Who Knew?

Or actually "who would have ever thought"? Who would have ever thought that I would be sitting here looking at not one, not two, but five books with my name on them on bookstore shelves and online at places like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.Com? Yes, it was a lot of hard work but it is humbling that you have accepted these books and plunked your hard earned money down for them. For that I am forever thankful.

The latest book, an eBook titled "Living in a Banana Dream" has been literally YEARS in the making. I actually started writing it after I graduated high school during my time in the Navy. It is a collection of short stories about growing up told in what Jean Shepard called "the universal eye", they could be about you, or about me, all with the common thread of life's experiences when the toughest part of the day was making sure you had enough players for a pickup game of baseball or when you learned how to drive with the poster child for road rage - your Dad. Oh, and that first time you asked someone on a date, and on and on.

The stories are stand alone and a few have actually been published over the years in such magazines as "Reminisce" (for which I received not monetary compensation but a die-cast replica of a 1960 Chevy convertible. It was a bank but didn't come with any money.) For the book the stories are all linked together by a reunion of old friends as they relive the past.

For those of you who have read the book, it's kind of a mash up of two towns I lived in while growing up - Allendale and Mahwah, New Jersey. Great places to grow up where you could ride your bike to the sweet shop or flatten pennies on the railroad tracks.

This is kind of a culmination of dreams for me. My idol growing up was humorist Jean Shepherd. I would listen to him tell stories in the early morning darkness over a static filled AM radio, his voice booming out of a make shift studio on WOR radio. Oh, the stories he told. Most of you are familiar with the film "A Christmas Story". That was him. It was listening to Jean that made me want to get into the radio business and for many years I was fortunate enough to do so as an on-air personality, news reporter and anchor, even program director.

His books were masterpieces - "Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories", "The Ferrari in the Bedroom", and of course, "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash". I wanted to write like him, chronicling everyday life with razor sharp precision. So with the release of "Living in a Banana Dream", my second dream has been fulfilled.

While both of my dreams have been fulfilled there's more to come as I work on the audio book of "Banana Dream"hopefully coming out in December.

Thanks everyone again! More to come....Joe