THE BOOK PUBLISHING PROCESS CONTINUES…
Aktamar Island, Van, Turkey
This book publishing process is a roller coaster journey, but with the galleys (or ARC…Advance Reader Copies) due to arrive at the end of September, it is becoming a reality.
We get many questions about our collaboration process and are happy to report that after more than ten years of traveling and writing together, our friendship is even stronger. Some of the reasons we think makes this successful are:
1. A shared goal in the vision of the book. We have always believed in the need to tell our stories as a way of building a bridge between cultures and dispel misunderstandings many people have of Turkey. The vision carries over into creating a beautiful book that can be read for decades to come. On the road, we often talk about those intrepid women travelers and writers like Freya Stark, Gertrude Bell, and Mary Lee Settle, and realize that we are having similar experiences. We feel connected to them and other women travelers who have journeyed through Anatolia. Yet, each journey is unique and we’ve had the opportunity to see what they saw “with our own eyes” and in our own time period.
2. A mutual respect for our individual talents. Joy gets into her literary, esoteric head and lost in a romantic space. Angie searches for the irony and humor first. It is a relationship of Air and Earth. When coming to loggerheads, we look for a third – and usually better - solution.
3. We check our egos at the door. It is always about the work (or trip) itself.
4. And, perhaps, most important, our midwestern upbringings have bred in us a ‘never give up’ attitude.
Angie & Joy
