Perfect Real
Hello, Tuesday Afternoon!
Hoping all of you are well and enjoying the month of August, so far.
Of course, I am in the office, doing the do on my book-in-progress, and making measurable headway with it. Some of my friends have asked why it is that I have taken on the arduous work of being my own publisher? For me, there's only one answer: Total creative freedom!
Just as I have never run my art in front of anyone else, and asked how they would create it, neither do I feel the need to do that with what I write. Since I am the one who lived my personal story, then it stands to reason that I am the only one who knows where all the bodies are buried. So to speak.
Learning how "stuff" is made in this world has always fascinated me. In terms of my current manuscript, formatting it for publication was the single hardest part, bar none; mostly because I had scared myself into believing I couldn't learn Microsoft Word's program.
A simple mantra that I've used for years goes sort of like this:
"Other monkeys have learned to do what I want to do, and I am as smart as they are. Therefore, this monkey can learn to do this, too!"
With that little ditty in my mental back pocket, recently I reserved two full days to figure out the "Formatting MONSTER", brooked no self-created interruptions, allowed myself to make every mistake possible on a "dummy file" by clicking all the options in the tool bar, and relaxed into the process. Unexpectedly, I found myself having fun with formatting!
At the end of two days of noodling; I had learned how to format my manuscript in the same way that the big publishing houses do! Imagine that! I did imagine it, and now I know how! Don't you love how that works?
That attitude is the only thing that has kept me focused on learning how to change and heal dysfunctional behavior patterns that have been in place in human consciousness since homo sapiens first began roaming this earth. For me, all it took was the realization that others down through history have already mastered what I chose to begin learning twenty-eight years ago. Being willing to adopt "beginner's mind" was the biggest part of that battle, which led to an open mind capable of learning new things.
PreOrders of my first memoir will be closing soon, with no guarantee that there will be more printed than those that are prepaid. I am just me; an artist living in crazy times; not a big publishing house, so it is what it is.
Click the link below for additional information about my upcoming book and how to order it. Those who do, will also become part of the project.
https://www.rushcolefineart.com/DREAMOFTHEBUTTERFLYpreorder.…
P.S. I am not perfect, and neither will my book be perfect. It will be real, though. Count on it.