Welcome to the third installment of Birth of a Book. For those of you who didn’t see my last installment, LCNS2ROM – License to Roam: Vanity License Plates and the Stories They Tell, TM is a forthcoming book I am writing. My vision for this book is to relate 25 compelling or humorous personal profiles of vanity plate holders, using prose and photgraphy. That being said, we had no idea how wonderful some of these stories could be.

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Take Rudy and Ally Masry, a couple who have been married for over 40 years and still act like teenagers affected by the first blush of love, for instance. “Rudy and Ally Masry are always together, even when they’re miles apart. That’s because, in 2003, Ally donated one of her kidneys to Rudy, who was suffering from end stage renal failure.” Rudy and Ally both have New York State issued “Donte Life” plates. Ally’s plate reads ‘DONOR’ while Rudy’s reads ‘DONEE.’ Of course, just because you know what a plate says, it doesn’t mean you know what it means. You would need to know Ally and Rudy’s story to fully appreciate just what was donated.

We also include Emily Perl Kingsley who’s vanity plate, “RAFLPRIZ” is attached to her BMW convertible. You guessed it, she won it in a raffle...a Special Olympics raffle. But, why was Emily at this event and who picked the winning ticket? That’s what Emily’s story is all about. She, and her son, Jason, were wonderful subjects for our photoshoot.

You can go to www.LCNS2ROM.com to view these profiles, as well as others, and take a look at our proposed cover. When you go to our site, you may also sign up for upcoming email newsletters, as well as “register” your vanity plate with us. We are always looking for more compelling or humorous stories to include in LCNS2ROM.

We have been designing a prototype of our book in order to have something to show to agents and publishers. This book is going to be different from other books which have been published, so we thought it best to have a “visual aid” so we can show them what our vision for the book is. Well, after a couple of failed attempts...the size is wrong, the graphics don’t work, the writing isn’t quite right, etc...we’ve come upon a design we feel will work and not only pleases us, but will please publishers and the book-buying market in general. Of course, we’ve thought that before...only time will tell. We invite all of you to go to www.LCNS2ROM.com, where we have samples from the book, and give us your feedback.

As I’ve mentioned in earlier editions, we have been working with AAMVA (American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators) to find out for the first time how many “vanitized” (which means to embellish an automobile with vanity plates) automobiles there are in the US and Canada. Well, we’ve finished the survey finally. We now know how many vanitized motor vehicles there are in North America!!! This is wonderful in and of itself, but the really big news is that an Associated Press reporter has found out about our survey and forthcoming book and is doing a story about vanity plates and LCNS2ROM!!! It should be out at about the same time as this paper. Please look for it!!!!

Hopefully, if you haven’t really noticed vanity license plates before, you will begin to now. I invite all of you to follow our progress, here in The Montauk Sun as well as on our website: www.LCNS2ROM.com. You may submit your own vanity plate for consideration there also!! Wouldn’t you like to be featured in a book?

I look forward to your joining us on our long and winding road to publication. None of us realized how long that road would be, but we’re up for the journey and look forward to the destination. Keep an eye out for those vanity plates!!

NTL NXT TYM (Until Next Time),

~Stefan