Author Archives: Steve Akley

About Steve Akley

My name is Steve Akley and I am an author living in the St. Louis suburb of Oakville. This blog is dedicated to providing updates on my writing. I'll be posting on (most) Sundays.

IT’S BECAUSE I WRITE 9/10

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I have been doing a bit of a retrospective over my three years of writing by listing the top 10 things that have happened to me since I have started writing.

Topics Covered So Far:

#1 of 10 – My O.P.U.S. Blog

#2 of 10 – Bourbon Zeppelin

#3 of 10 – Meeting a Hero of Mine

#4 of 10 – My Love Affair with Hawaii

#5 of 10 – The Time My Books Were Featured on TV

#6 of 10 – The Story I Took 35 Years to Complete

#7 of 10 – Bourbon Mixology

#8 or 10 – Telephone Call with a St. Louis Legend

———————————–

In this post…

My New Friends

One of the greatest elements to come out of my writing has been the incredible new friends I have picked up via social media. Prior to beginning to publish books in 2013, I wasn’t involved in any form of social media other than LinkedIn. I actually only joined that site as it became a requirement of my job at that time (I ran a private group we had).

While most people are on social media, those who aren’t totally get what I’m saying when I say I had no interest in any form of social media (though, they aren’t reading this since…well, they aren’t on social media). Okay, for those of you on social media and have embraced it forever, how can I explain my disdain for it. Well, it’s like this. You know how you feel about whatever social media platform you don’t use? Well, that’s how I felt about all social media.

What does that mean?

Well, if you are a Facebook person, but you don’t do Twitter, it’s because Facebook provides you with meaningful relationships and time-worthy insight into the lives of friends, family and social media buddies.

Twitter on the other hand…

Well it’s just for people who want to spy on others or share stupid updates on what they are eating right now. You don’t have time for that. Facebook, though. That’s great.

The problem is, you turn it around and it’s the Twitter person who is only making meaningful connections and Facebook is a complete waste of time in their eyes…or Instagram…or Snap Chat. (I barely even know what that one is…I mean who has time for the meaningless interactions…wait, there I go!)

Anyway, in 2013, I joined social media not to make friends, or even interact with others but to promote my work.

Somewhere along this journey, I started making friends. Not just virtual buddies where you like each other’s photos and make an occasional comment… like real friendships. Once I opened up to the concept, and redefined the term “friendship” in my own head, it’s been great. I’ve traded tough to find bourbons with people. I’ve used many of the people I’ve met online to seek advice from. You can’t believe the help I’ve gotten from people I’ve never met or even talked to on the phone with some of the projects I’m working on. I’ve built up interest in my work by interviewing new people with my O.P.U.S. blog.

The biggest surprise has been the collaborations. I’ve got a strong network of friends I’ve been buddies with since grade school. They aren’t necessarily into bourbon and writing like I am. Online, I’ve been able to find people with totally different lives than my own who I completely connect with based on the interests we have. We’ve turned these common interests into these really fun collaborations that evolve into such cool things. I know Evan Haskill, Amanda Hoppes and I have worked together from some really fun posts on Evan’s thebourbonguyandrye.com blog. Jenna Brownson, Amanda Hoppes, Samm Lim and I finished an eBook called Brain Tsunami we will be publishing soon. Evan and I are working on a book that is going to be really strong. Something we would want in our own library so it has to be interest to others, right?

Just this past week, I had someone reach out to me which could prove to be the biggest thing I’ve done to date. I’m not telling you about that one just yet. Nope. You gotta wait for that one until next week because it’s going to close out this series. It’s the capper to an incredible look back at what’s happened to me since I started writing.

All of these connections, and opportunities, come from one source and one thing alone…

It’s because I write!

_______________________

Write Steve Write! is a weekly blog by author Steve Akley. Typically it is posted on (most) Sundays and features insight about his writing… though there is an occasional movie review or random thought post. It should be noted it’s posted as a live feed… no editing, no planning beforehand, it’s typed out on Sunday morning and the “publish” button is immediately hit. Apologies for any errors but you get this just as Steve thinks it!

Coming Sunday: We’ll finish my “It’s Because I Write” series next week!

