The Many Misadventures of Tall Guy and Short Gal

About the Book

I started writing these misadventures probably 13 years ago. Originally, they were stand-alone short stories about the trials and tribulations of a happily married couple named Tall Guy and Short Gal. I recently decided to compile them into a book format.

The stories cover a fairly large span of time from when they were just getting to know each other,  before Tall Guy and Short Gal were married, to much more recently.

I’ve struggled with whether or not to include a note explaining that these stories are based on things that actually happened to my husband and me. And beyond whether or not to include such a note is the issue of whether to put it at the beginning of the novella (it might just accrue enough words to be considered a novel) or at the end. Would it be more entertaining to know up front that these are real life experiences? Or would it be more dramatic to make the revelation at the end. Then there is the larger question … would anyone other than my husband and me find them to be amusing and entertaining?

I’ve taken a fair amount of literary license with the re-tellings, but not as much as you might imagine were you to read them. Bernd and I can get ourselves into some pretty good messes from time to time.  And the dialogues between Tall Guy and Short Gal are much as they actually happened between me and Bernd.

It’s a love story of sorts. But not as you might usually encounter a love story. And that’s only fitting because Tall Guy and Short Gal are themselves a bit odd.

I have maybe two or three more misadventure to write about. I wrote one up some years ago for inclusion in my memoir (as if anyone would ever want to read that) and I will use that as the basis since my current memory of those particular two days might not be all that accurate anymore. It happened about 27 years ago.

Because I am so close to finishing the manuscript, I decided to get started setting it up on Kindle Direct Publishing. It’s a bit exciting to start putting the actual book together and also a bit frightening. I’ve done this twice already and can’t seem to let go of the fear and just focus on the excitement. Maybe by the tenth book, I’ll get that all figured out. If, that is, I have ten books in me. Hard to know such a thing in advance.

So anyway, stay tuned for more news about “The Many Misadventures of Tall Guy and Short Gal.”

Posted February 11, 2021

It’s done! It’s published and available on Amazon. Didn’t even take me a full week from my last posting. I just hope it was actually ready. I can never be 100% certain. It’s like with my husband and his watercolor paintings … he’s never really sure when it’s finished. You just have to decide at some point that it is.

At least with publishing a book on Kindle Direct Publishing, you can go back and edit any time you want. It’s a little harder to do that with a finished watercolor painting.

So anyway, if you’ve been following my progress on this novel, now you can go to Amazon and have a look at it.

Posted February 6, 2021

Oh my, how time flies. I’ve written elsewhere about all the trials of moving and the time it has taken. It took until just recently for me to find some time to finish proof reading my proof copy of “The Many Misadventures of Tall Guy and Short Gal.” But it’s done and I’ve corrected my digital copy.

I spent most of yesterday uploading and re-uploading the manuscript to Kindle Direct Publishing. Seems that when you change something at the beginning of the content, it makes all sorts of changes downstream. It’s the way of life, apparently.

So I had to make numerous changes and corrections, but I think I’ve got it all worked out now. I just have to go over the preview copy online one more time and make sure it looks just as I would like it to look.

But instead, today we are painting bathroom cabinets. The cabinets in this house we bought are old and frankly quite nasty. We started on the bathroom because it is a smaller area and we’ve never painted cabinets before.

We cleaned and we sanded. We primed and we sanded. And we primed some more. Today, the first coat of the finish paint is going on. So while that is drying, I thought it would be a good opportunity to post an update.

And, again to be frank, painting is a lot easier and more satisfying than going over that manuscript for the umpteenth time.

In any case, it won’t be too much longer and I’ll be ready to hit that “Publish” button.

Posted November 5, 2020

We are moving. We are uprooting our lives and transplanting them to Wyoming.

So unfortunately, I have put all my literary projects on a temporary hold.

I do have the proof copy of “The Many Misadventures of Tall Guy and Short Gal” in my possession and am slowly working my way through it. But the likelihood of it being published before the end of the year is slim.

Posted October 8, 2020

I finished the proofread/edit and needed to upload the manuscript to Kindle Direct Publishing, but getting ready for a garage sale got in the way. I was so exhausted at the end of each day, that I had no patience for sitting and waiting for it to process.

But two days ago, I finally uploaded it. I’ve ordered proof copies and am eagerly awaiting their arrival. Just not so eagerly anticipating all the work I will have to do to edit them properly, make the corrections to my manuscript, and then upload it all again.

Still, I’m pretty excited to hold the first draft in my hands. That’s always a thrill.

Posted September 26, 2020

I’m very close to finishing my first proofread/edit of the manuscript. And yes, I know that you should not try to do both of those things at the same time. Doesn’t stop me trying.

This time around, I have decided to order a proof copy (maybe two if they will let me get more than one) and sit with it, taking my time, to really go through it. I know that even then, there will be errors I will miss. That’s why I want a second copy, so my husband can go through it too.

I ordered a proof copy of my previous novel, “The Alien Visitation Chronicle,” and it helped immensely with the proof reading. There is something more compelling about the words on an actual piece of paper as opposed to looking at them on a computer monitor, phone, or tablet.

So, hopefully, in another month or so “The Many Misadventures of Tall Guy and Short Gal” will be ready for publication.

Even though this will be my third novel, it still excites me to think about it. I hope never to lose that feeling.

Posted September 12, 2020

It’s done. Well as done as it can be at this point. What I mean is, it’s ready for my first readers to read it. I hope. It ended up longer than I had hoped it might. So I think it just barely qualifies to be a novel. I’m going with that.

Anyway, I’m pretty excited. I always get excited at this point. Then, later, comes the anxiety. I’m laughing at myself.

I’ve already started setting it up on Kindle Direct Publishing. I’ve designed the cover and worked on what I hope is a smoking book description for the Amazon page.

While my readers are going through the book and pointing out to me all the blatant errors that I have somehow missed in my many re-readings, I will be moving on to the next project: finally finishing the sequel to “Millie’s Adventures in Time.”

It’s high time we found out what our intrepid Millie and all her friends have been up to.

Posted August 11, 2020

I have made a good start on the additional chapter I mentioned above. It might turn out to be a fairly long story altogether. So there is a good chance this book will qualify as a novel.

I’ll keep you posted as to my progress with it.