A Third Edition is On the Way

Someone recently reminded me that I have not yet mentioned that I’m working on a 3rd edition of my train travel book: All Aboard! The Complete North American Train Travel Guide.

The first edition came out in 1995, the second three years later. A few years after that, the publisher was bought out by Random House. They had little or no interest in a third edition, so last year I asked for the rights back and they agreed.

I dithered for a while because I knew from time spent on the second edition that it’s big work to update a book like that. There are dozens of facts and figures and statements in every chapter that need to be double-checked and up-dated.

But finally, probably in a moment of weakness, I decided to go for it. My agent shopped the proposal and Yuval Taylor from Chicago Review Press responded favorably. I’ll be sending the completed manuscript off to him in another couple of weeks, but the book won’t be in stores until about this time next year.

In the meantime, a lot of people have pitched in to make it possible. At the top of that list is Cliff Black, head of Corporate Communications for Amtrak, who personally undertook to either give me answers to what was an embarrassing number of questions or get the answers from someone else within their organization.

Likewise two people at VIA Rail – Jenny Jasper and Elizabeth Huarte – came through for me … big time. And there have been a lot of others.

Anyway, I’ve been pounding away at this and, in part, that’s what has accounted for fewer than normal posts here. I’ll try to do better once everything has been shipped off to the publisher in another month.