Dolls, Models and Publishing

I'm getting close to finally finishing my True Doll Stories book.  It's been a four year process.  Every time I mention offhand to someone that I'm writing this book, they give me a new story.  I got a great one yesterday about troll dolls and the Middle East.  I'm hoping to go to the writer's conference in San Francisco in February to possibly get an agent and/or a publisher.  I don't know if this is the route to take, but at this time, it's my intention.  Self-publishing my last book worked well, but it might be interesting to see the difference.

The issue of the Porter Gulch Review in which I have a short story published just came out a few weeks ago.  It's beautiful.  My story is called Bacon and Eggs.  There should be an online version in the near future.  Also, I have a short story called On the Train which will be online shortly in the journal called Phren-Z.

On a personal note, this is the first time in possibly 25 years, I have not been cast in or am directing a play.  I thought I would feel depressed about this, but to my surprise it was a great relief.  I didn't realize that most of my life was taken up by rehearsals and performances.  This kind of life is exhilarating, but to be able to go see someone else's performance or even go to a movie is a great thrill as well.  And, I can even concentrate on finishing my book!

I have a third and fourth book just waiting to be born after the doll book is launched.  The third one is non-fiction.  It's behind the scenes stories of being an artist model in LA, San Francisco and Sacramento in the 70's.  Pretty humorous as one might imagine.

The fourth book is another collection of short stories.

In case you are interested, the book I self-published is called Because I Had To.  It's on Amazon, Kindle and in a local bookstore in Santa Cruz, CA.  That book was on the Kindle best seller list for July of last year in literary fiction and drama.

The Birth of True Doll Stories

I've been working on this doll book now for about 4 years.  I first got the idea when I saw my mother in law on our back porch carefully combing the hair of a blond Barbie.  My mother in law is Mexican with a sweet, round face and a round body that had seen many years of poverty and joy.  She used to make new dresses for Barbie's and sell them at the flea market I'm Guadalajara.  What struck me was the beauty of my mother in law in comparison to the Barbie. Soon thereafter I interviewed her about her life.  This story gave birth to the book I'm writing about people's experiences with dolls.  At this time, it's probably going to be called True Doll Stories.

One thing that's so exciting about writing this doll book is that whenever I tell people about it, they tell me a memory they have about dolls in their childhood.  I just heard one last night from a male friend in the parking lot of Trader Joe's.  He said his father was friends with a puppeteer and way high up on some shelves in his childhood home were more than a few elaborate wooden puppets that he wasn't allowed to touch.  He said they scared the shit out of him.  Quite a few of the doll stories I have include not being able to touch the dolls and being terrified of them.