by Mary Wakefield Buxton –
URBANNA —
After an exhausting summer of writing a last book, with a lot of help from my publisher, Fred Gaskins, I finally finished the project. I also turned 80.
I decided 15 books in one’s lifetime is enough. I’m tired.
It’s a lot of work to write a book. Writing is fun but proofing is a grueling and boring chore. Generally a book is proofed at least three times in the search of those irritating errors that follow an author’s pen like a pack of devoted rats.
The title “On the Toad Again,” is a comedy about the misery of modern day travel. It should read, of course, “On the Road Again,” except for the inspiration from my sister, Alice, making a simple typo in a text to me over the summer.
She was taking a 5,000-mile trip out west in her new trailer which unfolds each evening into a compact space that two people can spend the night. One morning, about halfway through her six-week trip, she texted me … “I’m on the toad again.”
I laughed at her joke. What perfect expression of the way I feel about traveling today in any mode.
Later she confessed it wasn’t humor bursting forth but simply a typo. Alice likes to travel, but I would much rather stay home with a cup of tea, a good book and a favorite dog.
Typo or not, I thought it was funny. I told Fred, who has helped produce 14 of my 15 books, that I had decided the title of my new book would be, “On the Toad Again.” He said nothing. Fred is a man of few words.
But as time went by and I didn’t notify him that I had decided on another title (which I do periodically as we go through the process of putting a book together) he, no doubt, began to worry somewhat.
“I’m not at all sure I know what you mean by ‘On the Toad Again?’ ” he finally emailed me.
“It’s how I feel when I have to travel anywhere,” I responded, still thinking the title was funny.
Another source of much of my comedy has always been my husband, Chip, (my favorite character) as he loves to travel and always has one foot out the door ready to go on a trip. I don’t even want to go to Saluda.
He’s also funny because he is so serious. He came from a family of stern people; doctors that operated a hospital and a nursing school on the Peninsula for many years. The mistakes they made meant life or death so I guess that’s why they were so serious. But I came from an industrial background and any mistakes off the assembly line were laughed about and merely discarded.
I decided my title was funny but an immediate problem popped up. No one else thought it was funny. I’m a bit stubborn as writers usually are and I charged ahead anyway with my usual tank through the daisies approach.
In the meantime, my 13-year-old grandson, “JT,” painted a bright picture for the cover of my new book. Fred put the painting on my cover with the new title and I texted it to JT for his approval.
“Grandmother!” he texted back immediately. “You have a typo in your title! It should read, ‘On the Road Again!’ ”
“It’s supposed to be ‘Toad,’ dear,” I explained. “It’s humor,” I added, just in case he took after the serious side of the family.
When Chip heard about this exchange he sat me down like lawyers do to give some “free” advice on what should be done about my inappropriate title. I felt like a criminal he was trying to keep out of jail.
“If you insist on this odd title, my dear, I advise you to add an asterisk on the cover after the word ‘Toad*’ and explain inside the book that ‘Toad’ is not a typo for ‘Road’ but is the author’s idea of humor.”
Sigh. Mother always said that I had inherited a strange sense of humor from Father that she called “English humor.” She said this as if it was some highly contagious disease that passes down through the generations like time bombs ready to explode at any minute. “Exactly what is English humor, Mother?” I finally asked.
“Silly,” she said without cracking a smile.
OK. I will admit my new title is somewhat silly. But I still think it’s funny. Then I turned 80 and decided anyone who is 80 could use any title she wanted.
So my title stands. “On the Toad Again!” Alleluia! English humor lives on!
© 2021
(Note: Mary Wakefield Buxton’s new book can be purchased at the Southside Sentinel office or Trustbuilders Law Office in Saluda or by mailing a check for $15, plus $4 for tax and postage to P.O. Box 488, Urbanna, VA 23175.)
