August, 2003 Editing process is taking a little longer than I had planned, but I want to get it right. For now, I'm still keeping my target release date of October, but it's going to be close. I'm continually revising and adding to my publishing and marketing/promotion plans. I took a class, Guerilla Promote with Linda Dominique Grosvenor, that has been a Godsend as far as promoting. I've got to be aggressive in getting the word out. I know what to do and I'm trying to work with my new publicist to get it done. Getting started is a little rough, though.It's getting tough to keep up with everything while still trying to work a full time job. I'm behind on keeping the books organized. I've got receipts all over the place. I'm getting printing quotes, fullfilment plans, and everything else. There's a lot to do. I'm tired, but I love it. Just wish I had more time to do it.Back in March, I had decided to put Jamel White in the story. I wanted a football player in there. A Browns player preferrably. My friend Jesse is an agent and has a couple of players, but the only one who's name I could remember was Jamel White. So, Jamel it was! LOL Then from there, I wanted to give back to my community from day 1. If my community supports me, I wanted to have it automatically built in that I would give back to my community. So, I looked for charities to donate to in St. Louis only, at first. Later, I added Cleveland. Being away from St. Louis and not having a lot of time, I had to find organizations by way of internet. So, I considered the Marshall Faulk Foundation, Cedric the Entertainer's Foundation, and Nelly's 4Sho4Kids. Since I had a football theme, I decided on Marshall Faulk's organizatiion and added on Jamel White's Diamond Kids. If I continue to self publish, this is something I want to do with each book I publish.Went to the 1st annual National Book Club Conference in Atlanta. Networked and got the word out about my book to the most important people, book lovers!!!! It was well received. I made pamplets of the first chapter and handed those out. Once again, saw other authors, and they're actually starting to recognize ME now. That's nice! People are getting more and more interested in my book and the way I'm promoting.