In the meantime, follow check in on Steve in a variety of ways:

Steve’s Catalog on Amazon: http://goo.gl/kJpKcP

The OPUS Blog: steveakley.tumblr.com

Evan Haskill’s Blog: I am a contributor here: thebourbonguyandrye.com

Sign Up for Steve’s SAP News (writing updates) Newsletter: Email Registration

Sign up for Bourbon Zeppelin (bourbon newsletter): Email Registration

Check out the latest issue of Bourbon Zeppelin: See it here!

Twitter: @steveakley

Instagram: @steveakley

What’s App: Steve Akley

Untappd: steveakley

IT’S BECAUSE I WRITE 8/10

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I have been doing a bit of a retrospective over my three years of writing by listing the top 10 things that have happened to me since I have started writing.

Topics Covered So Far:

#1 of 10 – My O.P.U.S. Blog

#2 of 10 – Bourbon Zeppelin

#3 of 10 – Meeting a Hero of Mine

#4 of 10 – My Love Affair with Hawaii

#5 of 10 – The Time My Books Were Featured on TV

#6 of 10 – The Story I Took 35 Years to Complete

#7 of 10 – Bourbon Mixology

———————————–

Telephone Call with a St. Louis Legend

Almost as long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of local businessman Joe Edwards. As a kid, he was the owner of Blueberry Hill, a local restaurant that was really well known in the area. Joe had opened it way back in 1972.

Joe Edwards at Blueberry Hill, picking out items for the opening of his new Peacock Diner

Inside the restaurant was an eclectic gathering of pop culture items. Lunch boxes, Howdy Doody memorabilia, board games, movie and concert posters and much more filled every nook and cranny of the restaurant. I first became a fan of Joe’s when he made the local news when the creator of Archie comics came in to dine during a visit to St. Louis. As he was looking at Joe’s impressive collection of memorabilia, he noticed one piece of Archie memorabilia he didn’t have in his personal collection but had been searching for: an lunchbox from the early years of the comic.

The creator of the comics tried to buy the lunchbox, but Joe Edwards wouldn’t sell it. Instead, Joe offered a trade. If the Archie creator would put Joe in an Archie comic he would give him the lunchbox.

Deal!

That’s right, a few months later, Archie and the gang go out on a road trip and stopped by Blueberry Hill to meet “cartoon Joe Edwards.”

Man, I was hooked. If you could parlay a lunchbox into getting your mug in a comic book… now that’s business I can understand.

I went on a mission to go to Blueberry Hill, but, my Dad, who was a policeman, wouldn’t take me there. “It’s a bar and it’s in too bad of a neighborhood,” he’d tell me.

The next several years, I continued to catch Joe in the paper promoting Blueberry Hill. When he noticed people writing on the bathroom walls… he noted that the stuff they were writing was either funny or oddly insightful. Deep thoughts kind of stuff. So he encouraged it. You could ask for markers at the bar and write on the walls of the bathroom. Then Joe would take the best sayings and sell them on these “graffiti shirts.”

Dad, “Can will you take me to Blueberry Hill to get one of those graffiti shirts?”

I think you can guess his answer.

But…

Fast forward to when I turn 16.

Guess where the first place I went?

Yep, Blueberry Hill.

Burger, malt and one of those graffiti t-shirts!

Joe was even there.

I’ve continued to go to Blueberry Hill and Joe’s often there. I can’t say I’ve ever said anything more than “Hi” but I’ve continued to follow what he’s done for the area, “The U-City Loop” where Blueberry Hill is domiciled.

What used to be vacant buildings, or drug paraphernalia and voodoo shops is now a vibrant area of restaurants and respectable businesses. Much of this is due to Joe’s efforts. He started buying up property and investing in the area. Soon he owned a hotel, more restaurants, a bowling alley and two music venues in the area. He also headed up the St. Louis Walk of Fame which honors individuals who have lived in St. Louis and contributed to society in some way with a star on the sidewalks of the Loop.

