|
|
 |
| Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been a long time. But we've been on the road, see. Traveling all over the blessed country on an extended "HEY! YOU! YOU NEED TO BUY OUR NEW AUDIOBOOK!" Tour, which has gone from our launch at Road America July 18-21 to The Concours of America near Detroit the next weekend (where I got a nice award for my magazine writing, BTW), then back to Road America to hustle books/audiobooks during the IMSA weekend, then a quick flight out to Southern California the following Tuesday to see the kids and hawk some more books/audiobooks at Autobooks/Aerobooks in Burbank on Saturday, then a rental-car drive up to Monterey/Pebble Beach to cover it for the magazine and sell even more stuff out of the VINTAGE MOTORSPORT booth (and stay in the infamous Vintage Motorsport "Animal House by the Sea") then back to Burbank to catch a plane for home the following Tuesday so we could set up our literary/auditory pushcart in the SCCA bivouac at the Geneva (IL) Concours, then we left the following Wednesday to drive out to Boston for a very nifty "50/50" celebrity benefit dinner Thursday evening that our friend Peter Bourassa (from MMR site) arranged at Paul Russel's thoroughly amazing restoration shop (they've won top awards at Pebble Beach among other things...no pictures, please) to raise money for John Paul Jr.'s Huntington's Disease Research Fund, then doubled-back West a couple hours to hawk books/audiobooks & cover the event for the magazine at the Lime Rock Historic Festival (always one of our favorites) over Labor Day weekend, then over to Kingston, NY, to see a musty collection of old WWI biplanes & such at the Rhinebeck Aerodrome museum followed by the FDR and Vanderbilt estates on the Hudson (that was for Carol, only she picked up a really bad cold from packing up in the rain followed by sweaty heat and humidity at Lime Rock so all she saw in Kingston was the inside of a very ordinary hotel room, a bunch of TV and some take-out Chinese food), then over to the big SVRA Vintage Grand Prix at Watkins Glen the following weekend to do it all over again (only this time I got to co-drive Ed Mettleman's Porsche, only I broke it...details and excuses coming), then back home just long enough to do a load or two of laundry and up to Road America again for more of same at my home club's big ELVF extravaganza (ditto on details to follow), then back home until the following weekend, when I went back for the Blancpain GT Challenge weekend (also at Road America) only the crowd was small and Sunday's weather was wet, cold & miserable (but the racing was pretty good, and my old teammate PD Cunningham once again put one of our "THE LAST OPEN ROAD" decals on the back of his Realtime Racing Acura NSX and ace driver Dane Cameron won the blessed race with it!) and then last Sunday I set up our well-traveled book/audiobook booth at Fuelfed's rather damp, Ferrari-featured "Cars and Coffee" event in Winnetka...just a few blocks from where I grew up (if I ever did, that is) and THAT'S why you haven't heard from me in awhile. Whew. Will put together a travelogue (with pictures) for the next e-blast, but haven't got time right now on account of...WE'RE HEADIN' SOUTH! Yep, we have two more events on the calendar, and here they are: TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY ONLY, OCT. 8-9 at VIR We'll be set up with all of our usual books, audiobooks, geegaws and gimcracks at the Oak Tree Pro Shop at V.I.R. during the early part of SCCA RUNOFFS WEEK! Wish we could stay for the racing Fri-Sun, but... FRIDAY/SATURDAY OCT. 11-12 in CHATTANOOGA, TN. the inaugural CHATTANOOGA MOTORCAR FESTIVAL! Yep, they're having a "Bridge-to-Bridge" vintage-car Time Trial (like a hillclimb), Tanner Faust doing some wild-ass drifting, a fancy-schmancy concours, motoring notables and celebrities like bit-part & underpaid audiobook voice actors David Hobbs and Brian Redman (who will also be hawking books with Carol & me) plus Wayne Carini, Donald Osborne, Alain de Cadenet, Bill Elliott, Keith Martin, Ray Evernham, Ken Gross and, no, I can't figure out why they wanted me in with that bunch, either. But do come by if you're in the neighborhood. Should be fun. Now one of the bad things about all this traveling is how can I expect to sell all these new (and quite wonderful...ask anyone) THE LAST OPEN ROAD audiobook copies if I'm not right here in your face trying to convince you to buy one? Or more than one (hey, they make great gifts, y'know, and the holiday season IS just around the corner). I won't waste your time or my electrons telling you how wonderful it is (just read the effing reviews or ask anyone who's given it a listen) or go on and on about all the money we've got tied up in this venture or the gifted professional voice actors and top-class production values or the truly superb sound effects or the great fifties music or the AUTHENTIC car and racing sounds or all the famous motorsports celebrity types who appear in the supporting roles... Nah, just click this link if you'd like to hear a few excerpts: CLICK HERE TO GIVE OUR AUDIOBOOK A WEE TEST DRIVE The whole thing runs about 20 hours--just the thing for a long, cross-country tow or drive--and is available as a 20-disc CD set @ $65 (plus $6.50 S&H) or as a USB Flash Drive @ $55 (plus $6.50 S&H), and both versions include a special, freebie bonus video file for your additional amusement and edification. You can order a copy for yourself (or to gift to some other lucky soul) right here: CLICK HERE TO ORDER ALREADY AND MAKE CAROL REALLY HAPPY!
OK, when we (meaning me, actually) started all this audiobook stuff, I think it's fair to say that, at least technically speaking, I had no idea what I was doing. To be honest about it, a quarter of a century ago, I started out in the book-publishing business much the same way. But the point is this: we've uncovered a wee glitch with the USB flash drive versions that appears on SOME (not all) in-car audio systems when you plug the flash drive into your car's USB slot. The problem has to do with the ordering of the chapters, and although it works just fine in our long-suffering Honda Odyssey van, I've had reports (mostly from owners of Ford products, make of it what you will) that Chapter 16 plays first. Or that Chapter 1 is followed by Chapter 19. And, no, I don't get it either. But you can get around the problem (if it does occur) by manually selecting the chapters in correct order. No big deal. And we are planning to address the problem when we go into our next production run. Which will be soon. Full report coming after we get back from the (hopefully) sunny Southland...
Yeah, I owe him one for that... But even better (no offence, Tom) was the email I got day before yesterday from Sharon Spurlin, who is the publisher of AUTOMOBILIA magazine (if you like car shit--pardon me, make that "memorabilia and collectibles"--check them out here: https://www.automobiliaresource.com/) as well as the stateside rep for the U.K.-based CLASSIC & SPORTS CAR magazine. In any case, I gave her a copy and, well, here's what she e-mailed: Hi Burt, My girlfriend Lisa (visually impaired), whom I mailed the cd book too, went crazy over it. She's read (listened) to thousands of audio books, and says this is the absolute best she's ever read. Loves the sound effects, the different voices and learning about all the cars from that era. Seriously, she is ecstatic, and is listening to it for the 2nd time already! Quite an endorsement from a non-car junkie. She is exposed to classic cars a bit through me (not much), but just loving learning about them through your book "that era and those cars 'come alive'" Sharon Spurlin Sharon Spurlin - |
PS: The audiobook is NOW AVAILABLE in both USB Flash Drive and CD set formats. We'll start shipping all of our pre-orders tomorrow, but we've got a LOT of them, so please be patient, as it'll take a few days to get them all shipped. And if you haven't ordered your copy yet, hey, what the hell's the matter with you?
|
Catch the latest poop & pictures, the Jay Leno interview, Last Open Road swag & highly inappropriate attire from Finzio's Store and the lurid & occasionally embarrassing "ride with Burt" in-car racing videos on the hopefully now fully operational website at: |
|
 |