Egg Hunt

Currently I am embroiled in a massive egg hunt--which for a writer gathering permissions is akin to searching for the golden center amid a vast field of brightly-colored stinkers.  And, while I don't particularly enjoy this end of book production, it is an essential ingredient in the current books I'm completing.  But gathering these permissions does allow me, of a sort, to enter into various publishing firms around the world.  I show up via email or phone call in those offices asking for permission to reprint material owned by the copyright holder.  I cross my fingers and hope for the best . . . and where it doesn't work out, I go back and remove the work in question from my book. 

Gathering the permission eggs has already taken me around the world.  I've been to Australia and Ireland.  I may have to go to Germany, too.  (Folks don't often realize that some of the largest publishing firms in the world are part of huge conglomerates whose parent companies are off shore.) 

Eventually I will gather up a full basket of eggs.  Some of these will provide the bright colors for my upcoming books . . . and in advance I am truly grateful to those publishers and authors who allow me to reprint copyrighted material in my own work.  I stand ready to return the favor when others want to quote from my books (which is rare)  But it is always an honor.

I will continue to gather in the springtime . . . as summer (and publication) is just around the corner.
~T.O.