Our dedicated authoring team was able to deliver the 60th and final version of the manuscript for Staying Alive – How to Act Fast and Survive Deadly Encounters to Barron’s several hours ahead of deadline last week. We were smack in the middle of finishing the manuscript and completing reports for four different school security assessment projects when we received a short notice request to present as finalists for a major school security assessment proposal we had submitted.
While four of our team members handled the presentation, my son Chris worked diligently to cover our workload. Chris came through and finished the final round of edits of the 89,000 word manuscript for Staying Alive. This week, Chris will be sending the final graphics and photographs to Barron’s and the book will be released in bookstores this April. This powerful book is among the most extensively researched and comprehensive work in a field of many extremely well written titles such as the Gift of Fear by Gavin deBecker, On Combat by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, Unthinkable Amanda Ripley and Sources of Power by Dr. Gary Klein.
Though much work remains to be done for the final edits and companion video, the heavy lifting of the last eleven months has been completed. Dr. Sonayia Shepherd, Chris, Steve Satterly and content developer Phuong Nguyen have all worked past midnight on many occasions to research, write and rewrite version after version of each chapter in this incredible book. Feedback from a diverse team of seven experienced subject matter experts has been that it is hard to put the book down and that every reviewer learned important things even though they have more than an average of two decades of experience each.
The book will not only be available in bookstores, but Wal-Mart is already listing the book as available on a pre-order basis at a heavily discounted price from the anticipated retail cost. I am relieved and most grateful that my amazing co-authoring team has been able to finish this true labor of love.