The Loop Trolley

His latest project is an impressive one. He’s bringing trolley cars back to St. Louis. He’s navigated the local regulators for approval and even the Federal government for funding to create a line that will take you from Forest Park, which is a large urban park in St. Louis city where you can enjoy the outdoors and museums to the Loop where you can enjoy amenities like restaurants and shopping. It’s such a great idea it’s unbelievable. On a personal basis, I can’t wait for this to get completed. My Dad’s father, my grandfather, was a trolley car driver in St. Louis. It will just be special for me to ride one of these trolley cars my father used to tell me so much about.

All of this gets me to the story. I just wanted to set the stage to tell you how important Joe Edwards is to St. Louis, and specifically the area known as The Loop, as well as how much I’ve followed his career… from a distance. After my father passed away, and I started writing, the first real book I was working on was the book about my father, Life with Akester.

Part of the book was going to occur at Blueberry Hill. I was going to a couple of concerts at the restaurant (they have an unbelievable concert venue called the Duck Room underneath Blueberry Hill that the “retro-fitted” after it opened by digging out underneath the restaurant). I thought I had better check with Blueberry Hil to make sure this was going to be okay since I would be writing about them and taking some photos for the book.

I sent an email and the woman who responded said I really needed to call her.

I thought this wasn’t good. Was she going to tell me I couldn’t write the book? Why did she need to speak to me?

So, I dialed the number she gave me. We spoke briefly. She said they were fine with the concept of the book. They even had some photos I could use. I started asking a little bit about the history of the restaurant when she said, Joe would be better off answering these questions.

“Joe Edwards?,” I asked.

“Yes, Joe,” she responded.

“Do I set up a time?” I inquired.

“No, he’s here right now, hold on.”

In the background, I hear her say, “Joe, this is Steve from the email. He’s asking about the history of Blueberry Hill.”

Next thing you know… I’m talking to Joe Edwards.

The call was great. Do you know how when you look up to someone, you just want them to be human. When I was a kid I used to idolize baseball players. I’d play street ball and you would stand at the plate with the mannerisms of the ballplayers you liked. All of my friends did it. We used to wait for the opposing team’s players by the hotel right by the stadium for autographs. It was amazing. So many of them would yell at us. Here I am, a 10 year old kid who just wants an autograph of the guy I’m acting like at the plate, and here he is screaming at me. “Don’t you kids have anything better to do.” It’s me, my fellow 10 year old neighbor and his 3 year old brother. Not an overwhelming amount of people mind you.

Anyway, you just want these people to be… people. Well, that phone call with Joe couldn’t have gone any better. He answered every question. Took an interest in my project asking me about it. Just a great guy.

I continue to look up to Joe Edwards for everything he’s done for the area. Most of all, I respect those 30 minutes he spent talking to me about my Dad and my book.

This all happened for one reason…

It’s because I write!

_______________________

Coming Sunday: We’ll be continuing on with my “It’s Because I Write” series next week!

In the meantime, follow check in on Steve in a variety of ways:

Steve’s Catalog on Amazon: http://goo.gl/kJpKcP

The OPUS Blog: steveakley.tumblr.com

Evan Haskill’s Blog: I am a contributor here: thebourbonguyandrye.com

Sign Up for Steve’s SAP News (writing updates) Newsletter: Email Registration

Sign up for Bourbon Zeppelin (bourbon newsletter): Email Registration

Check out the latest issue of Bourbon Zeppelin: See it here!

Twitter: @steveakley

Instagram: @steveakley

What’s App: Steve Akley

Untappd: steveakley

IT’S BECAUSE I WRITE 7/10

IT’S BECAUSE I WRITE 6/10

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Topics Covered So Far:

#1 of 10 – My O.P.U.S. Blog

#2 of 10 – Bourbon Zeppelin

#3 of 10 – Meeting a Hero of Mine

#4 of 10 – My Love Affair with Hawaii

#5 of 10 – The Time My Books Were Featured on TV

———————————–

Today, I’m going to tell you about a story that took me 35 years to complete…

The first writing assignment I ever got was a one page assignment to write a short fiction story in third grade. My idea was to write this story about two boys, Frank and Dirk, who had heard about this mysterious island called Bear Island. They decided to go off on their own on an adventure to the island.

Doing so meant a challenging traverse in a kayak on an island they had heard was quite dangerous. Eventually the boys would stumble across the bear that had been the thing of legend in their town.

