Behind the scenes of the making of Tracy Loves Ray.

For a complete history from the beginning start at the bottom and work up. The most recent activity will be at the top.

All

Theresa

Glenn

Date	Who	Entry
03/06/2009	Theresa	So here we are-March of 2009. A long time after my last blog. As you can imagine a lot has happened. The biggest is that Tracy Loves Ray is published. And let me tell you it’s real pretty. I was expecting a matte cover, but no-it’s shiny. Thanks again to Brett Mason for doing the front cover for us. The publishing process took a little longer than anticipated-most of that was my fault-my perfectionism strikes again. There are still some mistakes in the book-mostly punctuation and one continuity error, but we’ll just have to change those when we do our second printing. Something that I thought was really cool-our hard copy proof showed up on Christmas Eve-just in time to show off the new book to the family and the book first became available on Amazon on New Year’s Day. How’s that for a sign? We’ve been busy working on marketing strategies and making some small improvements to the website. Our first big event is our book release party. We decided to team up with the Mission Committee from our church and make it a fundraiser. During Lent we are having a Food Drive so the book party will be the culminating event. We’re calling it the “Stock the Pantry” Concert. Jay will be playing. We’ll be serving flavored coffees and desserts. We’ll be selling Jay’s CD’s and the books (I’ll be signing) with a portion going to the cause. The event is April 4th (there’s more details on the Be a Part of the Story Page)-less than a month!
07/28/2008	Theresa	Well, as per usual I haven’t been keeping things up to date on this blog, but I have been keeping busy. We got some great feedback from our friends and family about the manuscript (Big thank you to the people in my writer’s group who read it for me.) And I went through and made lots of changes-some sections are completely different. Next we sent it to our editor Lorna Lynch. When I got it back from her I went through and made more changes based on her suggestions. (Are you seeing a pattern here?) Next came the back cover, an “about the author” page, acknowledgments page, and dedication. Writing a dedication I truly meant without it being too corny or sappy was harder than I expected, but I’m proud of the final result. We have officially sent the manuscript to our publisher and we’re waiting for a mock up of the cover and the first chapter. After we approve that we get a mock up of the book. And after we approve that, it’s all systems go. Yikes. While we’re waiting patiently for our mockups, I’ve decided that it’s time to get serious about marketing. First we need business cards. I was at work the other day and I met a gentleman with a radio show. Now his show isn’t quite the type of show to feature our project, but a contact is a contact. It was embarrassing to realize I didn’t have any business cards or informative pamphlets to give him. I ended up writing my name and website address on the back of his check-completely unprofessional. Our next big step is to come up with a marketing strategy. Cary found an excellent resource: http://d.scribd.com/docs/1w3gndt3u4glngc8oyk6.pdf After we check that out, we’ll meet with Jay and see what kind of plan we can create. Things are really starting to move.
12/31/2007	Theresa	Happy New Year! 2008 is literally minutes away. I decided about halfway through the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season that I would work on finishing my edits on New Year’s Eve. Kind of an Old Year’s Resolution. I just finished. I think I’m going to give it one more read through before I go to bed, but tomorrow I’ll send it to Glenn and get him to start printing so we can let people read it. Next we have to work on a list of questions for our volunteer readers to answer when they’ve finished reading the manuscript and work on launching the website. Looks like it’s going to be a busy new year.
09/01/2007	Theresa	Well, here we are again, almost a year later and I’ve got lots of news. In March of this year I was officially diagnosed with anxiety and depression (although I realized it in the beginning of 2006). I immediately began counseling and began taking medication in April. I’ve been working hard at overcoming my anxiety and depression and I’ve come a long way. One of the benefits has been having more energy and desire to work on Tracy Loves Ray. In August, we had a free lance editor do a style edit. She concentrated on things such as plot development, character development, are the plot points logical, etc. I have gotten back her suggestions and will work on implementing them. After that we will have a handful of people read the story and get their opinions. Then a final edit for grammar and punctuation and we publish. Glenn is already looking into the different options for publishing. The notes from the self-publishing class we took a couple years ago are coming in handy. Cary has moved to another state to remain close to his son, but will remain on the project as a consultant. He will continue to run meetings via phone and voice instant messaging. This weekend (Labor Day Weekend) Glenn, Sally and I are visiting Cary and will have a meeting after my nephew goes to bed. We also have made my mother a consultant. She’s always been a presence at meetings and been a consultant about the story, now we’re just making it official. We’re hoping to launch the website before we release the book which means soon people could actually be reading this blog.
