February 10, 2008

On Tuesday, February 6 I completed a big phase of of this journey -- the second draft of the book. Now the writing and my part of the editing is done. It has taken me 10 years to get here, and a chapter of my life is now complete. I give thanks to the Creator for sustaining me and bringing me to to this time!

The single most difficult part was Chapter 29. It took a long time to prepare myself to tell this part of the story. I'm grateful to my friends Lynn Feinerman, Reuven Goldfarb, Rabbi Nadya Gross and Rabbi Victor Gross, and to my wife Wendy Berk, for their voices, their memories, their feelings, and their wisdom.

The next big task is to find a publisher. I got my feet wet on this one last year as I received my first 30 rejection slips, and acquired a healthy appreciation of the size of the challenge. I've dreamed of getting Holy Beggars out to the world in 2008, the 40th anniversary of the founding of the House of Love and Prayer. I expect more rejection slips in the months to come, and hopefully one acceptance from a publisher with the vision and the means for seizing this opportunity. I will also investigate self publishing, and want to make a decision by June to go one way or the other. The hour is getting late for bringing the book out this year. I'll just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and we'll see what happens.