Yesterday afternoon a large truck pulled up…

And a man delivered…

970 pounds of my book.

Yes, they are here, all 400 copies. That makes for around 145,600 pages, 50 million words, or, to get a really big number, about 284 million characters, counting spaces.

I have opened some of the cartons and inspected the books, and they all look good. I will start shipping out orders immediately, so order your copy with the button below!

It has been a long road researching, writing, and editing the book – not to mention living the life described in it. Now that I have the printed work in hand I am at peace. Or laying a 970 pound paper and ink egg.

Ordering

Get your copy of Why can’t somebody just die around here? with the Buy Now button below:

	Why Can't Somebody Just Die Around Here? by Gerhard Maroscher, 6in x 9in, 344 pages, $17.99
	You can pay with a credit card. You do not have to have a PayPal account. Look for the other options on the right hand side of the next screen. If you want more than one copy you will have the opportunity to change the quantity on the next screen. Media Mail postage is $3.99 per book. Sales tax will be added to orders for Ohio residents. For the moment international orders are being handled directly with Gerhard.
	Orders will ship within 1-3 days via USPS Media Mail, which takes 2-9 days to arrive.

The proof copy has arrived from the printer!

Once I am sure that the proof is as desired, the printing of books will begin!

As soon as the shipment comes in I will let everyone know how to get a copy. If you’re interested in getting on the pre-sale list (and haven’t already) just send me a message here and I’ll let you know as soon as they are for sale.

The final manuscript has been converted to a PDF and sent to the printing company!

The printing company is now making one proof copy of the book, as well as a proof of the book cover. Once I approve them both then the printer will print the full order. I should have the proof in hand any day now, and the final print run should happen soon thereafter!

The book is nearly ready to go to the publisher!

I just printed the front and back covers on some card stock to see how they look full-size. On my home printer I cannot match the quality of the glossy actual cover of the book, so I am excited to see the first proof copy back from the publisher.

The cover has been designed by Mark Dawson.

Shown in front of the fireplace are paper copies of each of the edited 19 chapters. That hard copy edit was the last one before I sent the electronic file to the editor a couple of weeks ago.

Now the question is: burn or recycle? Considering the hours editing took, burning has a certain appeal to it. The pro-environment angel on my shoulder is trying to convince me to recycle. The small fellow with a big grin on my other shoulder, the guy who says he likes it really hot, says watching the papers burn would be fun. Right now it is a tossup.

Today I received the final edit of the manuscript from the editor. Am going to read it and see what they proposed changes there are. Hopefully this will take only a few days. Now where are the matches?

After standing all afternoon working on the manuscript, my legs were very tired. A bit of anti-gravity rest on my yoga mat felt great. Koda is resting also but he does not need the anti-gravity pose.

I’m working on the final touches of the manuscript. Just wrote the copyright page, acknowledgments, and author’s notes. A few minor tweaks to the last chapter and file will be sent to the editor for final formatting!

Arrgh! The text is written. But “done” does not necessarily mean DONE. Now I am reorganizing several chapters. Shown are the recently re-organized chapters. They are “filed” on the family room floor. The book will be in print soon – it just doesn’t seem like it.

News from Gerhard:

I decided I needed business cards.  Now when I talk about my book I can also hand out cards to remind people to click on the book’s website for more information about the project.

Mark Dawson designed the card.

Having a card to hand out brings home the reality that sometime in August the book will actually be in print!

Business card, front.

Business card, reverse

In October of last year Gerhard traveled to Germany to do some research for his book, and met Constantin Beyer, grandson of a World War II-era photographer and a photographer himself.

Constantin Beyer and me in front of his front door in Weimar, Germany, taken in October during my research trip.

Constantin’s grandfather took photographs of the bombing destruction in Weimar during World War II.

Constantin has all of his grandfather’s pictures, three of which will be in the book. Constantin also took contemporary photos of those three locations during the October trip.

Photos used by permission of Constantin Beyer, www.constantinbeyer.de

Gerhard Maroscher’s latest book, Why Can’t Somebody Just Die Around Here, now has a website!

This website, www.themaroscherstory.com, is where you can find all sorts of information about Gerhard’s book, including peeks behind-the-scenes, excerpts from the book, ways to get in touch with Gerhard, and links to buy or pre-order the book.

The site is still new, but we’ll be adding content gradually as we make our way through this project!

Mark Dawson, one of Gerhard’s old Circleville friends, is helping Gerhard get the word out by creating the website as well as managing the book’s Facebook page. Mark also designed the book cover, shown above.

Mark is a freelance photographer and photographic artist currently based in midcoast Maine. He does a good deal of commercial photography work, as well as fine art photography using historical processes such as tintypes and gum bichromate printing.