09/02/2006	Theresa	Well, I’m on vacation again or at least a mini-vacation. A few days at my favorite place on earth, my family’s vacation home in Maryland. As you may know, I get my best work done on vacation. I worked on TLR for awhile and decided to try something new with the section where Tracy first moves to LA. For months, I’ve thought about doing that section using excerpts from love letters from Tracy. I wasn’t too sure if it would be too gimmicky or corny, but I think I like it. But what will Glenn think?
08/25/2006	Theresa	Exciting News! I have been published! I wrote an article called “Local Church Finds Road to Katrina Victims Filled with Detours” about a Fill a Truck Project our church did for victims of Hurricane Katrina and submitted it to all the local newspapers. One of the papers, The Almanac, did a one-page spread in honor of the one year anniversary of Katrina and included my article. I did not get a by-line, but I know I wrote it. I made copies of the article and took it work. I got a good response from those who read it. Our pastor even mentioned it from the pulpit. I’m so excited that I’m planning of framing the original.
07/20/2006	Theresa	Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve updated my blog. I wish that I could say that it’s because I was so busy working on the book, but I can’t. After Joe’s death, my grandfather’s heart operation, and my brother’s separation from Rebecca I lost interest in the book and just about everything in my life. At the beginning of 2006, I realized that I am suffering from anxiety and depression. I’m still struggling, but I’ve learned that one of the ways to fight it, is to get busy. Find something you can put your heart into, like Tracy Loves Ray. So, it’s July and I’m at the beach again. I did good work here last year. It’s time to dive back in and get this thing going. Because it’s been so long since I’ve worked on TLR, the first thing I had to do is read it and see where I am. As much work as there needs to be done, and for as much as I put myself (and my writing) down, I have to say, it’s a really good story. Much of that credit I give to Jay and my dad, but to be honest I had something to do with it. I even cried at the end.
11/14/2005	Theresa	Our final class was a week and a half ago. It was just as rewarding as I expected. I learned a lot and wrote some pretty decent stories. The last night of the class we went around the room and said which stories were our favorites for each individual. The general opinion of the class was that my Ultimate Star Wars Fan story was the best one I wrote. The rest of the class wrote some fabulous stories. I am still amazed that eight people can receive the same assignment and come up with such different ideas. During our final class I invited my classmates to join our writing group. Our next meeting is tonight and I am really excited. I think we’re going to have a nice turn out. I think every one will get along well. I think many of the people in the group will provide excellent feedback for me as well as each other. But I’m even more excited because the library has taken an interest in our group. There were a few people from my most recent class that couldn’t do Mondays. So, I suggested that we do the fourth Monday of the month and add an additional meeting sometime during the second week of the month. I called the library to find out about availability. About twenty minutes after that call, Julie Moreino called me back and said that she had talked to the library director. The library director thinks it’s a great idea for us to meet twice a month and would we be willing to become the Mt. Lebanon Library Writers Group. The library would like to take us under their wing and do some publicity and try to get more people involved. Maybe somewhere down the line we could even do a workshop. I am thrilled. Writing group has been a great incentive to buckle down and work on TLR, but there have been a few times that there were only two of us that showed and once I was all by myself. I think if we can get a good core group that this writing group will be the best thing that happened for me and the writing and revising of TLR since we met Becca. And my hope is that everybody else involved finds it as inspiring as I do.
09/15/2005	Theresa	Vacation was great, but all hell broke loose when I got home. My grandfather had a quintuple bypass the day after I got home and a few weeks later Cary and Rebecca announced their separation. Needless to say I have been busy (and depressed) and not very productive as far as TLR goes. But there is good news to report. CCAC is offering their creative writing class again this semester and this time they have it listed in addition to Brian Hay’s poetry class, so I know history will not be repeating itself. In the catalog there was not an instructor named, so imagine our surprise when my Dad went online to register for it and discovered that the instructor was to be none other than Rebecca Cipriani!! Becca was the instructor for the non-fiction class that we took by accident (see 3/12/05 entry for details) and hopefully the editor for our book (if I ever finish revising the darn thing). Our first class was tonight and it was fun to see Becca and some familiar faces from the poetry class, too. I’m excited about the class and I wasn’t even nervous about reading aloud my first in-class exercise. One thing I am nervous about is trying to read real author’s works and pulling out what I like about it. I love to read, but I don’t like thinking about what I’m reading and all the mechanics of it. I definitely see the value in it. If you know what it is that you like, then you can imitate it and use it to make your book or story better. Becca even made that point in the non-fiction class and I knew it was a good idea, but I never tried to put it into action. So, I suppose it’s a good thing I’m taking this class because I will be forced to dissect novels and stories and learn from them. The other bonus is that once I get into writing on a regular basis again, it will be that much easier to get into working on TLR again, too.
