Back (for the moment)

“Been away so long I hardly knew the place,…”

Haven’t forgotten my peeps. Just been crazy busy with my new book.

Kind of interesting, having had the experience with 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die with it’s bipolarness (high ups when the book was doing well and the interviews were frequent) and lows (zero royalties based, which does not mean the book has stopped selling), what this new project will bring. It’s a different publisher with a different philosophy, but the subject matter — the Maccabiah Games, aka “The Jewish Olympics” — has a niche audience. Just thing for bar and bat mitzvah and Chanukah presents! Perhaps there will be even more opportunities for author events. After all we are the people of the book.

It’s certainly been a challenge. Quite surprised in the lack of “official” record-keeping. One of the interesting aspects of the Maccabiah Games is that it changes so frequently with regard to events. It all depends if there are enough participating athletes. Sometimes there are, sometimes not. So in one “Maccabiyad” you might have Team Handball, but not in the next, then have it again in the one after that.

Another curious encounter is the lack of what I would consider cogent and organized record-keeping. There’s a lot of raw data in the form of spreadsheets, which I’ve been trying to decipher, but if there’s an “official” list of winners, I have yet to encounter it.

While the creative process is fun — you “meet” all kinds of interesting people in the interview process –  I’m looking forward to handing in the manuscript, tinkering with the editing, and leaning back with a tall frosty beverage.

Of course, all this means I haven’t read a baseball book in a long time. There are some interesting things coming down the pike. I’ll be writing about them soon.

Back (for the moment)