A Life Backstage: David H Aretsky

I was inspired to write when my girlfriend of 18 years dumped me. I was depressed and started keeping a journal about my personal life, and work. My life on stage. Then I began thinking about my past, and writing about my life stories. Looking back at my life, I began to discover how lucky I was, and what an extraordinary life I had been living. Working with the most famous performers in the world, also about my travels and adventures. 

Stagehand is a very personal book. Most people, before reading are most interested in the stories about my time backstage with stars like Prince, Mick Jagger, Dolly Parton, Michelle Rodriguez, Michael Jackson and others. But there are many stories about my world travels and my relationship with my ex-girlfriend. A lot of readers seem to comment on these personal stories more often after reading the book, and on how they relate to what was going on in my personal life even more then the stories about my time working on stage  

I have found throughout my life that most disasters have led to good outcomes. It's hard to believe anything good could come from watching your apartment and everything inside, crumble to the ground in an earthquake, as it happens. But most of these unfortunate events have changed my life for the better. Had it not been for the Northridge earthquake I would never had met my Ex, and would never have had the many great years and adventures which followed. There also would never have been a book!

Most of my writing I did by dictating into an iPhone using Google Docs while I was on the stage at work with the many famous performers I was working with, or at home in the middle of the night. After I had acquired over 800 pages in that document was when I finally decided that it would become a book. I had quite a time trying to find an editor for the project. Once I did find an editor I printed the whole thing out for her and we began editing about 100 pages at a time through the mail and phone calls. Much was cut out, as you can imagine. After a few years though, I can now hold the printed book in hand.

Just finishing the process was a huge accomplishment to me. I think I spent a total of five years writing and editing. Holding the printed version was very satisfying. I rushed to get a proof version for my friend Peabo Bryson, who I had promised to give one to the next time I saw him. I did accomplish that, but ironically forgot to autograph it! I spoke with him on the phone after that, and was planning to sign the book when we met at his next show in my venue. Unfortunately he passed away before that happened. But just having handed it to him as promised was truly satisfying.

Facing the truth about what was going on in my private life and putting that on paper in an honest form, then publishing it for the world to read was challenging. Letting everyone see into your most private moments is a hard thing to do, especially if you do it honestly. But now that it's done it doesn't really bother me at all. I hope that the honesty in my writing will help others. And if not, at least my hardships should be entertaining to some!

I used Scrivener during a part of my writing process, and found it helpful for organizing chapters and moving things around. If I were writing a fiction novel there would have been more useful tools in that program. Things like the cork board and ways to keep track of character notes etc. For nonfiction, most of that didn't come into play. It was useful for getting the 12 point times roman, double spaced version formatted for my editor. Google Docs was incredibly helpful. I also used a few things to check for punctuation, spelling, grammar and paragraph formatting. For this I used Grammarly and chat GPT. I wouldn't recommend that anyone use GPT to actually write a book, but as an initial editor, I'm sure it saved me some money and my editor some time on the little things.

Hahaha! Well, I'm a (retired) stagehand, not really an author! But I did learn a lot. First of all, if you want to do it right, get a good editor! I can't stress this enough. Also, for those thinking, "An editor is expensive!" You're correct! Everything about making a book is expensive. And after you publish (I used BookBaby but you can publish free on Amazon KDP) it just gets more so. Expect to spend a lot of money! With that said, enjoy your writing process. Every writer will have their own way of doing things. Keep in mind the format that your editor will want before you trouble yourself with formatting the text. Try to clean up the mistakes in spelling, grammar etc. before sending anything to an editor, their time is your money. And after you are done, watch out for scammers. People must think authors are stupid. I get a hundred emails a day from people who want to make a buck off my book. Oh yeah, don't expect to make a whole lot of money. If you do, that's great, just don't expect it. And work hard at every phase of the project.

Book promotion is tough. I'll do anything if it's free. Anyplace that will promote my book, I will post it there. I have advertised through social media, Facebook, Instagram. my own website dangerd.com. I have a blog and have made some promotional videos. I have also paid for Amazon and BookBub advertising. BookBub is affordable. Amazon advertising doesn't really pay for itself. I have also done interviews and Q&A sessions with book clubs. Winning writing contest doesn't hurt, but cost money and doesn't help much either. Get reviews from respectable industry reviewers, and Amazon. Places like Pubby are also a good way to start off getting reviews in the beginning. Just don't expect them all to be good, unless you have produced quality writing and editing.

I have recently retired from my work as a stagehand. Although, I continue working on creative projects with friends. I want to travel. Maybe in the future I will decide to write again. Maybe a travel journal or something else unexpected? It's hard to predict the future. We swim in the river of life and can never really say where we will be pushed by the current. Life is an adventure and I'm hoping to live more of it!