I am not a barefoot pilgrim when it comes to publication, David. I have been published. One article submitted to Sing Out!, an American folk music magazine published in New York and distributed nationally. I submitted the article, it was accepted, and I subsequently received a check in the mail. I have also had some sixteen one- and two-part articles published in Victory Review, a magazine published locally by Victory Music. Victory Review is sent monthly to members and subscribers, and it is distributed to music stores in the western Washington area.

So I think I can legitimately claim that I have been published.

Submitted to an editor for approval. Accepted. Printed. Distributed. Paid.

I am also working on a book on the folk music "scene" in the Pacific Northwest as I have experienced it. Not finished yet, but I work on it daily and the first draft is over 100,000 words—so far. It is going to need serious editing before it will be ready to submit to a publisher, but I intend to finish the first draft first. It's much easier to go back and edit than it is to get bogged down in editing as one goes along (that way, sometimes the book never gets finished).

When it has been submitted to a publisher, accepted by an editor, and subsequently printed and distributed—then—I will say that I have a book published. But not until then.

Don Firth