Finally, it's happening: I'm committed to letting my memoir manuscript see the light of day! It's been a long and somewhat painful process. Two years ago, I was 90% "there" in terms of sealing a wonderful publishing deal with a New York publisher. But ultimately, things didn't go as the editorial director and I had hoped. Disheartened, I didn't even
look at the manuscript again for two painful years.
But life and timing are extraordinary, unpredictable things. Mysteriously, the death of late-night talk show legend Tom Snyder of "Tomorrow With Tom Snyder" has given me the impetus, indeed the vigor, to dust off my tear-stained humor memoir manuscript and just see what happens with it online as an ebook.
In the wee hours of the morn, I finally did just that! I now have a PDF available of the entire manuscript of my humor memoir here: http://editred.com/viqifrench.
There's also a
free sample download of the entire first chapter available.
I should explain that Tom Snyder figures quite prominently in the very first chapter of my book. When I was young, I'd sneak and watch "Tomorrow" when I was supposed to be asleep, reposing to gear up for the next day in elementary school.
It's impossible to convey how intrigued I was by "Tomorrow." The only other bigger fan I've identified is my guy Conan O'Brien, whose unusually solemn and heartfelt condolences about Tom's passing nearly brought tears to my eyes.
Tom Snyder's guests absolutely floored me: witches, warlocks, murdurous cult leader Charles Manson, Alfred Hitchcock, lesbians, transsexuals, communists, UFO spotters, and so many others. There's no doubt his show played a part in shaping my
freakish persona (and Conan's apparently!).
As a result, many of the stories in "Daddy's Gonna Buy That Baby A Jaguar" seem to be about my hilarious "encounters" with ghosts, cross-dressers, and other unusual characters and situations from my teen and childhood years that I hold dear.
On that note, I humbly release the essay I wrote two years ago involving Tom Snyder and my fantasy pet and muse, Killer, a bad ass jaguar. Please let me know what you think!
Key links:
* Get the sample PDF chapter including Tom Snyder here:
Daddy's Gonna Buy That Baby A Jaguar* Learn much more about the book, where I'm coming from (i.e., St. Louis and Philadelphia at my Squidoo lens:
A humor memoir with an upROARious bite!Technorati Links:
Tom Snyder
Writers
Books
Humor Memoirs
Television
Conan O'Brien