Sunday, February 24, 2008

I Am Legend

Last week I mailed my manscript for School's Out to Agingdon Press, our United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, Tennessee. This will be my eighth book with Abingdon (thirteen if I count five others I've contributed do, but those don't have my name on the cover, so they don't count!). My manuscript delivery was three months before deadline, and yesterday I received an email from the editor. "I've got other books I have to edit right now," he told me. Then he said, "Actually, your ability to deliver high quality manuscripts far ahead of deadline has become legendary around here."

So there you have it. I am a legend. Well, at least in Nashville I am.

Once, I got a call from a distraught editor who needed a ten thousand word section of curriculum in forty-eight hours. "The other writer dropped out. Can you do it?" she asked me. I stayed up all night and had it faxed over the following morning. Another time, I turned in a manuscript nearly a year before deadline and the blame thing nearly got lost. "I swear I sent it in," I told them. "Have you looked in the recycle bin? It was probably discarded as junk."

Actually, it's sort of fun being a legend. Here are a few other testimonials that can give substance to what I'm saying:

He's legendary for never picking up a pair of socks, I can tell you that!
The Legend's Mom

He's legendary all right. I'm still waiting on a fine piece of jewelry on my anniversary!
The Legend's Wife

Yeah, he's legendary around the house. You should see some of the whoppers he pulls out of his nose!
The Legend's Son

He's the main reason I can't wait to get to college!
The Legend's Daughter

No comments: