Mason City Library Presentation

[Opening slide: Book cover]

Kelly:

Hello! We would like to thank you all for coming tonight and extend a special thank you to the Mason City Public Library and Joyce Colombo, in particular, for planning this reception. It says a lot about this community that you are so supportive of your local authors. Thank you.

Eric:

I would like to say welcome and thank-you as well. We are very flattered at the attention our little book is getting.

So let's get to it. Tonight we will speak about what brought us to Mason City besides Mom and Dad's Thanksgiving turkey. We're glad we had the opportunity to stay a few extra days and tell you more about the exciting things that have been going on lately with our book and our business.

Our Backgrounds
Eric:

We would like to start out by taking turns sharing more about our backgrounds. We're sure you will agree that we don't have the typical writer's training and education. But, we think that's our strongest asset. It's amazing what people can accomplish when they don't know what their limitations are, or more importantly--what the rules are.

How do you become a freelance writer? We have no idea.

This is a fun homecoming for me, because I spent many afternoons here at this very library while growing up. I read comic books in the children's wing when I was young; later I came here to read magazines in this reading room; and I browsed the shelves behind me for hours looking for the next book to transport me on my imaginary adventures.

I spent many summer days in the outdoor spaces below this building, exploring the woods and river bank, and fishing for carp down by the old mill ruins; climbing underneath the rafters of the Meredith Wilson footbridge; spending time with my friends the Bill Baird puppets next door at the MacNider Museum. Each Sunday I spent with my family at First Methodist church across the street.

Kelly and I are where we are today because of the Internet: we met each other online, and we conduct most of our writing business online. But being here today gives me fond memories of growing up in Mason City, in a time when I think it was easier and less complicated to be a kid--before the Internet, video games, cell phones, and text messaging existed. I'm proud to say that in my day, Mason City was a place where it was safe for a youth like me to hop on his bike and explore the world around him unsupervised.

Never mind that I lost that bike and nearly drowned in the river at East Park one day. Thanks to the alert reaction of my friend, Jerry, and my mother's extra-sensory premonition of danger, I survived to stand before you today as the world famous author that I am.

Now that Kelly and I present ourselves as authors to the world and endeavor to sell our services as writers, I am ever more thankful that I grew up in Iowa and received the education that I did here:

I remember fondly several teachers that had a positive impact on my education and my development as a writer: Keith Alberts at Jefferson Elementary, the late Dale Harmon at Mason City High, and Dr. Arlo Stoltenberg at NIACC.

I still have a copy of the textbook, called The Confident Writer, from Dr. Stoltenberg's class and I review it often. I knew I carried it around with me from city to city for all those years for a reason. (I have to say, however, that it doesn't inspire much confidence in Kelly to see me reading it, especially if I'm supposed to be proofreading something she has written.)

[Slide: Photo of Eric reading The Confident Writer on the couch.]

Finding one's true calling later in life is a joyful discovery and a very cool "ah-ha" moment. It begs the question of why I didn't become a writer for my career from the very beginning. I try not to dwell on regrets in this case. I believe the journey I have taken to get to this point makes me appreciate what I have discovered now all the more.

So what did that journey look like? As I mentioned, I attended NIACC, followed by Mankato State University, and then St. Luke's School of Medical Technology in Cedar Rapids. I started out my career in the medical laboratory field, first in Cedar Rapids, then in Denver. In 2000 I transitioned into the information technology field and became employed at Bonfils Blood Center of Denver, where I have been ever since.

[Slide: Image of Bonfils logo with tagline.]

I always intuitively knew I was a skilled writer, but most of these years that skill lay dormant, just waiting to be used. Until I left Mom and Dad's house for Mankato, I was tasked each year with composing the Mott family Christmas letter. It was in those letters that I first developed my tendency toward short, easy going, and self-deprecating stories of humor.

I think I only wrote a few of those famous Christmas letters, but they are still called to my attention by family members who received them. Mom claims I wrote many funny letters home from Mankato State, but I do not remember them much. I'm sure she's waiting to pull them out and embarrass me, someday--or waiting to give them to Kelly behind my back.

Then, unfortunately, I didn't write much until I reached my current job at Bonfils Blood Center where I found myself being asked to edit documents that my supervisor or directors produced. Usually, this meant complete re-writes. Call me crazy, but I felt that business proposals would stand a better chance of being taken seriously when written with proper punctuation and logically developed themes.

Let me tell you, it takes guts to tell your brand new boss that his writing sucks. I did, and I lived to tell about it. I strongly believe that each and every written word has the power to cast a positive or negative reflection upon me at the workplace. So I work hard to make sure each memo, email, and document I write is as logical and error free as possible.

[Slide: Image of 4 Cats, Ink logo]

Now, Kelly and I have this writing business. Other people pay us to write for them! Can you believe that? What an interesting concept.

We also get a chance to express ourselves with our own original work--our first book that we are celebrating here tonight--and our original articles and content on our website. There is nothing quite as satisfying to me as finding freedom in creative expression, which I feel the written word is uniquely capable of doing. I'm so thankful I have this opportunity to share this experience with Kelly.

And now, let's hear the other half of the story. . .

Kelly:

First, I would like to say that I also consider myself extremely lucky to have accumulated a lot of great childhood memories of growing up in the Midwest. Eric's river experience reminds me of the numerous times I fished my little brother, Thad, out of the crick by our house. What is it about boys and water?

My family moved from Ohio to Iowa when I was in the eighth grade, and I'm a graduate of West High School in Iowa City. My excellent public school education in Iowa has served me well.

Teachers like Mr. Anthony, who used to dress up like famous historical figures and let us interview him, sparked my imagination and made learning a truly enjoyable experience. A number of English teachers nurtured my love of writing and never let me turn in second-rate work. "Good enough" was never good enough for Carolyn Tank. It had to be great, because she believed I was capable of doing better than average.

I was also really involved in music and theatre in high school. We traveled all over the country performing, and the joy I found through those experiences ended up sending me in an artistic direction after high school.

I went to undergraduate school at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and double majored in Music and Communications. The Music major was for me and the Communications major was for my parents--just in case I couldn't get a real job in music. Classes were small and intense, and one of the best lessons I learned there was how to develop an opinion and defend it. I also developed a strong sense of what I enjoyed and what I didn't. My grades in math and science were considerably lower than my grades in communications and the arts.

I received a scholarship to attend graduate school at New England Conservatory in Boston, so that was my next stop. I was an opera major, even though I probably preferred jazz and musical theatre. (My professors steered me toward singing opportunities that did not require a microphone, because I was really, really loud.)

After graduating with a degree in vocal performance, I landed a few opera jobs, and in between I worked as a secretary. I actually had a pretty amazing job for a time as an administrative assistant in Henry Kissinger's small consulting firm in New York City. That's where I learned to type really, really fast--another skill I appreciate today. Dr. Kissinger and his colleagues were extremely interesting . . . if not very patient. I hid Word Perfect for Dummies under my desk and pretended like I knew what I was doing. Another good life lesson:

[Slide: Fake it until you make it]

While I was in New York City, I finally followed my love of musical theatre and started auditioning for Broadway shows. I was extremely lucky and ended up getting a job as the understudy for the lead on the national Broadway tour of Victor/Victoria. That job led to another Broadway tour and lot of great regional musical theatre opportunities.

About four-and-a-half years ago I finally got tired of living out of a suitcase, and I stopped performing professionally and found a "real" job in Scottsdale, Arizona. I worked there for two years at an educational consulting company called Goals, Inc. I started out doing data entry and ended up writing grants and helping school districts with federal reporting requirements. I learned quite a bit about grant writing, but there were also frustrations that came with the job. It taught me another good life lesson my dad had been telling me for years:

[Slide: If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes.]

In December of 2006 Goals, Inc. became a virtual office, and I was suddenly free to live wherever I wanted. I chose to move to Denver to be closer to my mom and dad and my brother and his wife, who were expecting twins. Two months later, I met Eric!

How We Met and the Birth of 4 Cats, Ink
Kelly:

So that brings us almost to the present. Eric and I met about two years ago in Denver, Colorado . . . at Starbucks, for those of you who managed to get in here without seeing the book cover.

[Slide: Book cover]

We hit it off immediately. Maybe it's because we're both from the great state of Iowa! If you haven't yet read our book, I won't ruin the surprise about how and when he proposed, but I will say that Eric is very sneaky.

We found out early in our relationship that we both had a passion for writing. The emails we exchanged were full of funny stories, and we really got to know each other quickly through the love notes we secretly sent back and forth while we were supposed to be working.

Now for the story of how we formed our freelance writing business.

Birth of an Idea
Eric:

Kelly and I have a strong tradition of going out on date nights to keep our romantic flame burning. This is pretty much a non-negotiable event for us each weekend. We are always on the lookout for new restaurants to visit and new neighborhoods in greater Denver to explore. This is one of the advantages for us of living in a large city. We could spend a lifetime exploring and still not see everything in our own backyard.

One date night in the spring of 2007 I planned on taking Kelly to a restaurant in Golden a few miles north of our home. Kelly was new to the area at the time, so I also decided to take her on a scenic tour by driving there by way of Lookout Mountain. There is lot's to see at the top: a historic mansion, Buffalo Bill's grave, and scenic views of Golden and downtown Denver.

