The Winds Of Change

No I'm not talking about the weather.
My good friend Gwen Britz suggested some time back that I throw myself fully into my passion and see what comes of it. Two weeks of swimming in chocolate until I realized she meant 'writing'. Yes, that would be my other passion.

So earlier this week she sent me the link to a workshop for potential writers, where you get to meet other aspiring writers, some published writers, and then of course the big boys, the publishers themselves. I figured this is a brilliant opportunity to finally get published, since all my good work that I've been giving to my 12 year old niece has come to nothing. Quite frankly I'm starting to think that she was pretty useless as a publisher, especially after that last phone-call where she asked me 'So Uncle Kaloo, what exactly does a publisher do?"

Some of my writings have been in the papers, which I was rather impressed with. So while I'm not a complete novice, I do think it's high time someone knocked that JK Rowling woman off her perch. Otherwise we'll just have to suffer through more of that wizard and goblin rubbish.
I tried reading one of those Harry Potter books a while ago. I'm not sure which one it was. Possibly "Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets." Halfway through and I realized I was going to need a hammer, a screwdriver and a locksmith to get into this chamber, let alone understand it's secrets.

I like reading the kind of books which are easy on the eye. Nothing too deep and mentally challenging. Nothing too complicated or with too many characters. The kind of books that take me back to a happy childhood where one picture could tell a thousand words.
That's why I'm so glad Playboy is back in the country, and I can renew my subscription.

One of my favorite books is The Bible.
That, and The Life Of Pi.
Ok so I know that The Bible goes against everything I said I loved in a book, but the truth is that my Gran would read it to me when I was younger (for those that don't know this, I grew up in a multi-religious home) and I really enjoyed the characters and the lessons in the good book. I was disappointed that there were no pictures, but soon I realized that a vivid imagination more than made up for that shortfall. I always wondered about the first publishing house to have published the very first run of The Bible.
I wonder if their in-house editor ever read it and went "This needs some work."
Also, how did they know how many copies to print?
How would one go about getting a signed copy by the author?
Lastly, if it's the most published book in the world as I've heard somewhere, how come Hollywood hasn't already turned it into a movie?

Maybe I should keep these questions handy and ask them during the "Meet The Publishers" workshop.

I'm really looking forward to it, and once again a huge Thank You to Ms Gwen for thinking about me when she found out about the workshop :)