And it was just what is happeni.
And it was ever since then,
every time we look at like the
rankings in Amazon or something else,
it's just it's a whole new worl.
It's amazing.
I've
enjoyed writing a whole life.
But as far as being a serious author,
I started taking it seriously wI
started homeschooling my kids aI
started studying the crafter writing.
I wanted to get better at it. And then.
By the time they graduated high school,
I had some some works that I
could work with and get put out.
As far as published books,
is this your first? Your third?s
is my debut novel. Yeah, it was funny.
I was writing another book
when Lee got into my brain and
she would not leave me alone.
So I had to stop writing that b,
write this book.
And then I went on to complete that first,
that other book.
But this is my debut book,
my first published book.
How does that feel to put a book
out in public for the first time
and go through the process lookg
for a publisher and, you know,
going and putting yourself out e
at book signings, What is that ?
It's a whole mix of things.
It's frightening because
you're putting something out
that's very personal to you.
It's frustrating because
it's just hard to break in.
There's so many people trying to do that,
but perseverance and, you know,
just believing in yourself and
somebody else will believe in you if you.
Just hold. Do it.
The person who ended up
believing in you unexpected.
You talking about red at the grocery store?
Yeah, it was. Well, the way that
happened is I was signing books
and there was a lull in my sale,
and so I'm sitting there alone,
kind of bored.
Nobody's talking to me for a wh.
And then he came over because
he saw me sitting there alone.
And he asked if he could make a TikTok video.
And I said sure.
And the next thing I know,
the Internet, it blew
up. I am not an author, obvious,
but I've done different things r
different companies, like career fairs.
And I know for me,
like sitting out there by myself
waiting for people to come, it's boring.
I get a little antsy in that wa.
When you were just waiting kind
of by yourself in the Kroger,
what was that like?
It was boring, mostly.
You know, I think Reddit said it dejected.
I'm not sure I agree with that ,
but it was boring.
It even comes and goes.
But I also use that time a lot of writing.
Time is imagination time.
So I plot out, you know,
scenes and scenarios.
And what if this conversation takes place
and what if they meet a person like that?
And would this be interesting
for other people to read?
So, I mean,
it's time well spent, but after,
I think by the time Red
came around and taught me,
I'd already been there
for quite a few hours.
When Red told you I'm gonna post this TikTok.
Did you think anything of it? I
didn't think anything of it at .
I I didn't even have a TikTok
account myself on, you know,
Saturday and Monday I got a TikTok account
to respond to all these great people,
you know, reaching out to me.
Did you know anything about Tik?
What it was, how it worked? Oh,
I knew what it was, how it work.
I still don't know how it worke.
I mean, I'm an engineer.
And how 9 year olds are
doing this, I do not know.
Tell me how you found
out that it had blown up.
We were watching TV and my wifes
getting notifications that people were
requesting signed copies and my phone
was buzzing that people were signing up,
subscribing to my website.
And the more that happened
is the night went on,
we got looking into it and it ws
just what is happening and it was ever
since then every time we look a.
Like the rankings in Amazon
or something else,
It's just it's a whole new worl.
This is amazing.
Number one. What is
it? I get choked up. Easy.
What's checking you up
now? Oh, it's just the the lovef
outpouring of generosity and support.
You told me that this makes
you think of kindness.
Oh, absolutely.
This is like textbook how kindness works.
Red took 510 minutes out of his,
out of his day just to be nice o
some guys sitting alone selling
books and the generosity of the
port out of that is just amazin.
You have kids that are at least
a child that's out of college.
So I know you've seen a lot of .
Are you a veteran? Is that righ?
I'm a veteran.
I was in the 82nd Airborne
Division in the infantry.
I'm very proud to say my
son is going to serve.
So you're veteran, your husband, you got
kids, so you've lived a lot of .
What did what did you learn from this?
Did this teach you anything or surprise
you at all or reinforce anythint
reinforced some things that
I that I really believe that
people are generally good,
that generosity is just waiting
for an excuse to happen.
Red was that excuse.
What else about it makes you emotional?
Because I can't imagine you do this book.
You're sitting nut Kroger by
yourself and all of a sudden.
Thousands, 10s of millions of pe
have watched this and cheered to
long. It's just boggles the min.
It's just insane. And I did.
It wasn't expected and I never
expected anything like this.
I'm, you know,
I'm selling these books at Krog.
Thinking a day of 18 to 20
bucks is an incredible sale.
And next thing you know,
I'm number one sales on Amazon
is it's just incredible.
But I think that's part of the
struggle of of being a new auth.
Especially if you go with the
independent publisher or yourse,
publish is getting that word ou.
I mean I'm sure there are other really
great books out there that arent
being seen just because they do.
How do you get that word out?
It's just so hard to get noticed
when you how long between when you met,
what day was it that you were at Kroger?
I was at Kroger on Saturday, January 1st.
And what day was it that you std
to notice things were picking u?
It was a Sunday, Sunday evening.
So just a day later,
just a day later, just a day in.
Now as this is all happening anu
know like about to shake your e,
what race is through your mind about this?
Like how do you even process it?
What what goes on in your mind?
