Featured Book of the Week: Dogs On Main Street

I was standing behind my beautiful wife as she sat at the computer and tried desperately to get the best seats in the house for the Springsteen show in Buffalo.

She kept getting knocked out of the room and I frantically worked my cell phone going back and forth with my brothers, sister-in-law and buddy John.

"Damn! I've been doing this for 30 years!" I said. "I've been trying to get tickets for Bruce for 3 friggin' decades!"

And the lightning struck.

In the middle of all the chaos of the moment, I had an epiphany.

(It has a great ending as John, who had never seen Bruce before, scored premium seats with a blind stroke of keyboard luck).

What if...

A group of people who had once chased Bruce around but had become separated by life got back together to search for the promised land once more.

Of course, they had royally screwed up their lives in those 30 years in between.

So, I wrote fiction again. For the first time in a whole lot of years. I found my comedy voice. I thought of the 30 years I spent seeing shows. I had very little Bruce research to do.

And I had a blast!

I finished the book and closed the file on my computer.

Perhaps I'd show someone, someday, but I had no great desire to publish it. The business side of publishing was just too dark. I didn't need an award, or to be interviewed.

I wrote it because I wanted to.

And two close friends helped make it into the book it is today.

Jeff Popple sent me a single text:

"Write me something, bitch!"

And Chris Colantino answered a text I sent him:

Me: Wanna' do a book cover?

Chris: Hell, yes!!!

And what happened is that Chris put together the very best cover I ever had on one of my fiction books, and the story was really well-received.

A book award at the New York Book Festival.

A whole bunch of my readers who loved it.

And the 11th book I'd put out there.

Which ruins me...

...because I'm an obsessive sort of guy...

...and I can't quit with 11.

So, there will be more!