I’ve finished the first draft of ‘Da Book’ and have sent it off to the publishers who will no doubt return it with lots of red marking all over it and a huge letter from the lawyers asking for a thousand and one changes.

I’m still not satisfied with it though – especially the introduction.

Oh well…

I’m also a fair bit nervous, will my publishers like it?  Will they laughingly throw it in the bin?  Will I look like a complete idiot with ideas above my station?  Who knows – the die has been cast.

My hands are now soaking in a bucket of ice and dreading the thought of a second/third/fourth draft.

Time for a little relaxation before I head off to work.

Someone (who I can’t mention on pain of death) pointed out an Amazon page to me…

Where Da Book is listed

Which means that I better finish writing it…

It’s definitely a weird feeling to see it up on a website I buy most of my books from.  I’m currently polishing the ‘final’ first draft before sending it off to the publishers so they can edit it into something approaching English.  I’m having a bit of a crisis of confidence at the moment.  Reading through my old posts I’m constantly worried that my writing skills are not good enough to be published.

One thing that leaps out when you look at a collected bunch of posts is how I seem to spend a lot of time trying to get a cup of tea, or worrying about sleep.

At one point we seriously considered subtitling the book “One man’s quest for a cup of tea”.

It’ll be finished before the end of the week, so I’ll see what my publishers have to say.  Until then I’m afraid I’m going to be neglecting this blog and email.  Maybe I’ll post something from work via my mobile phone, but unless I come across a job that I simply must write about, the next post might take until Wednesday to write.

So I shall leave you to ponder an important life lesson about ‘ass-hair’.

As Neil Gaiman just wrote…

Writing away on about three different deadlines right now, so the blogging is probably going to suffer for a week or so. (Traditionally I either follow a post like that by disappearing completely or by posting twice as much.)

I never thought I’d share anything with him, but the first draft of ‘da book’ needs to be in by the end of the month, so blogging may be a bit light for the next two weeks or so.  I’ve got some stuff to write about last nights ORG meeting, some in private emails, some of which may end up in this blog.  There also may be some scribbling over a little project I’m doing – this may however remain private.

If I get something really interesting in the next two night-shifts I’ll let you know, but I may be a little to busy to turn belly-aches into interesting posts.

The Amazon adbox (the only ad I’ll ever have) has been turned into a “what I’m reading now” box.  Do with it as thou wilt.

A question for the smart people out there.  As you know ‘Tom Reynolds’ is just the name I write under.  Lets say I meet someone in the street – how do I prove that I write this blog?  Domain registry is one idea, but I’m not sure that it works in all cases.

I’m having an idea tickling around in my head while working on the book, something about how my blog is my identity…

UPDATE: Ok, I don't think I was clear - Let me explain what I'm thinking.

I'm thinking about blogs and digital identity. While not relevant in my line of business, there are people out there who want to improve their career, one way of doing this is by blogging. Imagine a situation where you can say to a potential employee "Hey, take a look at my blog, you'll see the sort of writer/person I am". I know a couple of people who got their jobs via blogging.

Now imagine me on IRC (or other chatrooms/IM clients). Someone asks me who I am - I'd like to point them to my blog and they can make their own mind up. Sure, my blog isn't me but it can give you a rough idea of what I'm about.

Your blog can be an important part of your 'worth' in the reputation economy of the social internet.

But... How can I prove (on IRC, or to a prospective employer) that I'm the person writing my blog. And what is to stop me from saying that I'm the real writer of an anonymous blog. I could always post a specific thing - but if I'm talking to more than one person, then my blog would turn into a series of rather strange posts.

So...is there a way to concretely link this blog to my identity.

It's just what I'm thinking about at present, no particular reasoning behind it - it's just the way my head works sometimes...

It’s 5:30am.  I’ve been up all night working on the book.

Why then am I both hypnotised and horrified by my first viewing of iconic 70’s TV programme “The Love Boat”?

It is, however, less surprising that I’m hypnotised by this zen non-game.

It’s also not surprising that I can barely string a sentence together…

 

To answer some few questions about ‘da Book’.

• Yes, it is based around the blog – I’m taking blogposts from here, rewriting some of them, adding in new information and putting some of them in context.
• Yes I am happy being published.  Very happy strangely enough.
• I have to have the first draft in by the end of February, around 90,000 words.
• I was approached by the Friday Project, I didn’t approach them.  Actually I was approached by three publishers at once.  Thus proving that publishers are like buses, none for ages and then three come at once.
• The idea of publishing it under a Creative Commons license was my idea.  I think that the Friday Project are incredibly cool and forward looking to let me do this.  Publishing under this license will hopefully sell more copies, and let me feel like I’m not selling out.
• I am surprised that people want to publish me.  When I started writing this blog it was the furthest thing from my mind.
• Yes, Work know, and are happy with the whole idea.
• No…it hasn’t quite sunk in yet…

Tuesday 20th December

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



The Friday Project secures publishing rights to London Ambulance Service blogger, 'Random Acts of Reality'


The Friday Project is delighted to announce that it has secured the rights to 'Random Acts of Reality', a book based on the acclaimed online diary of London-based Emergency Medical Technician (E.M.T.), Tom Reynolds.

Tom began working as a nurse for the NHS at the age of 23. He worked in four hospitals but moved to the London Ambulance Service after realising that working in A&E was making him 'want to torture patients'. Now, as an E.M.T., he has finally found his true calling - so much so that he has stopped torturing 'all but the congenitally obnoxious... and drunks.'

Since 2003, Tom has kept an online diary (or 'weblog', or even 'blog'), candidly recording every aspect of his daily working life. From the tragic to the hilarious, from the heartwarming to the terrifying, the stories Tom tells give a fascinating - and at times alarming - picture of life in inner-city Britain, and the people who are paid to mop up after it.

Random Acts of Reality will be published in August 2006 in paperback format. It will also be the first mainstream UK title to be published online in its entirety under a Creative Commons Licence.

Paul Carr, Editor-in-Chief of The Friday Project explains: "Like many people in the media, we've been huge fans of Tom's writing for a long time. When we first approached him about turning his blog into a book, he suggested that we might also publish an online edition to allow people to access the full text electronically before deciding whether to purchase a hard copy.
It's a fantastic idea and one that suits the material perfectly.
And hopefully it will encourage other publishers to be less nervous about making material available online in order to increase hardcopy sales."

Publishing under a Creative Commons Licence makes the entire text of the book available online and also entitles readers to download it, and reproduce it for personal, non-commercial use.
The publisher and the author retain all commercial publishing rights to the material.

The paperback edition of the book will be available in all good bookshops, published under The Friday Project's 'Friday Books'
imprint.


ENDS

Do you know how hard it is to keep quiet about something when you blog about pretty much anything that wanders across your mind? You'll notice I have a new category 'Da Book', where I'll put anything that occurs while I write the thing. It won't 'bubble up' to the main page, so as to not fill this blog with booky concerns.