FROM THE DESK OF ART RATHBURN

    Today I sit with my head spinning; too many projects and too little time. I just received my first shipment of The Lucky Man from the printer. That may seem like a happy day to you, but to a writer it signals only one thing. Now the work begins. I must now crank up the PR campaign. For some reason my wife thinks that my writing should pay for itself? Don't you feel that to ask such a thing is unreasonable? It is the sad reality of writing, however.

     For those of you that aspire to be writers remember that it is the author that does the lion's share of the public relations and marketing. Even the best know authors complain of that fact. As an author yet to hit the best seller list, I have had to learn this lesson the hard way. Publishers do absolutely nothing for “little” guys like me. That is why we (I have roped my wife in on this one) have taken the giant step of starting Fort Dane Books LLC. Our first effort as a publisher was the publishing of Friends Don't Quit. What we discovered was that our being in total control of the editing and layout was actually less hassle than depending on our former publishers. It would help us greatly if those of you who have read Friends Don't Quit would write us your comments on the layout of the book. Do you like the cover? Do you enjoy the wider margins? How do you like the larger print? For our part we were so happy with Friends Don't Quit that we used the same cover designer and the same large print / wide margin layout for The Lucky Man. Naturally, we also appreciate all comments on any of our books. In addition we always like to hear request for further book subjects.

    Speaking of “further book subjects”, we have been requested by several people to write about what happened to the German culture and people after World War Two. Up to know we have concentrated on the time of the war itself. We are in the process of writing a book to be entitled The Last Germans to explore this subject. In the last few years we have interviewed many Germans in this country and around Germany that were children during World War Two. In fact Mr. Manfred Donath, the subject of the book The Lucky Man, was one of these individuals. We found his story so compelling that we decided to put out a book just on his life. Along the way we have met and interviewed some very interesting people and can't wait to share their stories with you. Once we can get our marketing act together on the books we now have available we can get back to the thing we love the best, researching and writing.

    If you happen to be a member of a book club, I would be pleased to do an author visit with you. This can be arranged by telephone if you are too far from Dane, Wisconsin for a personal visit. Remember that I am also often on the road on book signing tours, so perhaps I might be coming to your area.

    E-mail me some time at fortdanebooks@aol.com (you can also use the comment button at the bottom of this page, or give me a call at (608) 850-3472. I always have time for readers.