December 6, 2020 – Hey! While most of my work world lately has been focused on getting other writers’ books published, I did take some time out to focus on a bit of author work again.
The big thing that both my wife and I did along these lines in the past few weeks was to record video of ourselves promoting our books, ourselves, and related subjects for a virtual authors fair that our local library posted on Facebook at the end of last week.
Each author’s video is accompanied by a short biography. We were to keep our videos to less than 15 minutes. Mine is 11-something and includes me talking a bit about myself, my two books I have written, a bit about the company I own (PathBinder Publishing), me reading a short excerpt from both of my books, me trying to be funny now and then, and contact info.
It only took like 10 takes to get the video to be good enough to submit to the Bartholomew County Public Library, located in Columbus, Indiana, as am I.
If you’d like to check out my video, click here.
If you’d like to check out Kimberly’s video, click here.
If you’d like to scroll through all the author videos to see what there is, click here.
Here’s a slide show of screenshots I made from the video, which is not an easy task as in-the-midst-of-talking screenshots don’t tend to put the reader in a favorable light. Weird expressions and stuff, man.
Meanwhile, anybody interested in a nonfiction/true crime/history book, mine are available through your local bookstore, and online everywhere. They’re available in both paperback and e-book. You can check them out on Amazon here:
Oh, and here’s something you don’t hear happening every day. My wife and I have set up a video chat to present a program on how to be a writer (and associated topics) for a Girl Scout troop based in the San Francisco Bay area on Jan. 21. The mom who contacted me to see if we’d be willing to do this ― a fellow high school graduate of mine in Wisconsin ― has a daughter in the troop, but they live in Massachusetts. They moved from the west coast to the east coast during the school year, and because most of what the troop has been doing has been done virtually anyway, her daughter remained part of the troop for now.
By the way, the daughter is just 10, but has written a slew of books. I happen to have one of them, and it’s very good.
Publishing
Lots of work lately, which is good. I do take breaks to eat, sleep, walk, find money on the ground, and watch football.
In a nutshell, we have published two books in the past two months, signed contracts to publish five more, and are getting inquiries from other potential authors here and there.
Both of the recent releases have been doing well sales-wise, with Gary D’Amato’s A Perfect Childhood: Growing up in the 1960s with Baseball, The Beatles, and Beaver Cleaver having been particularly well received. Gary has had a review in the Milwaukee Journal, been on WTMJ radio with Gene Mueller for a five-minute segment, and will be the subject of an hour-long interview with Mueller on the WTMJ Conversations show at 11 a.m. Central on Dec. 13.
A Dead Rat for Thanksgiving?, a children’s book written by retired art and music teacher, Angela Childs, has also done well.
The other books that we are in various stages of progress are (some of these titles could be tentative):
- ChampioN Underdog, The Improbable Success of the 1995 Northwestern Football Team by Tim Chapman.
- The Experience Road: Concepts and Interventions for Children and Adults by retired clinical psychologist Michael Simon of Washington, D.C.
- The Red Coat and Love, Hope, which would be the fifth and sixth children’s books written by my wife.
- Blessings and Sudden Intimacies by Greg Stidham, a retired intensive care unit physician living in Ontario.
And I also just published another book by longtime Milwaukee musician, Rob McCuen, through my 18% Gray Publishing company, which I started before purchasing PathBinder this May. Tales from the Crypt of an American Working Class Hero is the second of Rob’s books I’ve published. In March 2020, we released Shut Up and Listen: Me vs. Me – Confessions of a Bipolar Rock and Roller.
Reading
I’m still reading Beauty in the Wreckage, by Brandon Andress. I admit my reading time has suffered lately. I need to finish this book.
Ailment of the Month
Nothing like burning the roof of your mouth on hot food, eh? How about doing it back-to-back?
I suffered the worst mouth roof burn ever a few weeks ago. I had the pepperoni slices all perfectly laid out one to a square on my rectangular pizza one night as I was about to enjoy watching a football game. This burn job wasn’t one of the typical, just behind your front teeth deals that goes away in a couple of days. The pepperoni on that very first bite came in contact with the dead center of my roof, getting stuck there with all the cheese and the suction and whatever other physical forces were at work to ruin my pizza eating experience.
OUCH!
The cold beverage only soothed things while the cold beverage was in my mouth. Post-swallow, forget it. And it lasted nearly a week.
My mouth had finally just about returned to its normal health when I decided to make a batch of Tuna Helper (the cheesy pasta flavor … yum) for lunch the other day. I know I should have let it cool a bit before I started eating, but I was running late with my eating that day, so I ignored my better judgement and took a bite of that steaming mess of goodness. Once again, mouth burn.
Dang it!
This time to the right side of my mouth. Fortunately, this injury isn’t as severe as the last one. Have I learned my lesson? I sure hope so.
Miscellaneous
Everyone seems to care about the walking/photography/coin finding deal I do just about every morning (occasionally later in the day depending on weather, if I was up watching a late football game the night before, etc.). So, I’ve attached a few photos from said walks. And I will tell you that thus far, I have walked a minimum of 7,971 steps each day of 2020 and have found a total of $88.03 on the ground. That’s a few cappuccinos. See the slideshow above for photos from said walks over the past month.
I conducted mock job interviews with five Franklin College students in November. I have been doing this each semester (with the exception of one) for the past several years. I enjoy doing this, and the young men and women seem to be happy to go through the experience without an actual job on the line, so that they’ll be even better prepared when there is one.
My wife and I are active in Leadership Johnson County, a program building leaders in the county north of us. We’ve been heavily involved in lots of things there over the years and have both been participants in the LJC signature program, an intense nine-month training course. Kimberly is a member of the current class and I graduated in 2016, am my class liaison and am co-chair of the LJC liaison committee. Some of our gatherings have been conducted via Zoom this year, which is odd. But we also just completed a candle sales fundraiser for a store in Franklin that lost a significant portion of its income this year due to the fact that many organizations that usually use Middle Davids for their fundraisers are not doing so at the moment. The goal was to sell 200 candles, but our alumni, classmates and others sold more than 400! So proud of everyone.
Future
Instead of going to Wisconsin for Christmas, like I have every Christmas that I can remember, my wife and I will be at home by ourselves this year. The kids are coming here to pick up their presents (which have already been purchased and expertly wrapped by someone who is not me). We’ll celebrate with a game night via video chat on Christmas night, and perhaps do something similar with my brothers and parents on Christmas Eve.
And then it’s on to 2021. Hopefully that will be a great year for everyone.
That’s it for this month. Have a good one!
Paul
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Paul J. Hoffman 
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