I am not the writer, and aside from rocking essays in English, my grammar and sentence fragmentation suck. I also tend to make up words, but I will argue to the death that they are real and true and that if they aren't, they will be. I'm just that good.
So now that I've warned you, let me introduce us. We are the Ackroyds, David (the husband and father is 25 years old, soon to be 26!), I am Crystal (mama / wife and I'm 27) and then there is Gentry... the love of our life. He is the baby and turned 1 on September 26th, 2009. I think it's important to know that this blog is not supposed to be about us as a family (though it will probably turn into that at some point). This is to create a buzz, to inform and to have a place where we can vent, laugh, and share our experience as we enter a new chapter in our life and start on a new journey. What journey is that you ask? Great question!!!
A while back we talked about goals, dreams, aspirations and where we see ourselves in 10 years. That was the easy part... mansion, 5 car garage filled with cars and trucks pimped to our liking, 5 kids, 2 dogs, a huge lot for our kids to goof around on. Then there was an RV, a cabin, and a boat. We also want to vacation once a year and go big. 2 weeks somewhere amazing with the whole family. We also want guest houses out back, 2 in fact. One for his parents and 1 for mine. I know what you're thinking, we're crazy, it'll never happen and everyone dreams big. We know that dreams don't always come true and we'll be more than happy with a modest house and being able to vacation with our kids once a year at a campground instead of somewhere tropical. We do however want to go for our goals even if the dreams are out of reach. What were the goals? Well, I'd like to own a business or two before I'm 50. David's... to write a book.
A year ago we had a huge blessing happen in our life, Gentry. I was working full time and David was a full time student finishing his last year at the University of Alberta. I took 2 weeks off to be with baby and then it was back to work. I cut my hours and went from full time to part time, David stayed in school. Getting his BA, majoring in Political Science and minoring in English. We didn't take out a student loan thinking that we would be able to handle it all by ourselves. This proved harder than first anticipated. David getting a part time job was not an option, he needed to be able to focus all his energies on being at school when he needed to be, and being a daddy and husband when he was able to be. So for a year we struggled but we were very happy. David finished school and to our surprise he did not graduate. His marks were more than good, all A's aside from a few A+'s that is... har har. What stopped him then you ask? You are very good at this question asking thing... well, when he first signed up for his program 5 years prior there was a course that was a requirement in order for him to complete his BA. When we signed him up for his final 2 semesters and split the class/workload it was 4 courses first semester and 4 the next. We had him signed up for all the classes it said he needed to graduate, and then in December (a semester too late) we found out that the "mandatory" course was removed from the calendar because it was no longer a requirement, even though for him it still was. For us, this meant that he was 1 course away from graduating, and this 1 course was a year long course, unlike the others. What this meant for us was that his degree was going to have to wait another year. More money spent and less money made. We had to take a big step back, reevaluate our life and decide where we were going to go from there.
The first step was easy, and happened about 2 months after Gentry was born and right before we found out that we were missing this course. David did not want to be a lawyer. He seemed miserable and I had to ask him one day why he wanted to be a Lawyer, the only answer he came up with was "because I need to provide a means for my family" and yes, those were his exact words. I said to him "and that means being miserable? Look at you, you're not happy, you don't like talking about it and you don't really want to take the LSAT again." We sat for a moment and it just came out "what do you want to do?" he sat for a moment and looked at me and said very quietly "I wanna be an artist." So I said "then you will, no more school until you know what you want to do, no more." I had never seen him look so relieved and happy. For the next couple of months he thought about what he wanted to do, and it was decided that he is pretty sure that he wants to be a teacher and that he definitely wants to write a book. That's how it started and here's where we are.
David has been working on ideas, outlines and 2 weeks ago finished putting it all down. He named it The Millenarian Series and it will be either 2 or 3 books. The outlines are done for books 1 & 2, and the prologue, chapters 1 & 2 for book one "I" (that is an i that's big but means 1, which is a tentative title) are written. The plan is 6 chapters a weeks until New Years day. That should be 68 chapters give or take a few to end the book.
I joked at first that I'd wait until the movie came out, because since highschool I haven't read much (in fact I've only read 3 books since I graduated in 2000). To be honest, I wasn't sure that I'd be into the "type" of book it's going to be. Sci-Fi theology isn't on my radar. I haven't read anything like it, but when he read the prologue out to a bunch of our friends, I made him read me the first chapter when it was done and the next day I couldn't wait until he finished the second chapter.
David was laid off Sept 1st. So this is officially his full time job. To make it easier for him I've decided to do all of the research on how to get a book published. The finding an editor, literary agent, publishing house... etc etc. David went to a seminar a few days ago and the president from Simon & Shuster was doing his best to be discrete on all of his answers but did give some good information. We found out that after you write a book it takes at least a year for it to be edited, published and then distributed and that's only if you make sure things are rushed.
So now I've decided to be the literary agent and we are going to publish and distribute the book ourselves. Faster, cheaper and we make more money. The problem? Without a publishing house to give the book the proper advertisement it needs to sell, we need family, friends and complete strangers to believe in us. To send this blog to their friends and family, post the link on their facebook, tell their co-workers to check us out, all of that. That way, when we post an ebook and get copies in stores (which isn't as difficult as you might think) it'll sell.
Once we get it copywritten we'll post bits and pieces here for you to get all excited and hooked.
Um so that's pretty much it for now. David is getting pretty antsy to post something himself so here he goes...
The Millenarian series is going to be a trilogy of intellectually challenging thriller novels, each with elements of mystery, and with its foundations in both philosophy and theology. The storyline will follow three characters (all names are tentative): Burnett, a hardened government agent who kills by assignment and is critical of the agency he works for and their motives; Morgan, an alien on earth posing as a student; and Sophie, the journalism student who discovers Morgan's true identity and is left with the question of what to do with both the knowledge of who Morgan is and the knowledge he has given her. To know what that knowledge is, and its connection to the title, you will have to wait until the books come out.
The beginning has ended, until next time... stay fit and have... no wait, that's taken.
- The Ackroyds minus 1 sleeping baby.
