Being an author is all I’ve ever wanted to do in life. As a young boy, I wrote all kinds of stories on my dad’s electric typewriter, carefully painting whiteout on my mistakes and blowing it dry before resuming my typing. Tap, tap, tap, tap. I loved the sound of metal letters pounding black ink ribbon, leaving beautiful words on white paper. Those words ran together to turn my ideas into a breathing, living story. Wanting others to read my work, I entered Young Author’s contests and went to seminars to learn how to become an author. I read all kinds of books, from Stephen King to Dean Koontz to James Michener to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I loved how authors could transport me to a different time and place.

But as I grew older, I became busier. I was busy playing sports and singing and dancing in high school. I went off to college and played football. I graduated and started my career in broadcast journalism. There, I wrote every day. But writing conversationally versus molding a creative story are two different things. I put my dreams of becoming an author on hold. And then, my wife and I had our first child. Holding my newborn son in my arms, I felt a new kind of pressure. I had to provide for him. I didn’t make enough money from my current job as an anchor/reporter at KCTV5 and I needed another way to make more money.

What if I published a book?

My first novel still sits in my basement, unpublished, but I love it. It’s a fun spiritual adventure that takes place in ancient Egypt. But the ideas I set forth within it are pretty radical and I knew I would upset some people if I published it. I decided to try again. One author said you should write what you know, so I took that to heart. I decided to share my journey as a walk-on football player at Northwestern University. My college football career was very ordinary. I was a backup. I finished my college career with 10 tackles, an interception, a fumble recovery, and a pass broken up. Nothing to brag about. But the journey. THAT was something I could share and use to inspire others. I was an unheralded high school football player who earned a full-ride scholarship at a Division I school, helping Northwestern go from the worst program in the Big Ten to winning two Big Ten championships. We endured a gambling scandal, the violent death of one of our best players, and the doubts of a nation that never expected us to win. I spent a year writing it, and reveiwers and readers raved about it. It won an award for best nonfiction sports novel in the Reader’s Favorite Contest. It justified my desire to write books and validated my writing.

I sent the manuscript off to many publishers, but they weren’t interested. Being an unknown writer, I couldn’t get a publishing house or agent to bet on me, so I bet on myself. I self published. I went through Lulu.com, which made it easy to download the manuscript. I had a friend deisgn the cover. I printed off a bunch of books, created a website, and used my status as a news anchor and reporter to help sell books. I reached out to book stores in Chicago, which continue to buy and sell my book today. It took a lot of hard work getting my book out there, but it’s paid off in spades.

Afterwards, I decided to write another novel. Again, about something I knew. Television news. I made it a comedy, creating a fictional television station in a small town in Montana, and I centered the plot around a murder mystery. I LOVE how it turned out as it pokes fun at my industry, albeit to the extreme. I then wrote a time travel story. That, too, turned out better than I expected. Both books received five star reviews from Reader’s Favorite and Booklife. I then wrote two other books, books I haven’t yet published as I planned to clean them up. Then Reedy Press called.

This was March of 2021. They’d heard I was an author and wanted me to write a book for them. I could choose from a list of book series they offered. Reedy Press runs several series centered round specific cities. I noticed the Unique Eats and Eateries series and knew that would be perfect for me. As a weekend anchor at KCTV5, I often did restaurant segments. I knew many of the restaurant owners in town and wanted to share their stories with others. I went to work. Reedy Press gave me a year to put together 100 vignettes on 100 local restaurants. I needed to get pictures and write up their story. It wasn’t a food review. They wanted me to share the history of the owners and how the restaurant came to be. I went to work, tapping into my many resources to decide what restaurants should be in the book. They had to be locally owned. They had to be unique in some way. They had to have a great story. Most of the owners replied right away with enthusiasm. Others wouldn’t write or call back. Nine months later, I had 100 stories ready to go. Only, there was a problem. Reedy Press had changed the criteria for the book. They only wanted 84 stories. Eighty-four? How could I cut 16 of them? I negotiated to leave two more in there, so the book ended with 86. I now have 14 backups should a restaurant go out of business – which has already happened.

Incahoots was a cool coffee/donut shop located inside a train car in Parkville. I stopped by a few months ago to tell them when the book would come out. The owner told me he was selling it to another company. The name was changing, as was the food. I freaked out. What to do? I called Reedy Press and we decided to put in one of my backups. I did, and now we are all set to go. “Unique Eats and Eateries of Kansas City” officially comes out in October. I have more than a dozen book signings scheduled to begin on October 14th in Lenexa. I can’t wait to share this book with you! It’s the first Unique Eats book to have all color pictures. It’s gorgeous! I would love to see you at one of my events, and I hope you visit all the restaurants inside to support these local owners. We’ll also be selling “Kansas City Foodie” T-shirts (made of the softest cotten you’ve ever felt, very similar to Charlie Hustle shirts), and you’ll get a free bookmark listing all the restaurants in the book. When you visit one of them, you can check the box next to its name. I know you will enjoy my new book. You’ll learn about Kansas City restaurants you never knew existed while eating some great-tasting food along the way.