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In days long gone, traveling story tellers coming through town were revered and rewarded with lodging, food, trinkets and money for providing a much-needed distraction from everyday life and bringing news and entertainment to town. Had Captain Steve Gilbert lived during those times I can see him in this role without question.

Every human has a story inside!

Just as we all have a story inside of us, some of us have a natural ability to tell those stories in a very entertaining way. Steve has that talent. He’s the funny friend, the life of the party and the guy who always has a new tale to tell. Do not ask him about “the chain” unless you have a few hours to spare and can hurt yourself belly laughing. You have been warned!

When I first met him, the strange tale told in Bag Limit was one of the first stories he told me.

“You’re not going to believe this, and I’m not a real criminal, BUT I was arrested by the FBI for building fishing reefs in the Gulf of Mexico!”

WHAT?

And so, the process of filling my head with rogue FBI agents, the hilarious insanity of Destin’s fishing community and Steve’s 20 years of speculating exactly how and why this happened to him began.

At one point Steve pulled out a notebook with all his newspaper clippings about building the Reef Runner and showed me a letter he had written to John Grisham asking him to write the story of the demise of his reef building business courtesy of the United States Government and the FBI. I read the letter and said, “did you REALLY send this to John Grisham?”

Of course, he did! We are talking about Steve Gilbert, right?

But alas, John must have been very busy and has still not gotten around to replying yet.

Hmmmmm… I was already a successful nonfiction author but writing fiction has been my dream since I was a child. Who needs John Grisham? I convinced Steve to let me have a try at getting the story down on actual paper for him.

At the time I was recovering from a major orthopedic surgery. Since I could not drive or even walk a lot I had plenty of time to research the facts and make up the rest. But this is Steve’s story and his voice had to shine through. Our process was a dream, barefoot on the beach!  

We would go to the beach and Steve would help me get to the water and after my “physical therapy” swim we would collapse in beach chairs under an umbrella and have a snack. Then I hit record and told Steve where we are in the story and ask him to continue.

As fun as it was, it took almost three years to get it all down on paper and into a workable rough draft. Polishing and editing took at least another year until I was satisfied that Bag Limit was good and ready to publish. And those of you who have done this know exactly what I mean. Getting 50k+ words down on paper is a HUGE accomplishment. But it’s just the start if you want an actual book to appear out of all that paper and ink.

My beta readers loved it and were a huge encouragement to me!

But here comes the part that few readers know about, editing involves a lot more than running spell check- even though that is a critical step! Yes, Virginia writing a book is hard. Publishing a book is even harder!

Spell check is a nice beginning, applause from beta readers is a nice start- but turning that 50k word doc into a BOOK…. Holy cow.

Fortunately, I have friends!

Friends who are experts at turning a dream into reality.

Judy Schillenburg,a very talented local Destin artist, famous for her Fishing Rodeo posters gave her permission to use her art as a cover.

Kevin Coughlin formatted my files because I have “computer issues”. Love you Kev!

And Christy Mann of “Save your Sanity Publishing Assistance” used her considerable expertise to talk me off the ledge- or from throwing the entire file in the trash with editing and prepping the formatted manuscript for different wholesalers. The process of uploading large files for printing is a complete nightmare ( I suspect even for those without “computer issues”) and I would not have survived it without Christy!!! Thank you Christy!http://www.facebook.com/saveyoursanityPA/

I wonder how many good stories go in the trash because the process of publishing is so complicated?

And I know, I know, there is a guy who took a picture of his foot and made a book out of that and had it published on Amazon in like three seconds flat then listed it in an obscure category, got a friend to buy 2 copies of it and was an instant “bestseller”.

That made a great blog post trashing the process, but most storytellers turned authors really want to put a well thought out, professional book in your hands and the process of getting it all done right is more than challenging. I am not a 17-year-old computer whiz. I had no idea what an “embedded font” even is. Now I do, but I still am not entirely sure how to do that!

So, from an initial crazy story told over blackened chicken ceased salad to finished product available electronically and in a fabulous paperback you will enjoy, Bag Limit’s creation spans 4 years and we had a lot of help.

NOW we can tell you the easy part! You get it and read it, ENJOY!

•  BAG LIMIT is available for purchase on Amazon.com in e-book and paperback and on IngramSparks.com for retailers.
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