Spitballin’: A School of Thought

Well, the book has finally been released, after almost three years dating back to the stranglehold of COVID-19! I remember that time vividly. We just were sent home to teach remotely. The problem with me at that time was I didn’t have a class to teach. Our district was overwhelmed, as were other districts across the nation, to just make sure students had the necessary capabilities to remotely join their regular schedule. Forget about their pull-out interventions! I was at a loss. I had half-assed attempts to reach out to other teachers to see if they needed help, but they were just trying to get their own curriculum organized for online learning, so they didn’t need much help from me.  I did do some read aloud sessions, but that also didn’t amount to much, as I was hardly getting any views. I had a lot of free time on my hands, and I was going nuts.

It was March 23rd, 2020 when I decided to take the plunge and press that first key. I was at first doing the proverbial building a plane while flying it. It wasn’t too much later when I realized, you know, I should probably write an outline…, and from there, things went much smoother.

The writing part was actually the easy aspect of this whole process. I was finished in just over six months. I set myself to writing about 2-4 pages a day. Sometimes I’d be sitting out on my crappy patio on a nice day or a quiet night, listening to whatever music got me going, which was unusually jazz from the Dave Brubeck era. I never liked jazz before, but it really did the trick to my writing!

Once it was complete, I had no idea what to do next. I’m no Stephen King, so it’s not like Simon and Schuster were going to throw major advance money at me. I did some half-assed research on how to publish your own, but it looked pretty daunting with school starting. Luckily, after searching, I found Wise Ink, a publishing company which guides you through the whole process of copy editing, teaching you how to have a strong marketing platform (I’m still lacking in this!), going through the book design and printing process, and finalizing your Amazon page where your book will be listed.

I was surprised at the “hurry of and wait” process of it all, but that was to be expected. Also, I had to chalk it down to a labor of love (or remind myself that) as there is quite a cost to it. By September 2022, we could see the finish line, with some push backs on the dates as printing was taking a while with China coming off their strict COVID lockdown. 

By January, we had a date; February 28th, 2023. Oddly, I didn’t feel the anticipation as I thought I would. It was more of a relief when it finally hit the market, and through the thanks of friends and family, the book actually reached Bestseller status! Now, let’s be real. It was a bestseller in the Midwest region for biographies, which meant I sold about twenty books online that day. I was ahead of Tom Brady’s biography, though! And I have the screenshot to prove it, dammit!

Next came the book launch, which was stressful. Online invites yielded me about a hundred guests, and through the tip from my coworker, Tim, I was able to secure a party room attached to a liquor store. PERFECT! 

Planning for a book launch isn’t fun. What food to buy/order? What do you say? What do you read out loud? How much booze do I buy? How many books do I bring? Will anyone buy them?  Is it going to be a flop?? Thankfully, I had the help of my sister and her Costco card and other family members to get things set up.

When the doors opened and the first group of friends and coworkers started to arrive, this was the part that really hit me that the book was actually going to at least get read by some people. Then the oh, shit moment came whether it was going to actually be any good, and were there people going to be upset at some parts? Oh well, nothing I could do about it now.

One thing I could not get over was the signing of books; especially for people I know. I was weirdly nervous. My hand was shaking and my handwriting was looking like a foreign language. Finally, I realized if I stopped my hand from falling off the book by putting another one next to it, my writing became halfway legible. 

But the highlight of that night definitely went to my dad, Patrick. When I had to go up in front of everyone to give my speech and reading portion of the book, my dad figured it was a great time to get food from the empty buffet line, which was right behind me. He ever so slowly made his way down the line while everyone was watching me speak, or him get food. I noticed smiles appeared and a few laughs came out as I turned around and saw him ignoring everyone and laser focused on the meats, cheeses, and crackers. To the laughter of many, I asked if he needed help picking any of the food items, which he replied, “Nope! I’m fine!”. I have to give him credit; he made me chuckle and put me even more at ease.

When the reading was finished, I was finally able to make the rounds and at least talk to a few people. At closing time, I could hardly believe it. Time absolutely flew by. I was incredibly proud of my family helping out and thankful for everyone taking time to come out to see some average teacher and buy his book. It truly was an unforgettable night for me. Now I really have to get going on my other writings to have more of these fun parties!