So I started writing about Frank and Dirk and their friendship. That led to their plan to go to Bear Island. Then I wrote about the the crossing the ocean to get to Bear Island in a kayak. The boys were quickly in over their head when the seas picked up. They paddled harder-and-harder, but the sea was getting angier. Finally, one wave, the size of which the boys had never seen before, lifted them in their kayak and slammed it down onto land. Both boys rendered uncouncious from the impact. Dirk woke up first and shook his friend awake with the line, “Frank, I think we are on Bear Island.”

Then…

That was it. I was out of space. My page was full. I blew the assignment. I never even got to the adventure. They never even encountered the bear.

I went to my Mom and asked her what to do. She read my one-page story in my kid handwritten script (no computers back then) and she told me it was really good.

Wait, she didn’t even get it. This wasn’t complete.

I protested telling her there was no adventure. And the bear. What about the bear?

She told me I didn’t need any of that. The adventure was getting there. The plan, the execution, the angry sea. That was my adventure. That was the story. You leave it where they crash land on Bear Island and let the reader imagine the adventure. You set it up with your stories about mystery and intrigue and then you put your characters in the spot. You have left the reader to decide in their minds what happened to those boys.

Hmmmm.

I mean I think she made all of that up, but it didn’t sound bad.

Taking my Mom’s advice, I brought my story to class with me. We actually had to read them to the class and I have to say I was in good form that day. I really accentuated the tossing and turing in that kayak and I really hit the mark with the line, “Frank, I think we are on Bear Island.”

Applause. My teacher, Mrs. Varusa, loved it too.

Wow, that really fueled my desire to become a writer. It wouldn’t be anything I ever acted on though until 2012/2013 after my Dad passed away.

That story never left me all of those years. I would often think about Frank and Dirk and their adventure. That line too, “Frank, I think we are on Bear Island” just stuck in my head. Like a real movie line where you apply it to everday life (people who are into movie lines will get that reference). For me, “Frank, I think we are on Bear Island” would pop into my head for more than 30 years everytime I was on some new adventure. For example, like when I was walking in the door on the first day of my new job back in 1998 at the company I still work for, I remember that line popping into my head, “Frank, I think we are on Bear Island.”

Yep, just like Mom said. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but an adventure is coming!

About a year into writing and publishing, I got the idea of publishing short stories. The first one I wrote was the Legend of Bear Island.

Haida Bear

The new, updated Legend of Bear Island has the complete history of the island. It has our boys, Frank and Dirk, go on an adventure and now, finally, we get to see exactly what happened to them after regaining conciousness on the beach.

It’s still one of the favorite things I have ever written. The story is inriguing, funny, adventure-filled and immediately brings me back to the third grade version of myself, crafting that story on lined paper with a pencil, sharing it with my Mom and then reading it to the class.

Finishing this gem, only happened to me because I write!

If you would like to check out the Legned of Bear Island, it is available for your Kindle device by clicking here!

_______________________

Coming Sunday: We’ll be continuing on with my “It’s Because I Write” series next week!

In the meantime, follow check in on Steve in a variety of ways:

Steve’s Catalog on Amazon: http://goo.gl/kJpKcP

The OPUS Blog: steveakley.tumblr.com

Evan Haskill’s Blog: I am a contributor here: thebourbonguyandrye.com

Sign Up for Steve’s SAP News (writing updates) Newsletter: Email Registration

Sign up for Bourbon Zeppelin (bourbon newsletter): Email Registration

Check out the latest issue of Bourbon Zeppelin: See it here!

Twitter: @steveakley

Instagram: @steveakley

What’s App: Steve Akley

Untappd: steveakley

HUUUUUUUGE BOURBON ZEPPELIN DAY

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Recently in this blog we’ve been tracking the 10 greatest things that happened to me since I started writing, we’re taking a one week break to cover some breaking news..

On Friday, July 1, at 6:00 a.m. central time, I launched the second edition of Bourbon Zeppelin. For anyone not familiar, BZ is my “magazine of newsletters” that is written for bourbon fans by bourbon fans with the following photo announcing it on social media and the tagline, “The second edition of Bourbon Zeppelin is bananas:”

BZ Bananas

Luckily, I had taken the day off of work to extend the holiday weekend. In following a “bananas theme” my world pretty much went ape ______!

