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My Gemini Book: LOVE & METAXA

May 29, 2021
from Twitter

  Love & Metaxa’s release date is June 8th. It’s a Gemini book because it has two sides, and maybe sometimes more. I started writing this poetry book in 2016, after the release of Love & Vodka. I had no idea what the title would be, but one day it came to me like a revelation, and the word Metaxa kept creeping up into my mind taunting me.

      I will leave the mystery of it alone. No one wants to know too much. No one wants to know too little. 

     Some of you have pre-ordered my book and may have received it by now. The version you have is not the intended final version. At the moment, for a little while, there are two versions floating around. The final version includes the foreword by the editor, Alexandra Meehan.

        Love & Metaxa was uploaded on Ingram Sparks, the distribution channel that traditional publishers, a few months ago, by the third publishing house that had accepted it. Things started to go sour when I and Alexandra edited the manuscript over a few glasses of wine with Dropbox. Editing on Dropbox was the most difficult task, especially when you have a lot of edits to do. Needless to say, it took us weeks to edit the lines, punctuation, and so forth. Alexandra questions everything!  I sent the edited version, but nothing was done to add the changes, and not only that, but I did not hear from the publishing company until weeks  before my book was supposed to come only to cancel my book due to personal issues. 

     When the publishing house set up my book and uploaded it, there was a fine detail that was not passed on to me, hence making me unaware that pre-orders were printed with the version that was uploaded at that time. 

     If you are holding the publisher’s version, I will confess, I had no idea that this would happen. My ex-publisher never advised me, only transferred the incorrect file with a good luck note. 

       Last Saturday, my friend Jacquie received the book, showed it to me via text and I almost died. I cried all day. After years of working so hard to make this book perfect, I realized it was a Gemini. 

   I had hired two professionals to complete the formatting and cover book mishaps that the publisher did not correct. Alexandra and I had edited to perfection that last week of April and my biggest fear happened. 

    “It was out of my control,” Ingram Sparks consultant, Syd said. I could do nothing, but I could purchase the books off of Amazon. That is what I did. I searched for “in stock” and bought them all. “Rest assured”, Syd said to me about ten times, “Your uploaded version is what people will receive as of April.”

    I cried some more.

    I think Alexandra cried some too.

    We were both so sad this happened. 

    Then yesterday, I received the final proof copy of my book and I cried again.

    It was a perfect Gemini baby book.

       Being it’s a duality of a sign, two different versions are floating around for a while. If you get the press version, reach out to me. I will gladly send you the final version. 

   If you receive the self-published version, please take a photo and show me. 

   I want to know where this Gemini book is living. 

Christina Strigas

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