My book on New York City Paramedics in the Time of AIDS, tentatively titled The Sea of Peroxide, has exceeded 88,000 words and includes interviews with 25 paramedics and EMTs of my era. My agent, Janet Reid, has agreed to read it. I believe it is worthy of publishing.
At this time, I have two people reading it for accuracy and content. It has already been edited. In a sense, the book is no longer mine alone, and whatever happens to it, will hopefully be shared as a matter of love and gratitude.
Now What?
I well know that publishing is a vicious game; a contact sport of the heart and mind. Yet, I have complete faith in the material and in the journey I took in order to bring the project to fruition.
The book does not play it safe. In order to write it, I have had to expose my depression and PTSD of the period. I am aware that there were others more qualified to write it; people who lost far more and experienced far more tragic things. Yet, if not me, then who? For it has been 35 years since I walked away, and life has not always been easy or kind.
But I Have Lived
Virtually every AIDS patient I talk about in the book died; and the deaths were slow and painful. Many of my brother and sister paramedics of the era are gone as well. So, who am I to talk of my life so arrogantly and boldly? I went through decades of crap to come out on the other end as a writer. No one quite understands the desperation of my journey. I feel that the life-long mission I have been given is to write for as long as life is granted.
Friends and some former work associates have asked when I plan on retiring. There is no plan. I am not retiring.
So…here we go again. The last time around, with the last book around, self-publishing and/or a minor publishing effort was good enough. This time I am not so content. I must get the book in shape for my agent (knowing full well it will be edited), I must write a full proposal, I must double or triple the size of all my social media platforms, I must find top-notch endorsements, I must begin to publicize.
Yes, it is an arrogant and self-centered process. I am unused to such promotion. However I carry a torch for very good people who have gone before me and I cannot let them down.
