Several folks have warned me against talking or writing negative comments about anything related to my book, Steel Decks and Glass Ceilings. i can’t do it. i mulled it over because i hope to sell enough books to break even. But breaking even, i thought was for Maureen. Then, she tells me doing it the prescribed way is not worth the stress and anxiety i suffer. She’s right. i’m old enough to do it my way. Also, i don’t want folks to buy my book because i’m selling it. i want folks to buy my book because they believe it will be interesting. All of this wasp on my mind when i wrote this column. Just being honest with you and myself.

That’s what Sam Cooke sang. For me, it ain’t coming. It’s here.

For the last four months, i’ve been trying to sell a book. To quote another singer, some guy named Dylan, “It Ain’t Me, Babe.” i am not an effective salesman. Never have been.

So i backed off after a presentation to a local group. It went okay, just didn’t feel right…for me. Maureen said, “It ain’t worth the stress.” i agreed.

So, i am spending this holiday season reassessing how to go about making my book known and available without sweating it.

This post, of course, is one way.

And i am going to tell about the other end of the spectrum: success, warm-feeling, satisfying. A trip back east about a month ago.

Stand by.

 This is the first of a series of posts. The “triple play” in the title does not deal with baseball, in spite of the title. That title came to me in the middle of the night, as many ideas i think are too good to not record on a scrap of paper or this damnable machine they call a computer.

These posts are, in fact, about opportunities to tell folks about my book, Steel Decks and Glass Ceilings. They include my trip to Middle Tennessee, Newport, Rhode Island; and Boston, Massachusetts. They are as much about my return to times and places past as they are about my book. I have began composing them on my journey back home from my notes during the two-week adventure.

It seemed appropriate. I liked it.

The trip’s generation came from several conversations after my book was published.

Andrew Maraniss, the author of Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South and several other excellent books, had discussed many aspects of writing my book. with me during the process and suggested when it was published for me to come and present my book to Vanderbilt students.

Concurrently, Ed Hebert, a friend through golfing and a retired Navy captain, told me i should present the book to the Surface Warfare Officer School’s (SWOS) initial training (newly commissioned officers who are in the line of suvrface warfare attend to learn the basics of their new duties). Then, in an email exchange, Emily (Baker) Black, the Damage Control Assistant (DCA) during Yosemite ‘s 1983-84 deployment with me, also recommended i make a presentation to the SWOS training.

After that, Noreen Leahy, who was the operations officer on that deployment, was having lunch with her friend, Margaret (Peg) Klein, a retired two star admiral who is the dean of the “Leadership and Ethics” college at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Noreen and Peg were in the second graduating class of the Naval Academy that included women. Peg read the book and set up my making a “presentation”Lecture of Opportunity” at the Naval War College.

Peg read my book and during ensuing discussions, the plan was set for me to do a “Lecture of Opportunity.

i was thrilled. The trip to Tennessee and then Rhode Island would launch my getting out to try and sell my book and also let me travel to four places i had yearned to visit for quite some time.

i’ve been trying to get back home to Lebanon, Tennessee for several years without success. Now i would get to stay with my boyhood friend, Henry Harding, and wife, Brenda. Even better, i would be staying In Henry’s home where he grew up and was my briar’s patch as Brer Rabbit had his. i spent almost much time in this home as i did my own up until i left town for good to attend Navy Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Newport.

i would be going to see Andrew Maraniss and a number of Vanderbilt friends. Andrew is the resident writer in the Vanderbilt sports department. He also is a writer for ESPN, and his other books include Games of Deception about the first U.S. men’s basketball team in the Olympics, Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke, and the recently published Inaugural Ballers about the first U.S. women’s basketball team. i admire his writing and consider him a good friend.

Following that stop, i would be in Newport, Rhode Island, one of my favorite places on earth. Better yet, two of Yosemite’s officers who were with me on that deployment lived there. Even better, Linda Schlesinger, the ship’s stores officer followed by becoming disbursing officer and now lives in Carlsbad, was traveling there as well. It would be a mini-reunion of the wardroom. To add icing on the cake, Andrew Nemethy, who shared a stateroom with me on our first ship, USS Hawkins (DD 873), announced he would be traveling down from Vermont to spend some time with me.

And finally, i would cap off the fortnight trip with a weekend in Boston with my brother Joe and his family.

i was excited.

Following posts will address each of my three stops in more detail. To summarize, the trip was one of the most rewarding experiences i have had. It was flat wonderful.

 For friends and family, my schedule is firming up.

I arrive in my home of Lebanon on Monday, 11 October. My one confirmed presentation while home is at Vanderbilt University in the E. Bronson Ingram College Multipurpose Room, 5:00 pm, Monday, 17 October. This presentation was originally for the Navy and Army ROTC units about my book, Steel Decks and Glass Ceilings. The invitation has expanded to those on campus along with friends, my family, and other interested people in Middle Tennessee.

Several friends in Lebanon have asked me to sign a copy of my book while home in Lebanon. I will be at a table at Sammy B’s from 2:00 to 4:00 Saturday, 15 October for that purpose. I will have a limited number of copies of my book with me if you would like to purchase one there.

From there, i will head to Newport, Rhode Island where i will give a Lecture of Opportunity to the College of Leadership and Ethics at the Naval War College Wednesday, 19 October. There is a possibility of other presentations to the Navy school houses there. If you are in the area and would like to attend, please notify me, so i can be sure the Naval War College has you included on their list of attendees.

There are other presentations in process, including several here in the Southwest corner. I will be going to Texas A&M to talk to the NROTC Battalion sometime after the first of the year.

Be sure to check my Events Page for my updated calendar of speaking engagements.

My next presentation:
Vanderbilt University on Monday October 17th at 5PM

It’s been a while, but it’s finished…at least, the first phase.Steel Decks and Glass Ceilings: A Memoir goes to a rather exceptional editor, Jennifer McCord, whom i met through my gifted and successful novelist sister-in-law, Carla Neggers and my brother Joe.

It is my thoughts about the USS Yosemite (AD 19) during her deployment to the Indian Ocean in 1983-84. She was the first U.S. Navy ship with women as part of ship’s complement to spend extended out of port, at sea time when the Women at Sea program was in its infancy.

The work, of course, has just begun. But it is a huge step for me. After all, it’s been in the making for thirty-eight years and thirteen days.

i can guarantee it won’t be exactly what you think it will be because it isn’t what i thought it would be, but i do think it will be interesting.

It will likely be published in the first part of 2022.

i’ll keep you posted.

Right now, i’m going to rest for a few days.