Greetings ... <br /><br />Feel free to fix things as you see there is a need.  However, for the validity of the book, they need to be fixed in such a way as not to "lose my voice." --- A cliche I am sure you get a great deal.  However in this case, this work is really designed a great deal "on my voice."  <br /><br />In addition, there are two types of sections/writings to this work.  I really only want you to concern yourself with one type and not the other.  <br />The type I don't want you to "touch" are the areas designated as "original email."  As noted in the book, these are "rough writings" completed in the moment and sent back to people in the States concering the progress of the trip.  They were rough, and I want them to remain so in order to have readers get a sense of the moment. As I transformed the e-mails into the book, if I felt that there was some vaguness or a need for some explaination, I added small sections to the e-mails in brackets.  These backeted areas you can address, but not the original e-mails themselves. <br /><br />The emails may add up to less than 1/4 or 1/5 the of the book ... So the actual word count I think you should concern yourself with is more like 35,000 - 40,000 or so (if you don't include table of contents as well. Therefore there are actully far less words that need to be edited than the actual number cited but I don't know it that makes that much of a difference in the price.  Since I am new to your group, I am now sure which number of words to give you ... So I hope we can work that out later<br /><br />This book concerns a trip to Turkey about 18 months ago. The stituation there and in the whole region has changed so much since then ... I think this could be of some interest, since it concerns Americans "out and about, just before the flood" of immigrants.  In fact, not much real dangerous or thrilling occured ... although there were points that could have become quite dangerous.  However, as we traveled about, on our own, there were constant messages of forboding from the wide range of people we meet and with whom we talked (as two people alone without travel guides and staying in more traditioanl "Turkish hotels"  we did meet quite a few people most tourist would not.<br /><br />The heart of the work is really some very odd occurences that happend to me and my great niece during the trip.  However, I have added a new introduction and some other additional events that did occur, that were not in the original approach, to make this work somewhat more connected to the crises occuring now.  We were there when things were just about to go really bad, but it was not obvious. In addition, for some parts of the country, things were really bad already, but it was not obvious to the world (or at least the West.) <br /><br />So the title "Odd times"  is meant to reflect the somewhat innocent but interesting things that happend to us, that is presented in a more light hearted fashion, but also the state of things in Turkey as they are faced with such internal splits and the impact of the crisis of Syria. (This part is presented in a concernted but somewhat detached, and less poltical fashion than it could be.) While I express my feelings and point of view some, the "concerns" are driven by the voices of the more or less every day Turks we meet.<br /><br />In addition, as I try to frame the book there are constant levels of frustration and conflicts between the "modern" and the "not-modern," on the micro and macro levels, and on the interpersonal and the small group and the mass scale levels as well (mostly stated in a limited humorous fashion.) So in part, the "frustaration" of the work is based on my personal disfunctions while traveling with a younger person, and her with me ... as well as me dealing with the dysfuctions in the culture, and them with me, and the frustrations of the people (the Turks)  being confronted by the impacts of a crisis that is mainly not their doing etc. I hope all this comes through clearly enough.  <br /><br />If you have suggestions on how to make these points better or more clearly, I look forward to hearing from you. <br /><br /><br />So ... lets start the process and see how it goes. <br /><br />Hope you enjoy the work. <br /><br />Glenn Young