Here is something that I have been working on for the last seven years, off and on. Mostly off. Still some work left to do, too.

You've been working on the book cover for seven years??

It's looking good--can't wait to get a copy!

Well, no, I just worked on the cover for about an hour, because it was largely based on a poster I created a few years back:



What comes after the cover has taken a little longer, however.

Oh Oh OH OH, is it ready yet?

Is it ready yet?

Is it ready yet?

How about now?

Is it ready yet?

Almost. Here is a bit more information:

Sometime around 2005, I started working on a Walt Disney World Railroad book that would be a companion of sorts to Steve DeGaetano’s excellent Welcome Aboard the Disneyland Railroad. I did a fair amount of writing for the book, and I gathered several photos as well, mostly from my own collection of photos that I have taken over the years. I even started a preliminary layout with what I had. I even came up with what I thought was a pretty swell drawing of the track layout.

But after about a year or so, several things happened. Life in general got in the way, and I lost interest in it for a while. Sometimes I thought, “Maybe some day,” although I didn’t really give it that much thought over the years.

Fast forward to a few months ago. As you may know, I put out an eBook titled Enjoy Walt Disney World (without riding all the rides). If you don’t know about it, you obviously haven’t seen the ad graphic in my post signature. It has done rather well, relatively, compared to some of the other things I have attempted in the past, and so I started thinking about other subjects for eBooks. I actually started one, which I think is still a pretty good idea, although it is more personal in nature, but then I remembered what I had started on the WDWRR, and I thought it might be good to revive that.

Also, since I first began in 2005, I have received some more information about the early days, which I have been able to incorporate. On top of that, there is a complete new station as well.

This book won’t be quite as comprehensive as Steve D’s book was. But I think it still keeps the same spirit as his work had.

So the plan is to publish this as an eBook – there will be a PDF version, along with versions for Kindle, Nook, and other eReaders. The target date is sometime mid-summer – around late June or early July, which should give me some time to do just a little more “research.”

that looks great!

Hey Steve,

This is great news! The WDW RR certainly deserves coverage like you're doing.

Part 3 of the series of books I have in the works will be covering the history of the locomotives in Mexico. My book will end when the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971. When done, it sounds like the two books will be covering all aspects of this great railroad!

Good luck with the completion of the book!

David

Thanks! All is looking well so far. There may be some slight overlap between what I am doing and what you are doing, but there is certainly nothing wrong with that.

Really looking forward to this, Steve. Any thought about doing it as print-on-demand?

I have thought about that. Pretty much any option is open right now. The PDF version is first, though. I was going to try to do that and the other eBooks (Kindle, Nook, etc.) at the same time, but I have realized that to do the PDF right, it will take a completely different layout, which means that there may be some time between that and what follows. Still looking at an initial release sometime around July!