07/23/2005	Theresa	Well, I survived Joe’s funeral and left the next day for the beach-my yearly trip with my girlfriend Stacey and her whole extended family. We’ve been here a few days, the weather has been hot, but the water is perfection. I tend to burn, so in the afternoon while Stacey and the kids are down on the beach I’ve begun revising TLR and then I join them later. I’ve made some good progress on the first three sections and wrote one of the parts that I had been struggling with until now-the story of how Grandpa got his nickname. Currently, I am sitting on a deck looking at the moon over the water listening to the waves crash. Only I would get more work done on vacation that at home!
07/18/2005	Theresa	It has been a while since I’ve done a blog and unfortunately I don’t have much to report. And that will remain true today. Today I would like to write about my friend Joe and how another of Jay’s songs has touched my life. My fiend Joe was killed in Iraq on Sunday July 10, 2005. I attended his viewing today (for more on that look under my entry in Our Creative Voices section). When I got home I put on Jay’s Gentle Persuader CD. I have listened to this CD many times, but there is a song on there that I heard for the first time. I’ve played the song many times and I immediately fell in love with the haunting melody. But tonight I actually listened to the words. “Sarah’s Dance”-a woman falls in love with a soldier who has to go on a mission and is killed in the line of duty. If you know anyone who has given their life for their country I strongly urge you to check it out.
05/23/2005	Theresa	We had our second meeting of our writing group tonight. I haven’t been working too hard on writing lately, so it was a God-send that we had our meeting tonight. I took the first chapter. I got some good feedback and have a direction to go with this chapter in my revisions. Once again, after the class I feel inspired and ready to work. Let’s get this thing moving.
05/11/2005	Theresa	Well, the first draft is finished. I still have a bunch of stuff to add, but there is a beginning, a middle, and an end. I am stunned and amazed. I never in a million years thought I could finish the first draft before the end of the summer. I believe my passion for the story has sped the process along and that proves that I am meant to do this project. Unfortunately, that also means it’s time to start revising.
05/02/2005	Theresa	Today, I finally met Jay (Hitt--He wrote the song). Our church committee co-sponsored an event where he performed. I actually heard Tracy Loves Ray performed live for the very first time. I had tears in my eyes as I realized that this time next year (or maybe the year after that) all of our lives could be different. He seems like a real good guy and his songs are truly beautiful. I hope we can make a go of this thing if only because Jay deserves more exposure for his creative talents.
04/27/2005	Theresa	Due to a family situation, I had not been getting a whole lot of writing done. But today that has changed. I’m not sure if I was inspired by the writing group or if I just feel guilty about the lack of progress, but I wrote for hours and hours. And now I’ve only got about seven-and-a-half scenes left to write! I’m starting to get excited, but I'm also a little nervous. I am not looking forward to revising this sucker.
04/25/2005	Theresa	We had our first meeting of our writing group today. I chose to take the introduction to TLR to read to the group. I was nervous, but the very first comment was “It makes me want to read more.” I also got some other helpful ideas and some ways to experiment with the format of the intro.
04/18/2005	Theresa	We just got back from a “research” trip to Ohio . We checked out Chardon. Nice little town, perfect as our Ohio setting. And we also checked out a few diners. One was closed, but we did get to see "Chris and Jimmy’s" right outside of Cleveland . Chris and Jimmy are brothers. There are actually two diners connected in the middle; one side is Chris’s and the other side is Jimmy’s. We ate on Jimmy’s side. I had a ridiculously huge burger and really good fresh-cut fries (with a side of ranch for dipping). While we were eating, Jimmy stopped by to see how it was going. His table side visit clinched it for me, this was our diner. We also tried to look for some overpasses, but the only one we could find that was even close to what we were looking for was in a cemetery (we made a quick trip to my grandmother’s grave). But we still took some pictures anyway. All in all, we got a lot done on our trip. (Now if we could just convince Glenn that we need to do a research trip to LA, too.)
