The Blue Screen of Death

The Blue Screen of Death timelines - 2001 - 2006

August 2001: Read Stephen King on writing while flying coast to coast for an interview in New York.

March 2002: Despite working 18 hours a day still need to figure out what to do with my weekends. I am now down to five hours of sleep which leaves me with atleast four hours to do nothing after Fawzia and Amin go off to sleep. Not having cable is part of the problem. Getting cable is not the solution.

April 2002: Decide to write a book and become a best selling millionaire author. Step one is to write an article on HBR on failure – a subject I am very much at home with.

May 2002: Page 1 of my epic saga is done.

June 2002: Yeee-ah! Page 3 – 4 completed while vacationing in Maine for 4 days. Must be Stephen King proximity factor.

July 2002: This whole book thing is really not working out. The HBR article outline is somewhat done but their submission and approval process is a nightmare.

August 2002 – November 2002: Pressure at work sucks me into a different dimension. Plans to become independently wealthy by word power put on hold. That still does’t stop me from buying all the books ever written about writing a book proposal, getting an agent, signing a contract and a subscription to writers digest.

December 2002: Head back home to Pakistan

March 2003: The article is now a book is getting bigger and better and in good shape. Start doing active research on publishers and agents

April 2003: First speaking engagement at my old school on failure. Quickly followed by speaking engagement number two

July 2003: Somehow just getting 10% of gross for all this heart ache and pain doesn’t look appealing. And I don’t want to share the 15% with my agent. Best selling millionaire author plan put on hold but I still cary on work with the book.

July 2003 – December 2003: Work, work, work and more work.

June 2004: Week long vacation in Nathia Gali. I sit on top of a mountain and watch trees grow. Inspiration

July 2004: Third speaking engagement on failure

December 2004: Initial reviews of page one are good. The rest of book is crap

All of 2005: Three major rewrites. Two bad reviews. One note of encouragement. Two speaking engagements on failure. Discover Booksurge on Amazon.

Jan 2006: New year resolution to put this stupid book chapter behind me once and for all.

Jan 2006: Hire editor on elance to take a final look and see if there is any beef in 200 pages. Editor says this is good shit but you need to rewrite it all over again.

February 2006: Adnan promises to help with research, launch and execution.

March 2006: Discover lighteningspeed. Where have you been all of my life.

April 2006: Ebook edition on track.

April 2006: Sixth speaking engagement on failure

May 2006: Launch.