Merge Wright: ‘Santa’s Magic’ the book is Saturday

by Springboro Sun on November 29, 2012

First of all, I love writing about people in this community. We have such a wide variety of amazing citizens that live here: Tim Harrison, wild animal expert that’s known throughout the world, USAF flight commanders, test pilots for the B1, F22 Fighter, Hollywood producer (yes, that lives here) Nashville rising stars, UPS’s number one driver in his 50-year history of the company with millions of accident free miles, doctors, lawyers, small business owners in many diversified fields each with an amazing story and, of course, many prolific writers.
Today, I introduce you to D.A. Quigley, the author of “Santa’s Magic.” It’s that time of year to meet Mr. Quigley. I couldn’t write this at the pool in the summer. It wouldn’t vibe.
D.A. is actually Don, a former IBM sales executive that traveled the country for years in a profession he enjoyed. If you have a fun, outgoing personality, sales can be extremely rewarding. Could playing Santa every year for 30 years as an avocation in December, traveling across the Midwest be rewarding, too? Of course, when you do something for three full decades, there must be joy, love and a place in your heart or you’d have given it up years ago.
Don was introduced to Santa way back when he was four years old, holding his mother’s hand in a death grip. Guy in red suit, beard, boots, hat, the whole ensemble is not normal and that happens today with a few first-time visitors.
Don’s Santa that developed over the years is not comparable to mall or department store Santa Clauses. His wonderful wife, Patti (Mrs. Claus), runs the North Pole hot line, where calls come in for Santa visits and are scheduled throughout the season in geographical areas in time frames allowing for travel, meals, hotels, flights, rental car pickups, etc. Santa arrives with much knowledge of the child or children he’s visiting. Names, pets, teachers, favorite things are all memorized for each visit. Many times gifts are positioned outside homes for Santa to pick up and put in his bag for delivery at the visit with an explanation that he has a few others he’ll be bringing in his sleigh on Christmas morning.
Did Santa ever forget part of his wardrobe, miss a scheduled appointment with a child, make a stop to visit a child that was not on his list, get delayed in a snowstorm, meet with a non-Santa believer, bring a moment of love and peace to a family that words can not describe? Yes to all of the aforementioned, but you’ll have to read the book. Don will be autographing “Santa’s Magic” this Saturday between 5-8 p.m. at Ambiance Wine Bar & Café at 345 S. Main St., in the Springboro Historic District.
This is a quaint little café featuring wonderful art and photography for sale on their walls with a very homey atmosphere, genuine people and some of the most wonderful food you’ll ever eat. Please try their BLT pizza. Lucy and I love it! Don’s book features a collection of 12 stories and is a quick read that you’ll truly enjoy. I read 100 pages at first read and polished off the remaining 48 the next afternoon when I returned to my office. It will bless you and give you a wonderful feeling about Santas like Don. So glad to have this Santa right here in our back yard.

Santa's Magic

New Release in Fall of 2011

Santa’s Magic

Do you believe in Santa Claus? You know…not everyone does. Some people would have you believe that you experience a transformation in your belief: it begins with believing, then not believing and then finally a state where you become the Santa. This experience usually last a few weeks between Thanksgiving and the end of December each year The author D.A.Quigley is still in the last stage of this belief cycle. He has been for over 35 years.

The author of Santa’s Magic, D.A.Quigley continues to use his creative story telling style to share with his readers the most memorable situations he encountered while dressed in his red suite and white beard and hair. He also collaborates with a recent college graduate from the University of Dayton. Ms. Kandrach illustrations provide a fantastic job of capturing the essence of different situations that Santa encounters in his journey’s across the country.

The author’s previous book “Letters from Otto” demonstrated his funny and sometimes compassionate style of remembering the past. Santa’s Magic continues that trend by appealing to both young and old about the first time they sat on Santa’s lap and shared their secret wishes.

So you want to self publish?

Oh my God… where do I start?

In this blog entry I will try to outline the steps of the process. I should caution you that there is no perfect solution. With the advent of popularity, comes the wave of expertise on whether self publishing is here to stay or which service should I use to create my novel.

Lets first look at what are the first questions you should ask yourself.

Answer:

· Who is my audience?

· How much is my budget?

· What is my timeframe for delivering a product?

· What is the state of my manuscripts?

· Do you want to control the process and the copyrights to the material?

· What type of product do you want to produce? E-Book or Hardbound or soft-cover?

Once you have answered those questions then it is time to determine the state of your product. Assuming you have a written manuscript then you need to start the editing process. There are a number of ways to approach this process.

· Utilize some of the Writing Communities on the Web to have others read your material and provide feedback.

· Provide a copy of your manuscript or about 50 pages to close friends and fellow writers.

· Attend Writers Conferences or workshops that include a written review of your manuscript.

· Take a day to sit with your significant other to read the manuscript “out-loud”. It is great therapy for humility training.

· Hire a professional editor

Once you have received the finished manuscript back from these many sources you are ready to take the next step. It is decision time. Do you want to pursue the Agent/Publisher path to glory or are you still interested in self publishing. Keep in mind there is still a lot of work ahead.

What is next?

If you are still interested in pursuing the self publishing route then you need to start making decisions.

If you are independently wealthy then you can write out a check for $ 4-5 thousand dollars and get your book created and made available on the web. If you are not “loaded with cash” then you will probably find resources to help with the following:

· Design and Create a PDF file for your book cover

· Format and Create a PDF file for your text

· Create the Pictures in the right resolution for a Photo book type layout.

· Secure ISBN codes to copyright protect your intellectual property.

These activities are necessary to use the following three types of service to create either an e-Book , hardbound or soft cover book. There three alternative approaches are:

E-Book for Kindle using Createspace

E-Book for Barnes and Noble Nook using Smashwords

Hardbound book with/or without a dust cover using Blurb

Soft cover book with/or without color using Createspace

These alternatives allow you the control the process and attain the highest profits from royalties from book sales. But there is a catch.

Now that you have received your first draft copy of your novel from Createspace or you have listed your story on the Amazon Kindle site you are now ready.

Ready for what you ask?

The next step in the process is the answer. Gosh we are just beginning to have fun.

Now comes the fun part.

Marketing 101:

· Where are you going to sell this product: Bookstore? Your Website? Amazon?

· Do I need Posters

· Have you created the profile on Amazon for your first book?

· Have you created a press release?

· Have you scheduled a book signing event?

· How am I going to use Facebook, Twitter and other Social Networking Tools?

Now you might be ready.

But in closing this post I can only remind you of the fact that the digital age is upon us and we are rapidly moving to a ubiquitous environment where the pc as we know it is being replaced with the Smartphone and tablet pc’s (like the i-Pad).

Last week I taught the last class in my spring class in Self Publishing. It was a very rewarding experience. These are the final words I left with them:

Love what you do

Don’t be sensitive.

Go get some good wine

Celebrate the small things

Don’t take it too seriously… including yourself

Have fun… If it gets to be too much…

Just open another bottle of good wine.