My left foot, and a philosophy for life. - 2006-09-26 11:34:22 My left foot, photos, and a philosophy for life.
For those who have asked, my foot is much better. I'm in running shoes now and soon hope to be out there putting the miles in. Mom sent me a cheesecake as a get-well gift and that, along with the pizza, is putting on the calories. Not good, folks, and I intend to burn them off! I'm still at 185 pounds, about the same weight I had in college, 40+ years ago.
I went to a local radio station this morning to do a recording to advertise the October Sky Festival in Coalwood on Oct. 7. It will hit all the West Virginia radio stations and probably some in Virginia and Ohio, too. Roy Lee and O'Dell will be there with me. We always have a good time.
I'm also already doing some advance publicity for The Far Reaches, my newest novel, even though it doesn't come out until June. The earlier that drum gets beaten, the better. An excerpt of TFR is on www.homerhickam.com.
Our newsletter went out yesterday. Lots of good feedback on it already. It can be seen on my website. This is a newsy letter to fans, and is a great way to keep the rapport going between books!
I've gotten notes wondering why I write what I write. The smart thing to do these days is to be branded. That means your fans can expect the same kind of book over and over, such as knowing precisely what to expect when you purchase a John Grisham or J.K. Rowling. I rejected this wisdom early on, when my publisher asked me to essentially write Rocket Boys/October Sky over and over, or books having to do with space. That's just not me. I wrote a classic, it's one of the most popular books in the world, but I would be bored silly writing about the same thing again and again. That's why I tossed branding to the wind and wrote the Josh Thurlow novels. The fan base for those novels isn't as large as for Rocket Boys and its sequels but they are loud and enthusiastic! So we'll keep on going down my own path. That's a lot more fun and fun, after all, is one of the primary reasons we're alive on this planet. My book We Are Not Afraid is filled with my philosophy for a good life. I saw something on Chuck Yeager the other day. Chuck's getting a bit older but he said something profound about his life: "I had a ball!"
Let's all get out there and be just like Chuck: Make life a ball!
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