Snoopy Dancing Through Chocolate Roses

I’m Snoopy dancing through fields of chocolate roses

I got copies of my book today! Yay. It’s beautiful in my totally unbiased opinion with cover art by Ginnie E, L. Fenton. My tremendously helpful publisher at Ninth Month Publishing was Susan Ferguson.

My collection of short stories is titled Murder Manhattan Style and available at http://www.ninthmonthpublishing.com/books.html

New York Times Bestselling Author, Nancy Pickard wrote a blurb saying in part, "Warren Bull is a short story master, and this collection shows him at his best…" Earl Staggs wrote a review, saying in part. "Highly recommended morsels for when you want to spice up your reading diet with variety."

Now that the commercial is over, I can say that it is an amazing feeling to see so many hours of writing and so many more hours of rewriting distilled into paper and print. I can see it, touch it and smell it, weigh it and measure it. I’m tempted to taste it too. But I won’t.

Just possessing the book gives new meaning to the concept of “sweat equity.” In my working life as a psychologist, I did not create a tangible product. I always asked my clients if therapy helped them. I used anonymous paper and pencil scales. I set measureable real life goals like fewer days in a hospital per year, being able to keep a job longer, completing a grade in school and so forth but success and progress were only inferred from behavioral change.

As a writer the years of apprenticeship, skill building, grammar honing self-editing and word-smithing have paid off in a book that other writers and editors I respect have said kind things about. I admit, now, to some trepidation about sending it off to reviewers who might have been critical. The whole writing life, it seems to me is a test of courage and willingness to open up emotionally, knowing that some feedback will be negative. Years of effort may not pay off in publication. The only validation may come from within.

I figure I had a monetary return that entered the five-digit range (including two numbers after the decimal place) over the time my novel was in print. I hope to do at least that well with my short story collection.

Of course, in reality I know my book may vanish into the sea of published material without a discernable ripple. I’ve been struggling to get my work into the sea. Let me pause and enjoy this moment.

Please share your latest success at writing.