Joel Frey

Perseverance

Thirteen days ago, I celebrated my 35th birthday. I know - I'm getting old. But when I look back on #35 years from now, I'll remember it for more than officially reaching middle-age and the awesome Star Wars-themed party Heather threw for me. As I was wrapping up my work day, I received an email from Greg at Blu Sky with a subject of "BSMG Damaged Books Received 5-11-09." It read:

Hope all is well for a Monday. Attached are pictures the receiving dock took of books pulled out of random boxes of the shipment that came in from your printer. As you can see, the spines and covers are beat up, and I’m afraid that most of these would not pass inspection if we were to send them to our customers.

As I digested Greg's words and scanned the ominous photographs, my ears warmed, I broke a sweat and was consumed by negative thoughts and emotions. While trying to gather myself, I did a quick inventory of the boxes that Mr. Johnson sent me a few months ago and realized that the majority of those books more than likely would not pass the muster either. Heather then came home and found me in my office, flustered and somewhat panicked, scary questions racing through my head. Fortunately, she eased my concerns and told me not to let it ruin my birthday. "It'll all work out," she said as we headed to dinner with the family.

Before we left, I forwarded Mr. Johnson Greg's email. We talked the next day and he felt worse about the situation than I did. At that moment, I remembered why I had involved Mr. Johnson in this project: trust. Rather than dodging the issue, Mr. Johnson took responsibility for not packing the boxes as well as he could have. He asked if Greg could give a more thorough accounting of the damage. Could any of the books be salvaged?

A couple of days later, Greg confirmed our fears: none of the 320 books could be sold to Blu Sky's customer list. We had two options: trash the books or send them back to Mr. Johnson to see if any could be saved with new covers. Greg was agreeable to option #2 and Mr. Johnson's brother-in-law picked up the books on Friday and drove them back to Memphis.

In the meantime, Mr. Johnson is putting the finishing touches on the last batch of books that are due to complete my order. He's probably going to drive those to Lebanon personally in assuring that the same mistake doesn't happen twice. That, my friends and followers, is integrity.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend. We're going to check out Star Trek this afternoon and grill burgers later. Below is a pic from my birthday party that I thought you might enjoy. Cheers.

Sunset Grocery

 

Last December as Heather, Megan and I waited on our Christmas flight to Chicago, I picked up a copy of the El Paso Times and noticed an article about a local book club written by Ramon Renteria, the same reporter who wrote a story about Cypress Walls that ran on April 29, 2008. Intrigued, I tucked away the newspaper in my carry-on and after the holidays, I emailed the club's organizer, Magdalene Iglar, about the possibility of the group reading Cypress Walls. Within a few days, Magdalene and I had a healthy email conversation going and she assured me that she'd run the idea by her peers. 

Fast forward to today and I had the sincere pleasure of donning my seersucker suit and attending the group's monthly gathering at the Sunset Grocery downtown. I read from Cypress Walls, gave a few updates on it's characters, and talked about how it transformed from concept to reality as well as the profound impact the entire experience has had on my life. Near the end of the discussion, Heather walked through the door to a round of applause. Only minutes prior to her entrance, I had explained how I ended up in El Paso. It's always a joy for me to share with readers how I reconnected with Heather because of her inclusion in Cypress Walls. It was, however, extra special today to recount our splash in the fountain those many years ago and then for members of the club to meet and spend time with her.

Thanks so much to all of the club's members for making us feel so welcome this morning. Of course, I owe a special debt of gratitude to Magdalene for getting the logistics worked out and helping everyone get their hands on a copy of Cypress Walls. If you live in the El Paso area and are interested in joining a lively book club, drop me a line! 

Class of '09: Eat SPAM, jumpstart your career

On Monday, I had the honor of giving a speech at the annual awards ceremony for the College of Mass Communication at my alma mater, Middle Tennessee State University. In my remarks, I encouraged the apprehensive graduates in the room to be humble, avoid a wait-and-see attitude and to not be afraid to move far, far away in pursuit of their dreams. Toward the end, I mentioned a recent graduate I know who prescribed to all three of these notions, TJ Werre, and that it was paying dividends for him.

I've written about TJ several times. In his senior year at the University of Memphis, he covered the men's basketball team for the student paper, passionately following the team all the way to that unforgettable night in San Antonio when they lost the NCAA Championship game in a most gut-wrenching fashion. After graduation, he networked in Memphis for a few months before landing a job with the ABC affiliate in tiny Austin, MN, home of the SPAM Corporation.

During our trip last weekend, I was checking Facebook and saw a post from TJ, telling his friends that he'd be anchoring for the first time on Saturday. As we prepared to taxi the runway, I excitedly shared the news with Heather and felt a gush of pride. I hope anyone taking the walk across the stage in the next couple of weeks finds a bit of inspiration from TJ and realizes that, despite the cold, hard fact that employers are hiring fewer graduates this year, there are opportunities available - for those willing to get off their butts and go after them. You can check out a couple of TJ clips here and here. Congrats again, my friend!

Heather and I had hectic, but fun day in the 'Boro. Besides the ceremony, I gave a talk to a group of PR and journalism students (despite the 8:00 a.m. start time, I only saw a couple of students nodding off), enjoyed breakfast at the venerable City Cafe on the Square, and had a lunch meeting with Greg Snider, the CEO of Blu Sky Media, the company that I'm working with to distribute Cypress Walls. We had a solid discussion about our next steps together and later that afternoon Greg emailed me a purchase order for 400 copies. Greg is a fellow realist and not one to make empty promises. We left the meeting feeling confident that Greg and Co. are going to work hard in getting Cypress Walls on bookseller's shelves and reassured about our decision to partner with the Blu Sky team.

The pic is outside of Reynolds Hall, the dorm I managed for three semesters while at MTSU. It's also mentioned on the first page of my book. A special word of thanks to Marcie Hinton and her Mass Comm department colleagues for all of the hospitality they extended to us during our visit on campus. It was great to be back. GO BLUE!