Walking Together Blog #1: So The Writing Starts
So the writing starts
Oct 9
Written By Andy Fyon
Today, Wednesday, Oct 9/24, I am sharing parts of my journey to become a self-published author. Yes, you read that correctly. A self-published author.
In late 2020, I began to test the interest of my Andy Fyon Facebook followers in subject matter related to my experiences travelling and working in Ontario’s far north, specifically with remote First Nations people. You might recall the Facebook topic “Far North Friday”. Given the apparent interest in my experiences with First Nations people, and my perception that there was value in the lessons the First Nations people taught me and my team, I decided to recast those early stories into a manuscript, with the intent to self-publish. I knew virtually nothing about self-publishing!
As a retired director of the Ontario Geological Survey, I did a lot of technical writing during my career. But, without a doubt, this has been one of the hardest writing experiences I have undertaken for three reasons: a) I revisited subject material that was emotional, but also humorous, inspiring, and insightful; b) writing does not come easily to me; and c) there are companies expert at supporting authors who choose to self-publish, but in the end, the author is responsible to research and make decisions about many topics related to the process of publication (e.g., book design, book form, book size, use and size of photographs, book distribution options, book category classification, book price, royalty size, etc.) – topics that lie well outside a mortal author’s expertise and certainly outside my expertise.
As a consequence, my Facebook presence, and just about all of my other projects, were much reduced over the past three years because I shifted my time to the task of writing a manuscript.
What is the title of the book, you ask? “Walking Together: Engagement Lessons from My First Nations Learning Journey” (see book cover attached).
In case you are tempted to ask where you buy “Walking Together”, you can’t just yet (as of October 2024). But as soon as the book is published, I will post the retailers on my book website and in this blog. I am aiming for publication before the end of December, 2024. More next week – or sooner if I am motivated.