Unfortunately, it's a very steep and winding road to get there, and evidently not for the faint of heart.

Kelly surprised me twice that evening. Once by telling me that she suffers from car sickness and that the drive up to Lookout Mountain was sheer terror to her without Dramamine. Second, she told me once we got to the top, with a very green face, that she was thinking about quitting her less-than-ideal job and becoming a full-time freelance writer.

What an incredible experience it is for the person you love to speak out loud a dream they have for themselves that you yourself have had all along but never had the insight to admit. I was thunderstruck.

However, Kelly didn't know that. I imagine she expected me to respond with pessimism. But instead I said, "Wow, you look really sick! What's wrong with you?"

Actually, no--I was thinking that but didn't say it. It must be tough to get carsick, thank-goodness I'll never find out. What I really said was, "Wow, can I share your dream? Will you take me with you?" How powerful is that? Not only are Kelly and I lovers and best friends, but now we are partners on multiple levels as business owners, collaborators, and co-writers.

This collaboration together adds a layer of richness to our lives that is irreplaceable. What are the chances that two diamond-in-the-rough authors would find each other like we did? It's part of the miracle that typifies our relationship, and we wrote about in We Met at Starbucks.

We think we were born to be writers and fated to meet each other. We offer the following examples of our promise as future writers:

[Slides: pictures of the two of us as kids]

[Kelly shares Eric's childhood Easter Bunny story.]

[Eric shares Kelly's funny fill-in-the-blank book story about the 'whitch.']

4 Cats, Ink
Kelly:

Thank goodness we have spell check now!

When we formed our little writing company, 4 Cats, Ink, we asked ourselves the following question: "Can you name your business after your pets and still be taken seriously?"

[Slide: Kitties]

We decided, yes, we can! Why not? We are so delighted at the success we've had. Some of the projects we have completed to this point have been: federal school grants, a grant proposal for the development of electric-assist bicycles, several ghostwritten novels, and numerous articles. We also have edited three full-length novels for Anomalos Publishing.

[Slide: Logo]

The work is always interesting, fun, and adventurous. Next week, in fact, one of our clients is flying us to New York City, expenses paid, for a face-to-face meeting. That is something we never would have dreamed possible just a year ago. We keep pinching each other to make sure this is all real.

We are so lucky that we are attempting this adventure during the electronic age where we can advertise our presence on the Internet and meet and greet potential clients across the globe. That is a big advantage for us starting this business.

We feel one of the keys to our success is our website, which we use to spotlight our writing skills and our wacky sense of humor. We put our light-hearted humor front and center on our website, and decided to set ourselves apart by not taking ourselves too seriously.

For example, here are some of our many company mottos you'll find posted online:

[Slide: mottos]

[Slide: logo and website]

Our ongoing goal is to make our website a fun place to visit and stay awhile. If you haven't seen it, we encourage you to do so. We have many funny, inspirational articles and other mayhem posted online for your enjoyment.

Eric:

So what is it like to collaborate with your spouse in a writing business? We have a little insight for you on this regard: some tips to consider if you want to try this yourself at home. These are lessons we have learned the hard way. (They are all true!)

[Slide: lessons we learned]

Offer feedback promptly. If your wife slaves for two days writing a chapter for your current project and leaves it sitting on your desk, do not waste time before reading it. Do not watch three football games, go off-roading in your Jeep, and take a nap. Reading your wife's work and offering timely feedback shows you respect her writing as much as you do her efforts. It also reduces the number of times you have to hear, "Have you read it, yet?"

Be discrete. Try not to sigh too much when proofreading your spouse's draft. If he or she is in the same room, this is especially important. Neither should you make a big flourish about reaching for the grammar book or the Chicago Manual of Style. Discretion is preferred, here. Writing a lot of notes in the margins can be stressful to the author, too, and cause many nervous sidelong glances your way. Instead, you will probably do well to go find a dark corner of the basement to do your edits. This will cause less anxiety for everyone.

Remember the love. Even though you technically are business partners and collaborators, don't forget the marriage license came before the articles of incorporation. Don't overuse that business tone of voice with your wife--it won't earn you a seat next to her in front of the fireplace anytime soon, and you'll be misplacing your pronouns all over the place.

Praise before criticism. Make sure all criticism is constructive. Better yet, praise something about your spouse's writing before pointing out the flaws. If you can't find something positive in the current document draft, don't panic. Go read it again. If you still can't find anything positive, then you can start to panic.

Two heads are better than one. Finally, remember that the pros of writing together with your spouse outweigh the cons. Each concept, idea, sentence, and paragraph receives the benefit of being reviewed by two talented people whose passion for each other also finds its way to the page. Collaborating with your spouse as a business partner and co-author will always keep your marriage vital and interesting. Plus, you'll always have something to talk about on date nights--provided you haven't just had a verb argument.

