It was a dark and stormy night (the saga of Das Book)

by Dan Phillips

Gather 'round, children, and I'll tell you a tale.

It's a tale of adventure, suspense, intrigue, board meetings, contracts, and of hope found, lost, and found again.

Well, anyway, it's got board meetings.

It's actually about my book, my other book, the one I told you about here. You'll note that post is just over a year old. Some have wondered, "Dude, we know you just sent in a Proverbs manuscript to Kress... but what about that other book?"

This, Dear Readers, is that story.

What happened is that Brian Thomasson, the good brother who had brought me to David C. Cook, later parted ways with Cook to pursue other ventures. That left me (and my contract) with Cook, as I continued to work on my manuscript, merrily bringing it to readiness for submission.

When I was literally within a day or two of sending my completed manuscript to Cook, I got a phone call. It was very kindly explained to me that, given the rough economy, Cook had felt forced to eliminate a number of upcoming titles from their roster. One of those titles was — you guessed it — your humble correspondent's.

I understand Cook's decision, and there are no hard feelings. They dealt kindly with me, and offered help in finding my manuscript a home. Still, I can't say the call made me happy. But dear bro Phil Johnson was very encouraging. Phil had read an early form of the manuscript and was very enthused about it. He never doubted that the manuscript would be published. It was just a matter of who would be the publisher. His confidence helped keep my spirits up.

Wellsir, I knocked on this door and I knocked on that door, showing my poor homeless waif hither and yon. The long and short of it is I eventually talked with Ed Komoszewski, who works with Kregel Publications. Ed, God bless 'im, took a fancy to my baby, and introduced it with great verve to the decision-makers at Kregel. Result: now we have a home! I have in my possession a signed contract which calls for me to have my manuscript submitted by July 1, 2010.

However, the manuscript was already basically done. I gave it another thorough going-over, consulted their style-manual and made it Kregelicious, and have already submitted it. In other words, "Hulk smash puny deadline!"

(Readers: "Over-eager, much?")

I'm happy and grateful to be with Kregel.  Back in the 70s, when I worked in Christian bookstores, I mostly knew Kregel as re-publishers of solid works. But for years Kregel has been putting out a wide array of Christian resources, including some very solid, Biblical material right in the same doctrinal groove I inhabit. Check out the academic products and the catalogs.

In fact, in one of life's little providential ironies, two years ago I gave a favorable review to a solid book (A) published by Kregel and (B) co-written by m'man Ed. Then one year ago, another favorable review to a "three views" book about the will of God, also from Kregel. The former had endnotes (boo), the latter footnotes (yay). I've already pled that mine have footnotes. (There aren't that many footnotes in this book —as opposed to the Proverbs book, which literally has more than 500 of them.) (The typist for my Proverbs thesis back in '83 complained that half the thesis was in the footnotes.) (Rats, I'm doing that parenthesis-thing.)

And meanwhile, remember m'other man Brian Thomasson? He currently has my Proverbs manuscript in hand, to edit it for Kress Biblical Resources. (I seem partial to the velars, don't I? Cook, Kress, Kregel.)

So now you know all that. Praise God with me, and pray for the process of moving the manuscript to publication. When I know a publication date, of course, I'll let you know. Could be that 2011 will be a double-Dan year.

Whatever, exactly, that will mean.

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