GOOD TIMING ISN'T EVERYTHING BUT IT SURE HELPS

                               A HINT OF SPRING

 On November 17, 2008 I began an article to be posted on Gather which read:

NEVER SAY DIE - UPDATING MY ATTEMPT TO PUBLISH MY MEMOIR IB TREATING DRUG ADDICTS IN THE SIXTIES .

                                  HERE WE GO AGAIN

Many developments since I wrote my last up date on my persistent attempts to publish my memoir securing a contract from a traditional publisher.

• Dreams of glory have been relegated to 17th place in my list of priorities.
• First place has been to learn how successful first time authors manage to crack into the charmed circle.
• Following my instincts (a combination of a listening to my multiple streams of information inclusing my ideas, feelings, intuitions and bodily sensations).
• My instincts told me I was not comfortable with my agent/editor so after considerable....

I stopped there ...

I have come a long way since I first submitted my memoir over two years and 12 rejections ago. I have lost a sense of urgency and excitement. I am used to waiting long periods of time until I hear - if I hear at all - from prospective agents and or publishers. But I have not lost my conviction that I have an important and meaningful statement that will be published one day even if I will do it on my own.

I feel rooted in reality and am not at all interested in indulging any of my dreams of glory fantasies. I am clear about the business of publishing. Although I want to throw up when I read about Gov. Palin and Joe getting millions of up front dollars to publish what I am certain have to be their twin contriubtions to great literature I no longer care to rant and rage. That's the way things are and have always been. What's new. There is little justice in the world particularly the publishing world. But that doesn't mean that if I find the right hook I can't eventually be invited into the charmed tent.

So just as I thought my pathways were all walked I chanced upon a publisher who actually said upon reading the first three chapters he liked my premise. Feeling uplifted I said to him that if he liked the first three chapters he would probably really like the rest as he was about to get into the dramatic meat and potatoes of the story line. He said that he would call me after he finished reading the next 4 chapters. That was over 4 weeks ago.

Since that time, just a few days ago, I read in the New York Times that the New York Legislature was finally coming to its senses and most probably was going to drastically chage the draconian Rockefeller drug laws which essentially consigned small time drug offenders to a quarter century of prison. Talk about justice (that is) injustice. While Mr. Madoff appears to be getting a plea deal in which he may be allowed to keep 60 million dollars and the use of his expensive apartment - thousands of misguided and no doubt confused adolescents - many suffering from serious mental health problems - are still used as scape goats and largely warehoused in the prison system where I am told most do not receive expert treatment for their addictions.

Hooray for the legislature... It is way past time for them to become enlightened. Of course it is easy to surmise that the real motivation for their sudden change in attitude is that they have figured out that they can save billions of dollars emptying out the prisons.

Yet I fear that as the authorities impulsively consigned thousands to hell they may well act too impulsively in returning them to the streets of New York. This is inevitable until and unless they have in place a meaningful in between program for enabling the newly released to be equipped to be solid tax paying citizens. I envisage such a program to be a legion of therapeutic communities that are run with intelligence, sensitivity, excellent training and supervision, are transparent and have to be accountable.

What has all of this to do with publishing my memoir?

My memoir is a blueprint -  a microcosm - detailing the best and the worst in setting up and running effrective and or ineffective therapeutic communities. Realizing that I am finally in the main stream I decided to call my prospective publisher and offer him this 'hook'.

Debating for two minutes as to whether or not it was appropriate to call I trusted my intuition that the timing couldn't be better. Figruing nothing times nothing is nothing I called him.

He remember who I was.... instantly apologized for not having gotten to the rest of the chapters. Informing me that he had intended to finish it just that night... I stopped him mid sentence saying if nothing else over the last few years I have learned how to be patient. I told him about the news report which he instantly agreed sounded promising.

So who knows.... perhaps this will fizzle as well but at least I have an ear by a real editor who has been consistently encouraging and complimentary.

So my conclusion is: Good timing is not everything but it sure helps.  It at least has helped my spirit.