THE HEADLINES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES:

Yeah, it was a BIG weekend for us at Road America!

Sure, I didn't get to drive anything (am I slipping in me old age?), but at least Carol & I were inside the lovely, spacious, fascinating, captivating and moreover AIR-CONDITIONED Road America Paddock Shop while everybody else was sweating and sweltering outside. Better yet, we were selling scores and scads of my new "A LIFELONG LOTUS LOVE AFFAIR" books in both "Preview Edition" plan/scheme/scam (you also get the REAL book in late November...see details below) and pre-orders for the November hardback only for those who are wise to me and/or are willing to wait. More details than you'd ever want to know two panels down.

But it was a thrash, let me tell you (cue the violins and genteel sighs of empathy, please) as I was up at all hours getting the damn thing corralled, hog-tied and wrestled into shape for the printer. I didn't plan it like that (I never do) but I was--I kid you not--working on my computer from, oh, say, 5:30 or Dawn ayem until I got so bleary I couldn't count my own fingers and toes without outside assistance. So I'd crash for a few hours. I MEANT to sleep longer, of course, only then I'd wake up at, oh, say 3:30 or 4:00 during the wee hours, and my mind would be racing and worrying and agonizing and grinding its proverbial teeth about what I had to do next and all the crap I still had to get done, and at that point, I knew I might as well get up and start working again, since that was the superior path where sanity and success were concerned...

To be honest, I wasn't fit company for man nor beast. Just ask Carol!

But I DID get it done and the files sent off to my beloved and good-as-their-name short-run printer, 48-HOUR BOOKS in Twinsburg, Ohio (well-deserved plug!) around mid-afternoon on Monday, July 8th. And damn if they didn't turn it around and have the promised 125 copies of the "Preview Edition" ready to be picked up at 3:30pm on Wednesday, July 10th!

No shit!

I've dealt with them for years and, while they aren't exactly bargain basement on pricing, they are tops where turnaround is concerned. Nice people, too. And the quality's good as well.

But I still had to get the new Preview Editions from Twinsburg, OH (near Cleveland) to Road America, hopefully WITHOUT paying for overnight or even 2nd day rush delivery charges (we're talking six boxes at roughly 50 lbs. each) as that would, let's see, just about DOUBLE my cost on the book copies. And that's where our longtime friend and Ohio native Bob Kovacs came in. Bob was heading up to the big Weathertech weekend at Road America anyway, and he kindly agreed to pick the books up for us. And that's how I wound up holding an actual copy in my hand on Thursday afternoon, just three days after I sent the files in.

Pretty damn amazing!

A note on Bob. He happens to be more than a book-delivery guy and a huge vintage racing fan and helper-at-large to many of the artists who display and sell their work at the races. He's also a bit of an artistic phenomenon himself where stained glass work is concerned.

He surprised Carol and me out of the blue a couple years ago with a beautiful, stained glass "window" of the cover image from my novel "TOLY'S GHOST" (originally drawn up/created by my late, great friend, onetime editor (poor soul) and graphics/photography genius Art Eastman). We put it in a kind of light box (crappy picture below...and my fault that it's crappy) and it is peering over my shoulder from its place of honor above my west-wall study/studio bookcase as I write this.

It looks freaking fabulous!

We liked it so much, we had Bob do another one based on a house Carol and I would always pass when we walked around Elkhart Lake back in ze olt dayz before certain tight-assed new home-owners decided to block the damn path. A pox on the lot of them! In any case, we always said/dreamed/wished that we'd have that house someday (after the Big New York Publisher picked us up or maybe that movie deal came in?) and we had Bob do a "window" panel of that house to hang over the sink when Carol was re-doing our kitchen. Almost decent picture of that one below as well.

If you'd like Bob to make something for you, I can put you in touch.