Okay, I have an actual update for the enhanced edition of DeForest Kelley A Harvest of Memories, My Life and Times with a Remarkable Gentleman Actor (the old title).

 

There will be at least two versions: an 8.5″ x 11″edition and an audio book (MP3 based).  I’m bringing the title in house because my power partner Lisa Twining Taylor says she can format the manuscript in Scrivener so it can be exported to just about every other format known to publishing. It will also look as professional as professional gets.

 

We’re still trying to decide whether to print it via Amazon’s Createspace or Lightning Source.  I know LS usually does a noticeably nicer job with regard to binding and color; I’ve been disappointed by some of the copies I’ve received from CS; disappointment was never an issue when the title was printed and bound by LS back in 2001-2005. There will be an additional outlay of two hundred dollars if I go the LS route, but I think it will be worth it because I don’t plan to have this title be the last one.  I’ll come up with a publishing company name and publish future tomes under that label. (No, I’m NOT planning to publish other people’s titles, so please don’t ask or send me manuscripts; they will be stamped REFUSED and returned unopened.)

 

I don’t plan to add professional studio photos to this title. My publisher wanted to do that and it turned out the studio wanted a fortune for every photo we asked about, and heck…the photos are all available on the Internet under DeForest Kelley images, so we wouldn’t be bringing you anything new in that regard, so I declined the idea. I have no idea how well the title will do, so I don’t want to go in the hole ahead of time for photos that fans can find elsewhere. That seemed insane to me.

 

The topic of professional studio photos is one of the reasons I decided to pull the title back. My present publisher and I had a definite difference of opinion on how important it was that professional studio images of De and various other actors he worked with during his career be included.  She wanted scads of professional photos.

 

But the book isn’t about De’s career (except in dibs and drabs) and I felt that including studio photos would give pre-sale browsers the impression that it was, and they’d end up being disappointed. The only gripes I got about the title the first time it was published was because of a few buyers’ confusion that they thought they were getting a biography of De, not an anecdotal cornucopia of a thirty-year association with him from the perspective of a fan who became a close friend and eventual personal assistant and caregiver. So I’m leery of sending false signals these days. (There is an excellent biography of De called FROM SAWDUST TO STARDUST, but I didn’t write it; Terry Rioux did.)

 

That said (about photos), I have enough personal photos of De and Carolyn and their desert tortoise Myrtle to satisfy even the most die hard fan, and I own the copyrights to them and have permission to use other candid shots that were taken at my house and out and about, so I’m good as far as images go–and these haven’t been scattered all over the Internet so they’ll be brand new to a lot of people who won’t even discover me until the book is available next year.  I also have images of notes, letters and cards that the Kelley’s sent me for years, so they can go in, too.  This way even the images that will appear in the book will convey the “family-like” association that grew throughout the years, which is what the book is really all about. My aim in writing it was to let fans get “up close and personal” with De and experience what it was like to be a small but increasingly crucial part of his off-screen world on Greenleaf Street and elsewhere–at home (theirs and mine), at conventions, in the hospital, etc.

 

I’m going to see if I can dig up my audio files of De and Carolyn leaving me voicemail messages, too. If they’re still good (and they should be), I can take those along and have my friend insert them at the end of the audio book so that version will feature their actual voices. I know that will be a real treat for fans.

 

My plan is to record the manuscript in a professional recording booth. I have someone in mind who’s local. I think he’ll let me use his studio in exchange for a percentage of the profits (up to whatever amount he would normally charge for something like 14 hours of recording studio time).

 

And I plan to do the audio recording within weeks–hopefully no later than the first week of October. I have a cold right now so that has to clear up so I don’t sound like Maude (Beatrice Arthur), but as soon as that happens and my friend’s studio is available, I plan to do it.

 

So very, very soon I may be able to start posting snippets of audio on YouTube and on my FB page and start previewing the title in that fun way.  Pre-publication publicity is crucial if I want as many fans to know as possible–and of course I do!  They’re my target audience, after all–the folks most likely to invest in a 50th anniversary treasure trove of DeForest Kelley stories, memories and mementos.

 

Are you ready? I am.  I’m finally getting excited about diving back into ‘those thrilling days of yesteryear’ when Krazy Kris was DE-mented, DE-voted and DE-finitely the luckiest De fan on the planet, because the Kelley’s picked me to become their friend, confidant, and eventual helper…

 

The additional stories will have you on the floor. I hope I can get through them without breaking up…and if I do, hey…we’ll just share the mirth together–the way Red Skelton did. Nothing wrong with that!