17 February 2019 – Now the book is really, truly finished!

OUR EXTRAORDINARY ANCESTORS; The Ancestors of Clinton Wilbur Pearson and Bessie Adelaide White

It bothers me that it is not 100% perfect, but I made the decision to go to print. The imperfections are small details for the most part. This is my first book and it was many years in the making. I used Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and discovered that “what you see” is not “what you get.” Details that looked perfect in the PDF file on my computer, were not perfect in print, or when viewed in the KDP preview pane. I had no idea how to remedy this and ultimately had to give up and just call it done.

The graphic artist I hired at Upwork to create my book cover, could not complete the task. He has created covers for Amazon Createspace, but not for KDP. So I used the KDP cover creator to do it myself. And it looks it.

Through the years, without fail, every time something was completed – say, I printed a family tree for a family member – immediately afterwards, I would make new discoveries, rendering the family tree out of date. It happened again. I uploaded my first completed book to KDP. Then I began the work to split it into two books – one for each grandparent. And I made new discoveries for my grandma Bessie’s family – 5 new family lines! They will be in the new book, titled Out of Belgium; The Ancestors of Bessie Adelaide White.

We are enjoying spending time with our grandchildren here. Our RV park is right on the river, and we have received great quantities of rain this winter. So far the river is not rising, and all is well. I hope your winter is going well. I remember my 4 years in Minneapolis as a young teenager, and I do not miss it.