Rather a short post, probably

This might be a short post today, as I am in the middle of doing the last minute work for publication.
A friend who has just finished publishing his book advised me that there will be issues right to the last minute, and I am finding that is true.
We are working on the four colour maps in the middle of the book.
First the illustrator draws blank maps on which the route is to be drawn in red ink.
She forwards them to the editor who forwards them to me, with instructions to use red pens (which, of course, I do not have).
I print out numerous copies and carefully draw on them the routes of Anderson's explorations/expeditions, drawing one of the four journeys between Kamloops and Fort Langley on each sheet.
The end result is four finished maps and many ruined sheets of paper as I discard maps on which I have made a mistake!
I do the same with the maps of the two brigade trails over the range of hills that separated the Fraser River from Kamloops -- the 1848-49 trail up Anderson's River, and the later trail that crosses over the Coquihalla mountains.
I run the good maps through the scanner and email them back to the editor, and she forwards them to the illustrator who lives in Vancouver, who draws all four routes on one base map, and the two brigade trails on a second base map.
Then she sends them back to the editor who looks them over and forwards them to me, and I make major or minor corrections and return the maps to the editor, for her to send them on to the illustrator for correction or completion.
When the layout of the book and the maps to go in it are almost finished, the illustrator puts them up in the sky somewhere, and at this point everyone who needs to look at the book can work on it.
One person can access the book and enter the index, which is based on the index I worked on a few weeks ago.
I know this is happening because I am getting batches of the type of questions that would turn up when one is doing the index -- do we say commissioner or Commissioner, or do we on occasion list the names of the three commissioners/Commissioners?
Is it McLeod Lake post as it appears in Chapter 20, or McLeod's Lake as it appears in an earlier chapter?
Fort Kamloops or Kamloops Post? We need to ask these innocent little questions so we can be consistent throughout the book.
Even my biography is questioned -- am I the descendant of three or four generations of fur traders or am I the fourth generation descendant of fur traders?

The book should be perfect when it is done, but I know it won't be.
I know when I put it out there that someone will give me information that I failed to find (or, worse, that I overlooked), that changes the book.
That happens to every author -- you make the corrections in the second run of the book and hope not too many persons notice the first error.

But in spite of this flurry of work, the book is almost finished.
However, it will be published a little later than we planned -- November rather than October.
But the bookstores are placing their orders for the book, so you can go in and request they order you a copy.
I don't know if you can yet order from Heritage House online.
You must also remember that if you are planning to order an e-book, you will have to wait at least a month or so longer until it is loaded online without error.

If you live in the Hope area, the book will be available at the Museum.
In Princeton, it will be found at The Image Emporium on Bridge Street, and hopefully from the Museum on days when its open in the winter-time.
In Yale you will find it at the Museum, when open during the winter -- they tell me they open on a number of occasions over winter.
Of course you are internet savvy and can order the book directly from the publisher, Heritage House.
In the Okanagan it will be available through Chapters, and I think the same applies to Kamloops.
The Kamloops Museum will carry it, as one of their images is contained in the book.
In Victoria it will be found in most bookstores -- in only one or two I have not been able to contact the book-buyer, but I'll get there eventually.
Certainly the book will be carried by Crown Books -- this is a BC book, after all, and if any one book store in Victoria is a BC bookstore, Crown Books is it.
I spent a great deal of time in Crown Books while I was researching the places where Anderson was.
After all, they carried all the Lands and Forests Maps for BC, and I have most of them.

There is actually a reason for bringing Crown Books into this conversation -- my book launch will be held at Crown Books in early December.
The first book launch is the Heritage House launch, held at the Royal BC Museum in November.
It is a shared book launch for all authors published in the late summer and fall by Heritage House, and its a very dressy occasion -- quite fun! (I invited myself to last fall's book launch).
The second book launch, to be held at Crown Books, will be the launch for my book alone, and the speech will be a little more than the five minutes I will get at the Heritage House launch.
Am I nervous yet? No, but I will get there.