Here and There

Just time for a few short thoughts before I head out to see my friend Nick Konkle play an acoustic set down at Bernies Tap Room in downtown Waukesha. Nick is a talented, rising musician whose live sets get better Flowers" is out and available for download at Band Camp. Check it out. I have had occasional ear worms to some of his songs which usually means their addictively good.
every time I see him. He has a couple of CD's out and is building a decent song list of original material. I like to refer to him as like Neil Young without the road eyes and the feedback (of Rust Never Sleeps.)

A quick rundown on what's new with Dirty Shirt: A Boundary Waters Memoir:

• I came across the fact that it is now available at the Milwaukee Public Library. All that was required to get it in there was to ask via an email. This is pretty cool because I consider Milwaukee my second home, even though most of my time in Wisconsin has been spent in Waukesha. I love the city and I consider it a privilege to have it in their system. This makes three libraries that I know of that are carrying it. One of the others is the New York upstate library system, which I consider a third home, as that is where my wife grew up.

• The book has hit its twelfth review on Amazon. Hoping that this number continues to climb as people feel inspired. I also appreciate them on Barnes and Noble online and Good Reads. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far.
• I am still awaiting a professional review from a newspaper or magazine. These reviews are important, and in some cases required, to get the book into some libraries and bookstores. 
• I've done some research and there are companies out there who will do a review for a price. I've seen "reading prices" in the range anywhere from $50 to $450. Now, I'm no tightwad, but I have a bit of a problem with this whole concept. If my publisher was paying for them, hey, I'd be all in. But for me to have to fork out money, at the risk of them not finding it worthy of a review, well, I'm not all in on that, lemme tell ya. So I wait. There are three or four newspapers I'm waiting on, and it's just a matter of time, I'm sure.
• I had an interesting interaction with a woman at the New Berlin branch of the Waukesha Library System. I went in just to see if they'd consider my book and the woman said "I've read your book, actually. I loved it! I plowed through it in about four hours."  This is the first person I've run into that I didn't know who has read the book. She is trying to book me a signing in the Fall and assured me that they would put my book in their library. Crazy cool. 
• The book is on Book Vibe. Not sure how it got there, but it's a good thing.
• It's also on iTunes, for all of yo
  u iFolks. 
• Got a picture sent to me of the book in the Piragis bookstore for my signing in a week.

• My step-sister took it to Paris and showed it off. Sent some fun pictures. Not sure where she's going next, but my guess is she'll have a Dirty Shirt.
• I can't wait to go up to Ely, Minnesota next week and sign books at Piragis Bookstore. I'm going to donate a copy to the Ely Library too!

So, that's about it for now. Lots of crazy fun stuff. Every day brings something or someone new into my life as an author. The best part has been all of your great, heartfelt comments. They energize and humble me at the same time. People are beautiful and this book has given me a new perspective on that. So, thank you.

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