Yes, it’s true. I’m hanging my head in shame. I, gentle reader, am a self-published writer. Was it because I didn’t want anyone to edit my work? Or because I was possessive of my words? Were the slings and arrows of impartial editors too much for me? Did I want my input — and only my input — on the cover of the work that would encase my precious words?

Actually, it was for a birthday present for J. And now that I surprised him with it, I can’t do it again. What I did was this: I compiled all my blog entries from 2007, put them together in one volume, and printed them via Lulu. With the exception of the formatting, and a precipitously steep learning curve about PDFs with embedded fonts (much swearing, but then you already know that about me), it was all rather fun. And, much to my surprise, it came to 350+ pages, when I was really only expecting a 200ish pagecount. Just goes to show how much I can rabbit on when there’s nobody stopping me!

J, too, was rather surprised at how thick the book ended up. And I’ve got a copy each for The Wast and Little Dinosaur, just so they know what their mama got up to when she was starting at this whole writing gig thing. I’m getting two boxes so I can squirrel away momentoes for them and keep them all in the one place. They’ve got the up-to-date set of the US Fifty Quarters series, for example, because we were living in the States when that initiative began — one set of Ps and Ds for each of them, and I’ve held onto the proof sets for myself ‘cos they’re so purty. And now they have a copy of my 2007 blog writings (not egotistical, much). I also have several Book of Days, which are short diary entries that I wrote with them in mind, and directed to them. Having tried the blog experiment with Lulu, I think a consolidated Book of Days is next.

But printing, I hear you say? On *gasp* dead trees? Isn’t that, you know, environmentally unfriendly? Yep. As an epub author yourself, wouldn’t you be better off turning them into PDFs and burning them to CDs or something? Nope.

Because, no matter how much I love technology, it never stands still. The file format that’s all the rage right now will be obsolete in five years’ time. I’ve heard of products on floppy disks that are destined for the scrap heap, because there isn’t any working equipment around any more to read them. Can you imagine? Months of effort slung away because the medium is obsolete. So, until something comes along that’s as universally compatible as paper, I think I’ll continue collating and printing my blogs at the end of each year. I only have a maximum readership of 3, but it’s the thought that counts.