Finally Publishing a Novel

Or How a Seventy One Year Old Made that Decision

Had written my first ‘novel’ when I was ten and had continued throughout my life. At one time I even had a literary agent but, believe it or not, he disappeared. That was around 1990 when it was still possible to do that. Will never forget a phone call I received. It was from his wife, asking me if I knew where he was. Well, he was my agent, no more, no less. How was I to know?

In any case after that I stopped trying even though I continued writing. Why? For one I realized that working for the United Nations just did not go hand in hand with the type of romantic though often realistic works I was producing. Not only did I need my jobs, but they were at the core of what I was producing, novels based on the world of those who worked in the ‘international system’.

That was even true when I switched to not for profits and especially true with my final position as president of a small but UN affiliated organization with a giant interfaith component. How would it and they react to some of the scenes and characters in the stories that came out of my computer?

So, book upon book followed, with their versions of reality depending upon the time they had been written. There were printed versions, as well as some on disks. There were those in my computers and memory sticks.

However, one day, the world of organizational work did come to an end. With it came some decisions, one could say downsizing, in this case fewer vacations in great places which just turned out to be completely unaffordable. Unfortunately, that resulted in the loss of what had been close friends, people who simply could not accept the explanation for the change.

At the same time, I had a new close friend, a dog, who made a long run/walk into a daily habit instead of something done just a couple of times a week. As he sat either next to me or by the coffee table while I wrote or read, I had to smile at the past and the present.

It made me dig up my old drafts and reread them. I even signed up for a writers’ retreat. Then, going over one story I had written in the 1980s, I decided I would do something about it.

Somehow, I had heard about self-publishing and, not wanting to go through all kinds of efforts to get another agent or try to have some publishers read my manuscript, I devoted my energy to getting a copyright and, then, working on getting the book out myself.

Hey, I did it! The book, Choices, came out in 2019, right before my seventy-second birthday. Others followed, the last one, To Yves from Anya, just a couple of months ago. And, yes, there are new ones, drafts that still need some work. This is what I call my ‘third career’, following upon the UN and non-profits. After all, I can still hope to contribute to my fellow human beings, even though I am in my ‘golden age’. Perhaps, it can even really become ‘golden’.