Immediately, people started reaching out saying how great the issue was. My buddy Evan Haskill made a comment about Instagram being all about Bourbon Zeppelin at one point. It sure seemed that way. I literally couldn’t keep up with all of the posts that were going on about it.

I had people from various bourbon distilleries/bourbon-related products say they would send items for future consideration. The coolest one was Glencairn Glass (the preferred bourbon tasting glasses). They are actually carrying my Bourbon Zeppelin glass on their site now. Check it out:

Bourbon Zeppelin Glencairn Glass You can see it on Glencairn’s site by clicking here.

One of the coolest things was a short note from my buddy Jenna Brownson. She’s not a bourbon drinker, but she said she enjoyed the issue, in particular my “special report” on the bourbon secondary market. It was just cool to hear someone from outside of the bourbon crew to like what we are doing.

Speaking of Jenna. She loves numbers. Well, when it comes to BZ, I love them as well. My Associate Editor for BZ is a funny, yet serious when it comes to business, gent named Hasse Berg. Together, we live and die by these numbers.

Here’s some cool stats. Our Facebook likes doubled after BZ was published (It was a small base, but cool nonetheless). Our first issue had been published on June 1. It took from June 1 – June 29 to get the number of readers we had in second issue in just two days. Our database of email addresses has doubled in size from June 1 – July 1 all based on people signing up on their own to received BZ emailed directly to them. We had over 100 people on the day issue 2 was released go back and read issue 1.

How about all of that?

Perhaps best of all, we’re being taken seriously in the distilled spirits world. Some of the largest bourbon distillers in the U.S. have us on their P.R. lists. Our reviews are already appearing on the web. Check out this example from Cadee Distillery:

Cadee

I knew we had a fantastic thing going with Bourbon Zeppelin. I had no idea the rest of the world would find out about it so quickly.

PLEASE CHECK OUT BOURBON ZEPPELIN IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE SO ALREADY. YOU CAN READ THE LATEST ISSUE BY CLICKING HERE!

_______________________

Coming Sunday: We’ll be continuing on with my “It’s Because I Write” series next week!

In the meantime, follow check in on Steve in a variety of ways:

Steve’s Catalog on Amazon: http://goo.gl/kJpKcP

The OPUS Blog: steveakley.tumblr.com

Evan Haskill’s Blog: I am a contributor here: thebourbonguyandrye.com

Sign Up for Steve’s SAP News (writing updates) Newsletter: Email Registration

Sign up for Bourbon Zeppelin (bourbon newsletter): Email Registration

Check out the latest issue of Bourbon Zeppelin: See it here!

Twitter: @steveakley

Instagram: @steveakley

What’s App: Steve Akley

Untappd: steveakley

IT’S BECAUSE I WRITE 5/10

IT’S BECAUSE I WRITE 4/10

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You know how when they have a two-parter on your favorite show they start out the second episode with a mini recap of episode one in case you missed it? Well, the recap for my first three entries of my 10 part series focusing on the great things that have happened to me as a result of writing is as follows…

So far we’ve covered my O.P.U.S. interview series, my Bourbon Zeppelin newsletter and meeting one of my heroes in Dick Dale.

Okay, you’re all caught up.

The area I want to focus on today is the love I got from the residents of the State of Hawaii early on in my writing career.

When you are just getting started as an independent author you literally just want your books to sell… to somebody… anybody.

It’s true; it’s a difficult process getting yourself noticed as an indie author. In fact, writing is the easy part. Marketing… that’s the really tough part.

Luckily for me, I stumbled into a mutual love affair with the State of Hawaii that really bolstered my confidence in my writing early on. It all started with my Small Brand America series which focused on small companies competing against larger companies on grocer’s shelves. I had written two editions of the book and started working on a third. For some reason I had queried several companies based in Hawaii and all had agreed to do the book so I began thinking maybe the whole book should be companies based in the Aloha State. That’s a whole new twist to the challenges small companies face. Now they were not only competing against larger, better funded companies, they had the huge obstacle of being in a remote island location as well.

