Jes' Webbin' It: It's Real!!!

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

It's Real!!!

So far, so good, as they say. The Proof Copy of my first "baby" arrived yesterday. It badly needs some cover art and a quick flip through reveals that it definitely needs another line-by-line edit (how could I have missed so many close-quotation marks and periods?!!!), but it's an actual, 379 page paperback novel. It says so, right there on the cover!

Mai Shangri-La

A Novel

Robert J. Rubis

So far, CreateSpace has definitely lieved up to their end of our "agreement". They've taken my uploaded file, laid it out in a 6X9 format, added a cover, and bound it in a finished product. The rest is just tweaking. I'll hope to complete the next round of editing within the month, and hopefully by Easter, I'll have my first book available (Print-on-Demand) for sale. Exciting stuff!

Watch for "Mai Shangri-La" on YOUR CreateSpace homepage sometime soon.

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Who IS Robert J. Rubis?

I'm a Canadian expatriate teacher (Teacher-Librarian, to be exact) and writer who has called Bangkok, Thailand, home for the past 22 years. I taught for 10 years in B.C., Canada before taking a left turn in my life's journey - to Tripoli, Libya. After spending a year in the former "jewel of the Mediterranean", I moved to Thailand, which I immediately recognized as my new "home". I've lived and worked here ever since.

I've been writing all my life, but until a few years ago, I focussed most of my work on supporting and furthering my career as a Teacher-Librarian. Somewhere along the way, though, I developed a mild cynicism about the impact my work was having on the world around me. I was competent at my job and took my responsibilities to the students in my charge seriously, but it no longer seemed to be enough. At the same time, I was beginning to have serious misgivings about Man's stewardship of the planet, and when Katrina devastated New Orleans, I saw this as a convergence of my changing interests and emerging "itch" to write for a wider audience.

"Mai Shangri-La" is the result. It's on one level an environmental cautionary tale, on another a journey of self-discovery (a "coming-of-age" novel, if you will, of an 80-year old man) and finally, another take on the star-crossed lover's story. Most of all, though, "Mai Shangri-La" is the "setting to page" of many of the philosophical musings that I've tinkered with more much of my life. Reuben James's story is largely autobiographical at its core, although set 25 years in the future. his values are largely (although never completely) mine, his "Dreamories" are rooted in my memories, and his approach to life at 80 is what I hope mine might be when I reach his age.

Writing "Mai Shangri-La" has been an increbibly rewarding experience for me, and, I hope, the beginning of a new career that might continue beyond the "mandatory retirement age" looming faster every year.

Jes' Webbin' It

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

It's Real!!!

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