Well, I I, to be honest with yo,
I just accept it as the way
things are going right now.
This is what God's doing with me
right now and I just go with it.
You're a religious man.
Yes, I am. So how
do you see this through that?
Well, I just see it, you know,
is the faith of a mustard seed in the
tsunami of blessings that can come from it?
It's really about all you can s.
It's, you know, I had,
I had believed in the book and I
think perseverance, hard work, you know,
what is it that can kill the Lo,
helps those who help themselves.
So you got to put in the effort.
And I think eventually those blessings will
come if you persevere and stick with it.
Is this something you prayed
for all the time? All the time?
Yeah, it's. And, you know,
it's usually an openended thing.
It's like, you know, you know,
you know our situation,
help and whatever God wants to do after,
that's up to him.
Far be it for me to tell God what to do.
Listen, I want to make him laug.
I think I make that laugh a lot.
You said your situation.
How How will this?
Influx of attention and funds and all that.
How will this help you and your family?
What does it mean to you guys?
Well, it means a lot to me the
the comments that I'm seeing on
Amazon about people who noticede
the TikTok sent them to Amazon.
But the comments that they
really like the book and they
enjoyed the content and and.
Especially the meaningful
ones to me it's like I,
you know I got off reading but s
is reignited my desire to read y
children are going to read this together.
Those are the meaningful ones
to know that you're going to this book is
going to touch so many families that way.
Yeah absolutely.
To have an impact that's going to change
somebody and and hopefully other people
are going to get a bump out of this too.
I mean it's I believe in sharine
wealth you know and if other authors.
See a bump in their sales?
Cuz you know what this Indy author did this
Maybe other Indy authors will come up.
Or if my publisher is it that they're
a small publisher out of Housto.
If they see a bump out of that,
cuz they've been great,
more power to them.
The more people who can, you kn,
benefit from this is it's just great.
Do you know, I mean I know we
talked about this on funding.
Any idea how many books you've ?
A rough estimate.
I think my publishers said
something like 5000 books,
which is a huge number of books really.
I mean, it's not like you.
I would love to be able to say,
oh, millions of books,
but you know, 5000 of book
sales is an awful lot of books.
I think the, if I remember correctly,
debut authors can expect maybe
1000 books to be sold.
So I'm well above that
mark and very grateful.
We only get about a minute or to
to tell a story like this on TV.
So I always ask my interview subjects,
what do you think that the
message is in this story?
What do you hope our viewers
take away from your story?
Well, I hope they take away the message.
Like I said earlier, 5 minutes f
kindness from one person has made such
a huge impact and I think you k,
you can do that anywhere.
Just, you know, tell the bad dad
joke to the grocery clerk or.
Anything like that,
just a few minutes of kindness
can really make a huge impact
in somebody else's life.
Tell me a little bit about
the book, the synopsis.
I heard it in the video to read,
but give it to me too. Sure.
So it's the story of a teenage l
who teams up with a ghost with
multiple personalities to help e
the mystery of her parents murd.
She goes to live with very wealy
family members she never knew she had.
And has amazing adventures after
that and trying to figure out
who killed her parents and why.
From the moment you got the idef
the book to the time you published it.
How long did that take?
Wow, I that one probably took
about 8 months, 8 to 12 months.
It was really it was really a g.
A good flow. It it's.
I don't want to say that it wroe
itself because there were momens
of struggle and was like, oh,
I got myself painted myself in
a corner here how do I get out?
But this one went together fairy
quickly, I think.
And are you. I know you said
this is your first novel,
that you worked as an engineer.
Are you retired? No.
I quit working as an engineer ad
started homeschooling my kids at
the same time my wife graduated.
And we moved to a new city and e
had a conversation about that.
I was in the Cleveland area of o
and we had a conversation about that.
And we decided that homeschoolig
would be the best thing for
our family and for our kids.
And it turned out to be great because,
you know, I could talk about my kids forever.
They're just wonderful.
And it led you to this
passion of writing. Well,
that is always I was.
I was that kid at school who lod
forward to the writing assignme.
So that that's always been ther,
but it just wasn't. Sharp.
And it wasn't polished.
It was, it was one of those
this I like to do this,
and I've started lots of little
stories and they were all really bad,
but eventually they got better.
I think what's great too,
is that even though you always loved writing,
you know, it wasn't until you
retired from your job and startd
homeschool teaching that you kn,
you learn that this is something
you wanted to do. And to me,
part of the lesson too is it's never too
late in life to start to do something
else or learn what you love. No,
no, The adventure is never over.
The adventure is never over.
Anything else? And just tell me a little
bit about your service again, please, Sir.
So I was in the I was in the ar,
the infantry of the A Second airborne
division, first battalion of the Five O
5th Airborne Infantry, to be specific.
Did you, Were you been reader bk
then or writer even then? I've
always been a big reader,
but it's a struggle for me.
I have a touch of dyslexia,
so it's a real struggle for me to read.
And numbers are even worse.
So I have to read very slowly,
or the faster I read,
the more jumbled it gets on the page.
So I have to read slowly.
You get even more impressive.
I mean, even even having to deal with
that becoming a published autho,
I feel like that probably
makes it a little harder.
