There are a great deal of projects I’m working on at the moment, not the least of which is The Handy Wisconsin Answer Book by Visible Ink. That’s due out next year, though the exact date is still up in the air.
A former coworker asked me nearly two years ago if I’d co-author the book with her. “It’s too big for me to finish by myself, so I asked if I could have a co-author and they said you’d be okay.” Little did I know what I was getting myself into.
The book is written in a Q&A format. I was assigned four general topics – Sports, Business, Politics, and Tourism. I’ve cranked out more than a dozen chapters in those topics, ranging from the Green Bay Packers to Climate. In all I have about 76,000 words already produced. As of this writing I haven’t received much in the way of editorial suggestion, but it’s coming. Nothing a writer produces is ever accepted right away, despite multiple critiques.
The total word count will be in the neighborhood of 150,000 words, and available wherever books are sold. Plenty of pictures, too! It'll look similar to the other Handy Answer books. Check them out at the publisher's site, linked above.
The process was quite an experience. Anyone who knows me at all could tell you I’m not a fan of sports. Writing about sports brought up a LOT of interesting facts, though. For instance, a Brewers game was delayed because of heavy snow at County Stadium (before Miller Park and the retractable roof). Even though they’d “tarped” the field and shoveled the snow away, the ground was still so soggy the next morning they brought in a helicopter to hover over the field to dry things out.
That’ll be in the book.
Brett Favre’s first forward pass for the Packers was received by . . . Brett Favre. It bounced off a helmet and back into his hands. He was tackled for a loss.
That’ll be in the book.
The Bucks picked up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a coin toss. The guys who won the toss were so excited they hugged. One of them had a cigarette in his mouth and burned the ear of the other. That’ll be in the book.
Anyway, there’s lots of good, interesting stuff that’s going to be in The Handy Wisconsin Answer Book.