the school year.

I was the only member of the board with environmental teaching experience so I was the perfect person to fill his position. Some ‘arm twisting’ from my fellow board members followed until I relented and said I would take the position for that year.

Well eight years later I retired from the coordinator’s job after experiencing the most enjoyable eight years of my forty-two year teaching career.

And that’s when the memory of my visit with my author friend at the mall those many years before began to gnaw away at my brain. It reminded me of the possibility of producing my own book, front cover, back cover and everything in between.

You see over those eight enjoyable years working at Bonanza I had developed many of my own outdoor activities. I had made copies of them and took them with me when I retired.

That’s when I realized I had the makings of my own book; front cover, back cover and everything in between. 🙂

That next winter I wrote lesson plans for each of the thirty-three activities, wrote a table of contents, and an introduction.

Then I visited Walmart and purchased thirteen three-ring binders and several thousand support rings for the punched holes on each page.

I designed a front cover with the notebooks title, “Fun in the Outdoors” printed on it and included drawings of some of the most common creatures in the outdoors that gross kids out. 🙂

My dream had been fulfilled. I had produced my own book from front cover to back cover and everything in between.

A grandmother was the first person to buy the book. Her husband told me several years ago she brings it along every summer on their family vacation and uses it to introduce the grandkids to the joys of the outdoors.

To date I have sold twelve books and I have only one book remaining from my first printing. So last week I began the time consuming task of completing a second printing.

However I had forgotten how long it takes to produce a front cover, back cover and everything else in between!

That’s why the title of this blog reads “last week it didn’t seem like such a good idea”. Each three ring binder contains 100 pages. The three hole punch was used to make three holes on the side of each page with circular reinforcements placed over each hole.

Then the eleven three ring binders (I went with eleven books for the second printing.) had to be opened and laid out so the 100 pages could be inserted in the correct order in each book.

It was a long week! But now my mini-library has another addition for book shoppers to examine.

I only have one fear. What if the book becomes a best seller? I would die from exhaustion trying to meet the demand. 🙁

If that ‘ best seller’ thing does occur I might have to locate that author who gave me the idea and demand he give me a hand. Or better yet I might just sue him for causing me too much success! 🙂

Until next time.