That book, Small Brand America: Special Hawaii Edition, truly helped turn the corner for me with my writing. It was my first minor victory. Not only did it make a few newspapers in Hawaii generating my first publicity as a writer, I also got a nice spike in sales from the companies featured. Since Hawaii is such a tourist friendly locale, many of these manufacturing companies also have stores where they sell goods directly to consumers along with some touristy-type souvenirs. Many started carrying my books there.

The love affair with Hawaii really took off as I was finishing SBA III. At that time, I had started writing short stories. I came up with the detective story involving the murder of a celebrity. Surveillance video captured everyone coming into or leaving the home so police had the murderer on tape, they just didn’t know who the right person was as multiple people from gardeners, to maids, to delivery people came and went regularly from this person’s house. One of the cities I had written about in SBA III was Kilauea. I loved the name, The Killer in Kilauea…it just had the right ring to it so it became the name of the story.

One of the people I had met through my SBA III story was a woman named Cas Schwabe. She’s got a great personal story. She’s an actress/chef who works as a personal chef to several big name stars when they come to Kauai (Woddy Harrelson and Mathew McConnaughy). She started her own juice company that featured in-home delivery. It’s a small company so this means Cas can often be found delivering the juice she makes. Needing to have characters coming and leaving the home of the celebrity in my book A Killer in Kilauea, I asked Cas if she would mind being a character in it. She happened to live in Kilauea so it truly was perfect.

She accepted my invite to do so and she became a character in my short story. Once again, this got a lot of publicity in Hawaii, with an article about Cas and her role as a character in my story appearing in the newspaper on Kauai.

At this time, I had several short stories and a handful of books published. Almost all of my sales were in Hawaii. Not even my home state of Missouri could compare to the numbers I was racking up in the South Pacific.

I had my family from my children’s book Leo the Coffee Drinking Cat move to Hawaii in the book, Leo the Coffee Drinking Cat Moves to Hawaii. Finally, when I wrote a novel, it had to be there as well. My book Pa’u Hana features two buddies living in Kauai trying to get into the movie business. (By the way, Cas Schwabe once again appeared in this book…a least a half-biographical/half-fiction version of her).

With the success of Bourbon Mixology (still the 5th ranked bourbon book on Amazon today) my sales are no longer skewed to being mostly from Hawaii. Still, this doesn’t diminish my love for our 50th state and the confidence the residents gave me so early in my career.

_______________________

Coming Sunday: We’ll be continuing on with my “It’s Because I Write” series next week!

In the meantime, follow check in on Steve in a variety of ways:

Steve’s Catalog on Amazon: http://goo.gl/kJpKcP

The OPUS Blog: steveakley.tumblr.com

Evan Haskill’s Blog: I am a contributor here: thebourbonguyandrye.com

Sign Up for Steve’s Newsletters: Email Registration

Twitter: @steveakley

Instagram: @steveakley

What’s App: Steve Akley

Untappd: steveakley

IT’S BECAUSE I WRITE 3/10

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This is the third edition of my “It’s Because I Write” series featuring me talking about some of the greatest things that have happened to me since I’ve started writing. So far, I’ve talked about meeting great people via my O.P.U.S. blog and living out a lifelong dream of publishing my own magazine with Bourbon Zeppelin (even if my “magazine” is an online newsletter).

Today I’m going to tell you all about the time I got to meet one of my heroes… thanks to my writing.

I will tell you right away, I am still a “heroes” guy. I know celebrities are people just like us, but, even in adulthood, I’m still the type to get starstruck by someone who has accomplished something of interest to me in the pubic eye. That’s what makes this little tale to much fun. I got to meet someone I’ve always looked up to based largely because I had become a writer.

It all started with a business trip to London for a trade show. This was the winter of 2013, shortly after my father passed away. I was in a small pub enjoying a few beers with a colleague. With our American accents, the waitress asked us where we were from. When we told her St. Louis she had never heard of it. As we were having this discussion, Johnny B. Goode came on the radio. Since we were having the discussion where we were from, and St. Louis meant nothing to her, I thought I would at least make the point it wasn’t in the middle of nowhere by pointing out Chuck Berry was from St. Louis, too, so I said, “Hear this song… the guy playing it is also from St. Louis.”

To my surprise, she responded in her way cool English accent, “You are from where CHUCK BERRY lives? Oh my god!”

