Part II of 18 Years of Doubt, Lack, Sacrifice, Trauma, and Optimism . . .

The Joys and pains of Writing UPON HIS DEATH BED and the Entire

12-novel Serial of The Front House Jumbies

By Kharis Macey

(If you missed seeing Part l, click HERE to read it first – TSRA)

Fortunately, I did not immediately begin working on other books/novels to ease the pressure of this serial and so I didn’t have to scramble to complete or send it out before, I began editing The House Jumbies once more. I was not submitting TFHJ serial to another publishing company, not again, and not without having an agent. This, as the great publishing company tersely warned me against, when they returned my unopened package, which was contained in the SASE I had supplied.

In frustration, I contacted another agent, but realized I should never have agreed to the terms of contracting with an agent who had to be paid at the end of every three months, until she had acquired a publisher for my work. At the end of the first three months, she told me my novel would not sell as I had it, people do not like to buy serials because of the wait. She even suggested I should advertise my novels as The Front House Jumbies Series, and I’d stand a better chance of making sales.

I thought about it and began to set things up as a series, but couldn’t go along with this plot of false advertising, scamming the readers would only hurt me and anything else I worked on. In light of her negative guidance, I began dividing the novel serial into more parts. Eventually I decided on 12-Novel serial, placing an adage and a poem, which immediately preceded Chapter 1. I’ve also included Preface 1 explaining the entire serial and Preface II explaining the contents of the specific novel within the serial.

I wanted to include “My Grandfather’s Story,” in paying homage to this wonderful man who made my first briefcase by his own hands, out of cardboard and with the purple paper which covered the wads of cotton wool used to clean his lower legs. As you read further into the serial, you will understand where I pulled this idea/story line from and why my ancestors are so very important to me. The agent who received the novel serial flatly rejected my grandfather’s story, although, years later, he tried to duplicate or claim this story as his own.

When my family and I saw this, we were both appalled and amused at his blatant theft of intellectual property. Besides this agent’s discouraging words and actions, I was not surprised by my doctor’s reaction when I spoke to him about my novel serial and even showed him a copy. After he began laughing, he then asked what was my rational in choosing to write a novel about the travails of a people so far away from the USA, especially the South American country of British Guiana. He thought he was being very prudent in telling me, after the fact, that no American will ever find interest in this novel.

He was so very confident that he took a poll of his nurses and he lost, the answer was a resounding yes, letting him know literature is literature, if well written and the story line is interesting. In all fairness and in apologizing for his doubt, he had given me the names of two individuals who he said are in positions to help me promote my novel. I will share My Grandfather’s Story with you sometime in the future, on this productive and progressive blog of The Story Reading Ape.

BIO

Born and raised in Georgetown, capital of British Guiana I was one of many children in a family of mostly girls, we grew up very close to each other. Of course, we had to most of us are a year and months apart from each other, except for one of my brothers and I, he was born on the fourteenth of January and I was born on the fifteenth the next year. My entrance into the Earth’s atmosphere was well timed, a true Capricorn, I take my time in achieving my goals, but when I set my mind on doing something, I see it through to the end.

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