BESTSELLERS & BEST FRIENDS
My book publishing blog, with murder mysteries woven through it.
If this is your first visit, be sure to start with “1. Let’s do it!”
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I need another day before I can dive back into the whole Allan-Katie-Larry-Aaron mess. I’m so struggling with the shooting of Aaron.
I talked about it with Sally, and with long-trusted friends and colleagues, David Goehring and Bill Hammond. Now, it’s time to talk with Moon, my Pakistan, Muslim, non-drinking (seriously) bartender.
Meanwhile, allow me to talk of Bill Hammond, who I just mentioned.
Bill was sales director at Little Brown through part of my tenure there as marketing director.
In recent years he’s been writing his book series, The Cutler Family Chronicles. I’m lucky enough to be one of his manuscript readers, chapter by chapter, as he writes each entry in the series. His most recently published entry is No Sacrifice Too Great.
A few years ago, Bill lost his wife, the mother of their three boys, after a short illness. It’s tough to imagine a wife who was more loved.
Bill’s grief was deep and consuming. He started to write of it. And the writing became a book, The Ultimate Gift: Embracing the Joy of Eternal Love.
The book’s many readers included Sheree, a woman in New Zealand who had lost her much loved husband.
Sheree sent Bill an email. He responded. More emails were sent. Then daily phone calls began. Sheree visited the United States, and Bill. Bill visited New Zealand, and Sheree. Then he visited New Zealand again, and didn’t come home this time.
Bill and Sheree are now married. Their children and her grandchildren are delighted. Bill and Sheree each speak lovingly and eloquently of their late spouses; and on social media they often join to celebrate the other’s love for their departed wife and husband.
Meanwhile, they joyfully and lovingly tell me about how each is simply, “walking the other home.” At my age, that gets to me every time.
And there you go, reason enough to be right back at loving the business of book publishing... despite the jerks, even the killers, who somehow show up.
Really, I hate to think of the less-than-could-be lives Sheree and Bill would be living had Bill’s book not been published.
So seriously, if you think you’ve got something to write, just do it!
Tomorrow: My bartender, my decision