About Bill

I am the last person in the world who would write a fictional book. Granted, my father wrote many ceramics textbooks and articles. So, if there ever was a writing plan for me, it should have been to create a non-fictional Electrical Engineering textbook. Every electrical engineer knows the Schottky diode and the Zener diode. Now there is the superconducting Conrad diode! Well, life does not always follow the expected path.
English was never easy, but a fantastic invention saved me. Computers! Our first computer was the obscure Wang PC-S3-3, which supported their proprietary but excellent word processor, Wang Writer (a very creative name). We also had the Diablo 620 printer, which used a massive daisy wheel that I could clearly hear from across the street. The upside was that the text looked immaculate compared to dot-matrix printers.
A few years later, my father purchased an 8088 emulation card for our Wang, which ran MS-DOS programs. This allowed him to use the excellent word processor Office Writer (similar to DOS WordPerfect). Later, he upgraded the Diablo to an HP LaserJet II. So much quieter. These early word processors were a miracle for my English. Finally, I could write without a pencil, typewriter, or white-out.
With this new ability, my struggle with English became manageable. In the ninth grade, I experienced a significant change when my teacher, Mr. Olpin, inspired me to tackle English head-on, and wow, what an improvement.
After high school, I attended WPI in Worcester, Massachusetts, where I earned a degree in electrical engineering and a minor in English. As you know, Electrical Engineering is the best kind of engineering. It took five years to get a four-year degree. I had a few issues…
If you ever meet a WPI graduate, ask them what a snowflake is. I got two back-to-back. Sucked! But I graduated, and that is all that mattered. Why? Three of my roommates and three of my friends did not.
College offered a fantastic opportunity: a creative writing class. I enjoyed the course, but writing wasn’t my future, even though it was fun.
After college, I had several jobs. The reason for the large number was unpleasant work situations and the end of contracts. Still, I loved being an electrical engineer. Electronics make so much sense on every level. An excellent design is stunning. And watching one of them work? It is still magic.
I have always made up stories to amuse myself as I fall asleep. The majority was about me having a big adventure. However, I saw no reason to write them down. After all, writing a book is only for professional authors.
In 2016, I found myself unemployed for the first time and could not figure out what to do with my life. So, I decided to write a book. Why? I thought this would be a quick way to cash in. My first story was about a 500-year-old woman. I called my book A Graceful Interview because of the main character, Grace. Catch the pun?
My mother reviewed the book several times, and I located a professional editor to polish it. They both liked the premise, and I thought the story was great. I expected that publishing would be a simple matter. I would find one of many publishers’ websites and upload my book. If they did not like it, another would. Easy money!
It turns out that publishers do not accept “unrepresented manuscripts.” (Books are called manuscripts? I know that now.) Instead, publishers only work through book representatives (also known as book agents). So, I began looking for one and hit a wall. Book representatives require 20+ percent of the profit, and some even want $2,000 to look at the book.
My dream of publishing almost died, but when I asked my professional editor for help, she recommended a fantastic book representative. Yay! I contacted Bethany, and it turns out that she was not a “book representative.” Instead, she was a “self-publisher helper.” I was about to say, “Thanks, but no thanks,” but Bethany explained her service and made a compelling case for self-publishing. It was a more straightforward path with more control and a better chance of success.
Bethany read my book (she was okay with calling my work a book) and had a bunch of suggestions. A major problem was that my story had a narrow perspective, so I did not write for the reader. After thinking it through, I understood the issue and made significant changes. Then the book underwent an intensive edit by a different professional editor she recommended, who uncovered serious issues. The result was a tighter story, but the plot remained the same.
The next step was choosing the title. Bethany did not like “A Graceful Interview,” and I respected her opinion. Here are my alternative titles:

Surviving Grace
Finding Grace
Saving Grace
Stepping Towards Immortality
Grace the Immortal
Interviewing an Immortal
Experiencing Immortality
Gruesome Grace
Guts and Grace
Recording the Harvest
Selected
Selected for Harvest
You Will Do
Gracefully Immortal
A Step Towards Immortality (song with this title)
A Grave Misfortune
Deadly Biography
The Author and the Immortal
The Forever Interview
Authoring Immortality
The Immortal Grace
Forever Grace [book on Amazon of this title]
Biography of an Immortal [book& article with this title]
Learning to be Immortal
A Step Toward Immortality
How to Interview an Immortal (I liked the movie How to Train Your Dragon)

I settled on Interviewing Immortality, and incidentally, I recently located a book called “Interviewing for Immortality.” Funny coincidence. Then we worked on the cover. Initially, I had wanted to use this image:

While the image looked cool, it was copyrighted. If you do not recognize the image, it is a pastel/water painting by acclaimed Japanese animator Yoshitaka Amano from the movie Angel’s Egg.
When I first saw the finished cover, it was terrific, but then I ran into two unexpected issues. First, craft a compelling book description (blurb) and gather reviews. A book blurb sounds easy. Type a one-minute summary. Done! No, it is a careful dance around select plot points combined with a clever sales pitch. In fact, it was and still is the most challenging part of publishing. The effort took over two weeks, and I learned a lot from Bethany’s sage wisdom.
Getting reviews proved nearly impossible. I do not have many friends, fame, or an online presence. So, how would I ever convince someone to buy my book? There were four options:
1) Pay for reviews. The least expensive option was a 200-word review for $99. Most websites wanted $2,000+. These sites stated you could still get an awful review after paying them. Plus, they would still publish the negative review! Boo!
2) Beg/pay “book bloggers” to review your work. I found this option to be an endless black hole.
3) I located four sites that accepted books for review. Yay! I sent my book to them, and one said they might look at it. Epic fail!
4) Have your friends/family/yourself write a review. Bethany strongly did not recommend this practice. The main one is that if you get caught, readers will despise you.
I chose the $99 option, but I disliked the review because it came across as cold. Still, I used it on my back cover for the first edition.
The last steps were a final self-edit, formatting for publishing, developing a website, and uploading it to Amazon. And the rest? I live in San Diego and am happily married with a wonderful daughter.

Bill Conrad.
August 2025 Updated February 28, 2026

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