04/09/2005	Theresa	Well, we finally took our self-publishing class. I must admit that after the mishap with being told to come on the wrong day and the fabulous class that we had with Becca, my expectations for this class weren’t too high. I am proud to report that I was wrong. It was a very good class. Good instructor. Lots of good information. Unfortunately, it did wake me up to the fact that even after the book is written there is a whole lot of work ahead for us. In short. . . . . marketing. I’m starting to get a bit overwhelmed. I think I’d better take a step back and concentrate on the writing part. Let Cary and Dad worry about the marketing for now. I have a book to finish.
04/07/2005	Theresa	Our final creative writing class. Thank you God. Although to be honest, now that it’s over, I’m kind of sad. I did truly learn a lot. And I wrote some poems that make me proud. Especially the last one. I wrote a poem about my cute, little nephew. I really like it. And I do have to say that Brian is a good instructor. And he truly cared. We were able to send him e-mails of our poems and he got back to us in a timely fashion, so that by the time class rolled around, you had a pretty decent poem going. And we met a lot of fun people and some really good writers. Even though, I spent most of the time bitching about the class, I’m glad we stuck it out. If you have any interest in poetry and some creative, new ways of coming up with ideas for your poems, check it
03/17/2005	Theresa	Still taking the stupid poetry class. It’s definitely had its moments. But I do manage to come up with something at least semi-decent every week. Unfortunately, with all the work I’ve been doing for the class, I haven’t had as much time to work on TLR. But, I can pat myself on the back that I have continued working on it. I may not be getting as far along as I would like, but I am making forward progress. We did decide to skip class next week (for Maundy Thursday), so I’ll try to get some good work done.
03/12/2005	Theresa	Sometimes life doesn’t work out exactly the way you plan; sometimes it works out even better. Today, we went down to the community college planning to attend our first self-publishing class. It was actually supposed to be held last Saturday, but the instructor got sick. So, we were told to show up this week. However, when we arrived, we learned that the class being offered was not the self-publishing class. They had given us the wrong make-up date. But, because we had made the trip down there, they let us take the creative non-fiction class that was being held that day. Even though this was not the class we had signed up for, I found that much of the information could be applied to our book. Also, the instructor, Becca Cipriani, happens to be a free-lance editor. (By the way, Becca is phenomenal! If you have any interest in writing and if you have the opportunity, take one of her classes.) So, the light bulb goes on in all of our heads! We talked to her after class and I’m pretty sure we have found an editor for our Tracy Loves Ray project. Even better, the class decided to start a writing group. So, I think the plan is that once a month we’ll get together, bring whatever we’re working on and discuss everybody’s writings. All this from a class we weren’t even supposed to attend!
03/08/2005	Theresa	This writing class is not all it’s cracked up to be. The assignments are pretty out there. Each week I wonder how the hell I am going to come up with something decent to complete the exercises. Very often my father and I are unable to keep ourselves from laughing while we do the exercises during class time. What were we thinking? As soon as we heard the word poetry, we should have quit!
02/17/2005	Theresa	Dad and I signed up for a creative writing course and tonight we attended our first class. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be more about poetry than prose. I’m trying to look on the bright side. I am not a big fan of poetry and I'm not all that interested in writing poetry, but one of the biggest things that I need to work on is how to describe people, places and things. And a lot of poetry involves describing things. So there’s my bright side. And the first assignment doesn’t seem too bad. So, I guess we’ll see what we can learn from this class.
02/12/2005	Theresa	I have a running start. I went back to the beginning and wrote an introduction for the book. It’s really cool. Here we go.
02/11/2005	Theresa	I began writing the book today. I did not start at the beginning. I started with the scene where little Tracy first sees the overpass. I’ve also started a document in which I make notes of ideas I have for the book. I am finding that I am having lots and lots of ideas. For the first time I am seeing that this could actually be a successful project.
10/01/2004	Theresa	I had kicked out my roommate and wasn’t too sure if I would be able to make ends meet. My dad called and suggested that I write a book based on a story he came up with after hearing the song Tracy Loves Ray. I thought to myself "He’s crazy! I need money; I’m going to have to get a second job; I’m not going to have time to write a book and edit a book and market a book." I had already determined that I wasn’t going to make any major career decisions until after the New Year. I wanted some time to adjust to my new living situation and to see how I was doing financially before I made any rash decisions. But I thought I would humor him and asked him to give me his outline so I could give the idea some consideration. I read the outline and it did look like a nice idea. It would be a tough decision.