It’s Official – I Am A Writer – Thank You Carole & Ron Becker – Another Writer Named Gregory Hill

When TWA was first published, I fantasized about what it would feel like to have someone stop me in the street and ask me to inscribe a copy of the book.

TWA was published on February 18, 2021. (I cannot believe that my fifth novel, Where The Ley Lines Meet, will be published next June – somebody pinch me.)

Yesterday, two years, seven months, and one day later, it happened.

I woke up as always about 2 am. I went and fed Claire and Honey, and Blue and Jeter. Coffee in hand, I sat down and incorporated what I pray was the final set of edits into WTLLM. Then I went through Luke’s mountain of books he left behind in the garage when he and his branch of my family tree emigrated to Australia. I erred on the side of caution and just ended up with one huge box to take to the Berthoud Library. I’ll box and store the rest away in Geppetto’s workshop this weekend.

Half-hour before the appointed hour, I took that box to the Library. I parked my Toyota (same one from the books) out back and walked around front to see if I could get in a little earlier. No dice. So I walked back around the building to where I left the car, to wait the final ten minutes.

I spotted another car idling five feet from my own and figured it was another couple there to donate their books. Evidently, book donations are highly regulated, the Library only accepting six boxes on one or two set days each month. It’s a first come, first serve situation, so if someone gets there before you with six boxes, you are SOL.

I glanced over at the car to see if they had six boxes on their back seat. I was wondering just how hard I was going to push the Bronx “I was here first argument,” with the gentler local folks.

Turns out, I didn’t need to.

The woman riding shotgun in the front passenger seat of the car rolled down her window and asked “Are you the author of The Wise Ass?”

Given the subject matter of that first book, I immediately looked around to see if there were any unmarked vans idling close by. Then I did another sweep just to see if one (or more) of my over ambitious friends from back east was hiding nearby with a film crew to capture my being punked.

Satisfied I was alone, I gazed through the passenger window and sized up this lovely couple, just as the woman’s hands lifted from her lap holding TWA and a pen.

“Would you sign this for me?”

I did one last double-take to make sure the book wasn’t hiding a subpoena or a summons and complaint, and then smiled from ear to ear.

It finally happened. Someone stopped me on the street and asked me to inscribe my book. Nirvana.

In that moment, I felt myself transforming into an official published writer.

The couple, Carole and Ron Becker, were the absolute sweetest. Carole explained that we had met once before at a reading I had done for her book club at this very library, and that she was one of the five readers of my blog. It was through my blog that she learned that I was going to be at this appointed place at this appointed time. She lives in the next town north, so she talked her husband into driving her down to the library.

And the funniest thing is that she asked me to inscribe it to her friend, another Colorado writer named Gregory Hill. Who was nice enough to inscribe one of his books to me.

Thank you Greg. So appreciated. This copy will be delivered to O’Shay’s so it can sit with the international literary crew for all eternity, and then some.

Anyway, I of course grabbed my iPhone and recorded the event for posterity and posted it on every social media platform I had (barely) mastered.

Well, I was so thrilled by my good fortune, that I went home and added Carole and Ron to the acknowledgment in WTLLM.

You see, you should never forget your first.

So, thank you Carole (and Ron) for making my first time such a sweet memory. It brought to mind the first time I met someone – a lovely young woman in LA named Jasper – who had read my works and told me how much they enjoyed them. (I posted the actual video in one of my earlier FB postings – since I was brand new to FB at the time).

Made sure to include Jasper in those acknowlegements as well.

These are the Hallmark Moments. And I want people to know how much they mean to me.

And given the fact that I cannot rely on someone else giving a shit enough to note them after I’m gone, I have to get them down somewhere now, while I am still typing.

You see, there are no guarantees of anything except the moment you are in. So, when something awesome happens take that moment and celebrate it.

In that moment, yesterday morning, when Carole asked me to inscribe TWA, I became a writer. Until then, I was just another tree, falling in the woods.

Speaking of moments, the moment has come for me to cuddle a kitty and make my rounds.

You fine, five readers (including my local reader Carole) go out there and take the hill we know as hump day.

Appreciate and celebrate your moments.

But most of all, make today a great one.