Final Notes

Before I go any further, let me leave a link to the prologue. To get to the prologue, click HERE. The entire story is under “blog archive” listed in the right column. Simply click “2008” and then click “October.” Some people not familiar with “Blogger” have had a tough time finding the entire story. This blog is going to remain open for 2-4 weeks, depending on what happens with the idea of turning this into book form.

I'm not going to mention any names out of all the people who have faithfully followed this story since its inception back in October. My reason for this is because I just know I will forget someone. But, you know who you are.....the people who kept me going when I was ready to throw my hands up in the air and just quit this entire thing. I am sure there are many who have likewise followed since this story started, but have not commented. I appreciate you as well. I also appreciate those emails I got that were openly critical of the story. I have not mentioned you until now. One said it was a poor man's “The Stand” by Stephen King. I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion (since they were both quite different). But, I'll take a “poor mans” comparison to Stephen King any day of the week. Then there were some that said I was committing “blasphemy” by some of the entries (without mentioning which entries). I expected to hear this as soon as the “Blackness” was introduced into this story and was not disappointed. Gerasene was another that brought condemnation as well. It seems you cannot bring evil into any story with biblical references, discussion or whatever without offending someone's religious beliefs. If “Diary: Alone on Earth” offended anyone, in any way, I apologize. That was not my intent.

There are some names I will mention due to their inspiration. I want to thank Rod Serling. Rod Serling, the late host of “The Twilight Zone,” you ask? Yes, if not for the “Where is Everybody” episode, I may never have wrote this story. That episode stuck with me for about 20 years until I finally broke down and wrote this story. I also want to thank O'Henry (William Sydney Porter) and Saki (Hector Hugh Munro). I love to read practically anything by these two classic writers. Why? The always entertaining “ironic twist” they had in their stories. I would be remiss not to mention my childhood favorite, Jack London. London's stories of man against the elements is something I have always enjoyed very much. I bet I read “To Build A Fire” 50 times as a young boy.

So, where do I and AOE go from here? Well, I'm presently checking into self-publishing right now. There are a lot of self-publishing companies from which I can choose. I just have to be careful in doing this. I do not see myself ever going the commercial route of having AOE published. I simply cannot see myself giving up my rights, royalties and little in the way of a percentage (5% by most reports) to one of the big publishing firms. I have read even if they accept your story, they are under no obligation to ever publish your story. Personally, I place the big publishing houses in the same category as newspapers. They are both fading away. Now, watch someone make me an offer I can't refuse! Ha! Well, I doubt that. Will I write another story? Most likely, but not soon however. You need to subscribe to my feed on my primary blog about that. I'm going to take some much needed time off.
This story took 8 months to finish. You can keep track of me on my primary blog, “David's Musings” and what I will do in the future, how things are coming along on getting AOE published, etc.

This will be my final post here, other than responding to comments. Thanks again everybody. “Time to go.”