But you were still able to do i.
Yeah, I think anybody can overc,
you know, you just have to embr.
Who you are and what your strugs
are because we all have them.
So you just have to embrace them
and work around them and have te
courage to say I will overcome.
I know that you said in an in an
openended way it's sort of a prr
answer what is your prayer now
after all this has come your way
they ever since this happened my
prayers my prayers are pretty simple.
I'm not pretty simple guy.
The reason is just thank you,
you know and whatever's next with you.
I pray that if anything comes ot
of this somebody can get inspird
or or feel what they need to fel
or some help comes to them in
some way through what I've done
and that's that's great you kno.
But basically lately my prayers
just been you know thanks
big thanks there's a message you want to
say to to read well I mean what would it be
well. Obviously,
it's how grateful and thankful m
that he took time to be so kind to me.
Like I said, I was just sitting there,
bored, nobody to talk to,
and he just came over and out
of the goodness of his heart.
So, you know, there's this
guy sitting there bored,
you know, go talk to him,
lighten up his day a little bit.
And that small, you know,
little seed of kindness, it's h.
And you don't know him at all.
He's a total stranger.
He, I didn't know who he was whn
he came in and he bought the bo.
You know, he just said he wanteo
support the author, asked if I could,
if he can make a TikTok video.
I'm sure if I could help you ou.
By all means, you know,
whatever I can do to help out somebody else.
The book came out November 22nd, right?
Right before Thanksgiving.
And I've been having book signi,
it's like half Price books and
Kroger's has this great authors
in the grocery store program,
which is how this all came about
about. Do you have any idea
how book sales were going from
November to now? Before all thi?
I was averaging about 20 books a sales
event and I hadn't held that ma.
On Amazon, it wasn't that greats
because I said it wasn't getting
noticed because it's hard to stand out.
It's such a thick field.
Oh, and you said that you're geg
messages from folks all over the world. I am.
It's it's a I mean, that's one f
the things that's really bizarr,
you know, Saturday,
I don't think 12 people knew my name.
Now I'm getting love from Bulgaria and people
from Australia asking me to, you know.
Talk to them on their talk showd
how do you wrap your brain around that?
I'm still struggling with it.
Your mentality and like you're as you're
sitting from November or December and those
book signings until the most recent one.
Like you talked about,
like your writing process you've sat there
whenever there was moments important.
But like, there's also like,
you got to maintain positive.
Like we're going to get sales.
Say we're going to,
even if it's not a lot.
Like, what did you tell yoursel?
About that whole process,
those feelings that you had the,
and then to now being having th,
this great success too.
I just persevered, you know,
kept doing what I was doing,
you know, You know, I might.
My day is pretty simple.
I get up in the morning and I
pray that I'm a better human
being than I was yesterday.
I go to bed at night apologizinr
failing at that. And in between,
I try to write stories that somy
might like to read and enjoy reading.
So it was just perseverance.
I've worked on other stories.
I'm working on a screenplay now
that I would love DC to pick up.
And I don't know how to get it ,
you know, and just keep writing,
just keep persevering,
keep doing what you're doing.
Eventually something will give.
Well, I promise I'm not trying
to force you to cry on TV,
but I just want to say before we wrap up,
I see you getting choked up
throughout the interview.
Is there anything else about th?
He's making you emotional or
that's touching your heart
that you think The thing
that makes me emotional is the e
of the people they they saw this
thing of this guy not getting a,
you know, struggling to sell his book
and it's doing what he has to d,
is working hard and is out there and they
gave me a chance and that's just beautiful.
And I think part of it for
me at least, is. Like I said,
I don't like to sit out there a.
I get lonely and stressed and
bored and nervous, and a lot of
people would choose, all right,
not a lot of people are coming .
I'm going to leave.
You didn't do that.
No. Like I said, I I have a lotf
patience and a lot of perseverae
and I'm a pretty chill guy,
so I don't mind sitting there.
I'm comfortable with my own thoughts.
And like I said, a lot of times I plot
out scenes for books or movies .
You know, that's a large part
of writing is, you know,
the fantasy land in our brains.
There's probably medication fort
message to other authors.
And then, like, now that he's
got TikTok will be like, oh,
yeah, Are you gonna what are
you doing with your TikTok?
I'm just out now.
So what's what's the
feature of the TikTok?
Oh, I'm just keeping people up
to date on what's happening,
making sure I'm thanking everyb.
Putting out some things like myI
talked to my publisher this morg
and audio book is in the works .
Hardcover version is in the works now.
So just keep people updated as
long as they're interested.
I think they deserve to know
the the latest news.
And our last question for you any message
to either other struggling authors or
anyone who's really struggling to get
their passion project off the ground?
You know just work hard and. Is?
That's a hard question to answer really.
The the big thing is, at least for me,
the biggest things about and I can I'll,
I can only talk about writing.
But the big thing is invest
the time to learn the craft.
Know what you're doing.
I mean, you know Picasso was a
great immigrationist and did
all these wonderful things,
but he knew how to draw the basc
fruits and vegetables first,
you know and so learn the basicd
build and build and build from there.