This collaboration resulted in the ultimate achievement for us as authors: a published book. Now, we'd like to share with you a little insight into our first book, We Met at Starbucks.

[Slide: book cover]

We Met at Starbucks
Kelly:

After we met, we soon realized we had similar life journeys from the time we each got divorced until we met each other. We Met at Starbucks is a light-hearted examination of our experiences with personal growth as we came to terms with being single again, while simultaneously trying to negotiate the world of Internet dating. The results were almost always poignant and many times hilarious.

We originally came up with the idea for We Met at Starbucks as a Christmas gift for our parents. One of the many things we discovered we have in common is parents who have been married FOREVER. All four of them are romantics at heart, so we thought it would be fun to tell them the story of how we finally found each other in a he said/she said format.

We decided to write the chapters totally separately. When we finally sat down in our living room to piece the whole thing together, we were shocked to find out we had written a lot of parallel stories. It was incredibly easy folding our separate accounts together.

Standing in front of you tonight, I'd like to be a little dramatic and tell you this book is the result of years of sweat and tears, but that would be a total lie. The truth is it fell together as easily as our lives have. It was one of those synchronistic things that just felt right from the very beginning.

We really liked the final product, so we wrapped up three packages: one for each set of parents and one that we sent off to a publisher in a sort of cavalier way, never expecting to hear back from them. The day after Christmas we found out our manuscript had been accepted by Publish America.

Promoting Our Book
Kelly:

Next, we were faced with the question of how to promote our book. We have learned so much from August until today about the book business and how to promote a book when you are unknown authors. The most valuable thing we learned was:

[Slide: Our parents are fearless]

That's right, if you are a budding author, USE your family. They are willing to shamelessly promote your work . . . to anyone . . . anywhere. They have no problem walking into a Borders bookstore and openly asking why they do not carry your book yet. They will toot your horn to every single distant relative, friend, and total stranger. We're convinced that family members are better than agents.

Eric:

Book signings are very interesting experiences. We imagine this is what a fish in a bowl must feel like. Sitting in the middle of a bookstore or coffee shop, watching people walk on by giving you strange looks, is a bit unnerving. Kelly and I are so glad we have each other to talk to during these events, or else we would feel very self conscious, indeed. But that's okay. That's part of taking a chance and putting yourself out there front and center for the world to see. That's what authors do.

Our most recent book signing was at the Starbucks store in Aspen Grove, an entertainment and shopping district in Littleton, Colorado. This is the Starbucks where we met, the one we write about in the book. I discuss in the book the theory of Starbucks Proximity, so I wanted to show you how this worked for Kelly and me.

[Slide: Starbucks proximity map]

[Eric discusses the theory of Starbucks proximity off-the-cuff.]

As you can see, it works . . . most of the time. Close enough for Kelly and me.

Sometimes we feel like ours is the Rodney Dangerfield of books. We get no respect from some bookstores! We never knew before now that you need to have a spine before you will be taken seriously as an author. A book spine, that is. You see, We Met at Starbucks is so short there is no room for printing on the spine. This is a big deal for bookstores! Somehow, they don't think you are legitimate if you don't have a spine. If we had only written 20 more pages!

We did finally convince a Denver area bookstore to carry our book--none other than the famous Tattered Cover. Kelly's favorite activity is spying on the Tattered Cover to see where our book is on their shelves and turn it face-out so it's easier to spot. This is called covert marketing and product placement--just another aspect of being a first-time author.

Conclusion
Eric:

In summary, we would like to share some thoughts about our book from an article that ran in The Summit Daily News in Dillon, Colorado prior to a book signing we had there. When that newspaper interviewed us for the article, they asked us why someone would want to read our book. That was hard to answer. Why would someone who doesn't know us, or is not single and using Internet dating want to read our book? We humbly suggest the following hopes we have for anyone who might pick up We Met at Starbucks:

[Slide: We hope slide]

We hope that you are inspired to look inward to achieve personal growth.
We hope that you are inspired to look outward to help others.
We hope that you enjoy life and refuse to take yourselves too seriously.
Most of all, we hope you enjoy reading We Met at Starbucks: A Love Story. If you do, stay tuned.

[Slide: Stay tuned picture]

We have many new projects in the works, including a bunch of fun articles on our website and a sequel to Starbucks called . . . "Donkey Swimming."

[Slide: Giant question mark]

Kelly:

If that doesn't peak your interest, we don't know what will!

Thank you so much for coming this evening. We would be glad to answer any questions at this time . . . or over at the book signing table. Thank you.

[Slide: Thank you.]