My Journey in Writing, Ranting, and Woodworking

The last 5 nights have been a little preview of the book.  I hope you’ve enjoyed the chapters.

Launching the book on Saturday was both exhausting and exciting.  Roy Marble and I did a book signing before the game and it went really well.  He is the big draw, obviously, and everyone was excited to get to meet him and get is signature.  A few people got mine, too.  It made me smile.

In fact, later that morning, while my parents were waiting in line to get into Carver Hawkeye Arena, they got to chatting with another couple.  We Meeks are a mingling people.  The couple asked if my parents regularly attended games, to which, they answered no, explaining that it was their first game at Carver Hawkeye arena.  Naturally, the couple asked what brought them out, and they proudly mentioned that their son had written the new book about the team being honored at the game.

The couple was very excited to hear about the book.  As soon as the doors opened, they went up and bought a copy.  That wasn’t the cool part of the story.  The couple then asked for my parent’s to sign the book!  It still makes me giggle to think about.  Howard and Sandy Meeks both signed the inside back cover.  When they told me the story, I was probably more excited than they were.  It is pretty awesome to write a book and get to have your parents autograph it.

The sales at the game were good.  The fans who stood in line to get signatures from the players were wonderful to talk with and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.  Now, once it was getting close to the tip, I had my camera gear and was looking for a place to sit.  I didn’t have a seat, as I got in because of the book signing, which is sort of neat, too.  I ended up getting to sit with the team.  I chatted with Ed Horton, who is very friendly, and some of the other guys.  Then I got out my camera and started to click away.

Not only was it a good day for signing books, it was also a good day for the current Iowa Hawkeye basketball team, as they came away with a victory.  After it was over and I was back home, the previous 35 days of adrenaline fueled writing and publishing, finally caught up with me.  I posted the first chapter of the book and decided that a few nights of chapters would give me some time to recover.  It has helped me get my energy back, for now, it is time to sell the book.

It is fun to write a book, but the real work is getting people to read it.  Thus far, we’ve had over 400 sales, which is pretty good, in my opinion.  Each day, people are buying both print and Kindle copies on line.  Mom and Dad are making sales, too.  So now I start working on the schedule for the book signing tour.  This is just the start of what I hope will be a fun and educational book marketing journey.

I’ll keep you posted.