Follow up to Book Sales in Unexpected Places

I got a call last night from my wife’s Uncle Larry.  He said he had a guy with him who had a bone to pick with me.  Larry is good for a razzing so I expected that the “guy” wasn’t going to pick any bones.

It was his friend Rick who we met when we went down to Arkansas City, KS to drop of both of my books and eat at Daisy Mae’s.  This was where I had left a few copies in the showcase on the “what if” premise.  Rick was a great guy and his wife was very outgoing.  Rick has a beard bigger than I had at one time.

I wasn’t expecting to hear that Dixie loaned him her copies of the book and that he went through them pretty quickly and enjoyed them immensely.  He seemed just like any other hard-working guy, honest and patriotic and decent.  From appearances, I wouldn’t have thought of him as much of a reader.  But read he did.

He especially enjoyed Kansas Two-Step with my Hawaiian shirt-wearing, gray-bearded, former hippie, professional hacker R.C. Bellicki.  And the “bone” he was calling to pick about was that he was waiting for the next book with Bellicki.

I’ve heard that same comment from several readers, local people and former co-workers.  So, if they all read it and they all are saying the same thing, then there must be something to it.  So….

Yes, I started on the next one.  And I’m trying to integrate that into editing my transgressive trilogy, outline a YA novel for my niece, continue to try to find and agent, and, oh yeah, get to work and do my job and take care of my responsibilities in my house. 

It’s gratifying to know that people like your work and want to see more of it.  I just hope they all realize I’ve got a full plate.  Being a writer, attempting to be a writer, or even wanting to be a writer takes a great deal of everything–patience, discipline, time-management skills, and support from your loved ones.

I’m getting more and more surprised by these little “out-of-the-blue” experiences.  It is often  the unexpected that yields greater rewards.