I’ve written the book — my Viet Nam memoir, HOTEL CONSTELLATION: Notes from America’s Secret War in Laos.

I’ve rewritten the book  (several times). A dozen friends and fellow writers have critiqued the manuscript (over and over). Two professional editors have gone through it line by line, then word for word.

What’s next? Design the cover and interior layout or hire someone else to do it.

That decision is easy. I love to eat but I don’t cook. I love to read books and write, but I don’t do design.

Hire it done. And so I did.

After culling a long list of cover and interior designers from author and book midwife Joanna Penn, I narrowed it to several and finally chose Damon Freeman at Damonza.com, based on quality of design, number of books designed and cost (my allowance for the next two years).

Damon’s crew got the formatted interior pages of the book back to me in a matter of days. It looks better than I ever imagined it could, and I’m glad I didn’t try it myself.

Here are the opening pages.

I think it has a great professional look and feel, and I’m looking forward to seeing the design concepts for the cover.

Georges Simenon on the Awfulness of Writing

Writing is considered a profession, and I don’t think it is a profession. I think that everyone who does not need to be a writer, who thinks he can do something else, ought to do something else. Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness.

The Paris Review, Summer 1955