Saturday, 28 June 2025

OCD Kicking in as my book Lost2bFound is published

 

Lost2bFound
The front cover of my book Lost2bFound

On Wednesday  I received an email from David over at PublishNation to inform me of the pricing for the hardcover edition of my book. David also attached a file of the finished draft.

On Thursday with nothing better to do and as I was feeling a bit ropey with this ulcerative colitis I decided to read through the final draft. Imagine my horror when within the first couple of chapters I discovered errors.

Immediately my OCD kicked in and I began getting proper stressed. What I did next was real stupid and I am still berating myself. I read all the way through my book to try and spot more errors, in which there were a few, however I didn't bloody write down where they were, what a complete tit. You see I have lost count of the number of times I have gone over my work. I think a lot of what has made things incorrect is trying to use two different computers with different operating systems, these being my Apple Mac and my dads Windows PC. 

On Friday after a restless night I decided to contact David and inform him of my mistakes. I also checked the e-book and paperback editions of my draft, and sure enough there were errors in the same places. This is a major problem as those two editions have now gone out for publication. To correct them is an additional £75 per edition, as they need to be re-published.

The errors are not huge, the thing is I know they are there. I dare say even when I correct the errors there will still be a few in there that people will spot. I have leant that writing without making the odd mistake in either punctuation or in grammar is very difficult. I couldn't afford to get a professional proofreader, I mean it would have cost me thousands.

  

Lost2bFound
Lost2bFound inside cover
 

So, what to do? Well, I went over the draft all day yesterday trying to spot errors and remember some from my previous days reading of my book. MY dad who is a legend helped me, as he could see I was having somewhat of a meltdown. One positive thing I can say is that when my dad was reading he was having the odd chuckle, so I thought "Hey I must have got some parts right, as it's making my dear old dad laugh to himself". Hopefully this is the case for other readers.

As I read through I became aware at some point  in my writing I must have tapped the "s" key on my keyboard instead of the "a", so there was a kind of incorrect and spare "s" floating around in my text. OMG! both my dad and myself were on almost all day yesterday trying to discover this mislaid "s". We eventually discovered it on page 38, chapter 4. My dad using a search believe it or not for every "s" contained within my book, just imagine how many there were in a book of over 80,000 words.

So where I am at now. Well, I can either leave the books as they are and hope anyone who purchases a copy understands this is a self-published book. As such it has been completed by a complete amateur author, and hopefully cut me some slack. Or I can pay the £150 and have the books re-published, bearing in mind I dare say there will still be some minor errors in various areas, which won't impact on the story.


Monday, 16 June 2025

I am very excited to announce... Well you will have to read further to see!

Lost2bFound
Lost2bFound - My self published book

Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh duh!   That sound doesn't come across quite as well when typed as it did in my head Lol Maybe I should just stick with a "Ta Da".

Anyhoo I am very excited to announce the long-awaited release of the book I have been working on. It is called "Lost2bFound" and came about from an idea I had long ago when certain people said to me "Glenn you should write a book".


Now when they said that I am not sure if it was a polite way of just saying "Glenn you do waffle on a lot" and therefore mocking me, or did these people genuinely think I had an interesting tale or two to tell.

I would like to think the latter, so after visiting BBC Radio Tees for an interview in September of 2024 and mentioning my idea, with the host Gary Phillipson and Gary saying "You should do it", well I decided to start putting pen to paper, well really fingers to keyboard.

BBC Tees Gary Phillipson & Glenn
BBC Tees Gary Phillipson & me
 

 Now I am not a real writer or storyteller, the extent of my experience has been in doing my blog for the last 13 years. I have had various spells where I would attempt to write poetry, and quite recently write songs, which are quite secretive and I only practice to myself, needless to say not in the bath or shower as I would get my guitar all wet or worse still electrocute myself. To be fair I can't for the life of me multitask then go on to strum and attempt to sing at the same time.

Lost2bFound
Lost2bFound

So where to start? I found it difficult to try and tell my story, so that the reader could keep track. You see so much had gone on from way back, yet it had affected me moving forward right up to the present day. Another thing that was important to me was to be completely honest, so certain thoughts and getting them down were difficult and brought up quite a few home truths, where I had to stop and take a break to ask myself questions about my feelings. I had to also go back in time and try to recall certain events, some of which were very painful, and some which were possibly painful and embarrassing at the time, however, now I can see the funny side.

I am hoping my book will be received well and those people who do read it can take something from it. I am looking forward to the feedback I receive, both positive and believe it or not negative, as I think this is how we learn and can improve ourselves.

 

My book is available for pre-order from all good book stores or you can find it by doing a search for "Lost2bFound" on Amazon or follow this link.

Amazon - Lost2bFound 

Oh and the book will be available in ebook and hardback formats upon its release.
 

Thanks for your support

Glenn