What?

A woman who hasn’t heard of St. Louis knows Chuck Berry?

When I asked her about this, she went on-and-on about how everyone knows Chuck Berry and how influential he is.

I thought I would really get her going by saying, “Get this, Chuck is not only still around, he plays once a month at a club called Blueberry Hill. It’s just a small intimate place where you can see him play for about 30 U.S. dollars.”

I thought that would really get a fan going and fill her with envy of how cool my colleague and I were as well as how great of a place St. Louis must be.

Instead, she got me with this line. “That is so great. How many times have you gone and seen Chuck play there?”

Ummmmmmmmmmm……

None.

That’s right, despite being a big fan, I never had gone to see Chuck play. It’s just one of those things where you always plan to do it… but you never actually have the time.

These comments where like a defibrillator zapping my heart. With the sudden death of my father only 2 months before, things had changed in my life. I no longer was going to have eternal “to dos” that never get “to done.” (That makes no sense but sounds kinda snappy, doesn’t it?)

When I spoke to my wife later that night, I told her to buy some tickets to the next Chuck Berry show at Blueberry Hill.

The next night, when I spoke to her, she confirmed she got the tickets for Chuck Berry, but then she said, “You know that one guy you like, Dick Dale, he’s playing there a few weeks later.”

Whooooooaaaaa!

Dick Dale? The King of the Surf Guitar. The guy who was friends with Jimi Hendrix. A guy I would pattern my own writing career off of (stay independent, retain the rights to everything you create, don’t let others make decisions about your work for you). The guy who can play the guitar like no other. The man who created the sound of one of my all-time favorite movies in Pulp Fiction with his song Miserlou.

Yes, that Dick Dale.

So the wife and I agreed to also get tickets to see Dick Dale as well.

At this same time, I had already started to write a book about my father. Ultimately, it would become the book, Life with Akester (my Dad’s nickname) that included a biography and some of the favorite stories I had collected about him (I always wrote these crazy stories about the stuff he would do… and then share them with friends and family, including him. This was the best of those).

Since I was going to be writing the book, I thought I would write Dick Dale to make sure it was okay to write about the experience of the concert in this book about my father. His wife Lana responded and put me in touch with their lawyer. I was pleasantly surprised to have their representative quickly sign off on my idea.

I continued to email back-and-forth with Lana as the show grew near. We would share personal stories about our lives… me talking about my father and her talking about things from the life of her and Dick (I’m not going to share personal correspondence, but it was really cool).

The night of the show was incredible. We got there early and ended up in the front row (there is no assigned seating at Blueberry Hill).

In his late 70s, a multi-time cancer survivor, the guy can still rock. The band has no setlist either. Dick Dale just starts playing and his band follows him with whatever he’s doing.

One of the many great shots I got of Dick Dale playing that night

The show ended with Dick playing Miserlou.

I’m not kidding when I had goosebumps watching that guy play that song. It goes fast… and then faster… and then explosively fast. I’ve seen a lot of shows in my life, I don’t think any moment from all of those shows tops watching DD shred that song.

After the show I got to meet Dick and Lana. He’s a cool dude and she’s a sweetheart.

I got a bunch of items signed that night, including this mini Dick Dale guitar

My book came out a few months later. I shared the story of grief and how a couple of things, like the Dick Dale and Chuck Berry shows truly helped me at that time. I was so down. The enjoyment of those shows demonstrated you could still have guilt-free happiness even in the face of something as traumatic as losing your father.

I stayed in touch with Lana and Dick for the next year or so after that. We even exchanged Christmas cards later that year, but, over time, the communications became further-and-further apart. I wanted to maintain contact with them, but never wanted to force communication so finally it just kind of faded away.

My enthusiasm for Dick Dale and his work has faded a bit, though. The guy is still a hero of mine and I would love to see him play again one day.

All of this came about because I write!

_______________________

Coming Sunday: We’ll be continuing on with my “It’s Because I Write” series next week!

In the meantime, follow check in on Steve in a variety of ways:

Steve’s Catalog on Amazon: http://goo.gl/kJpKcP

The OPUS Blog: steveakley.tumblr.com

Evan Haskill’s Blog: I am a contributor here: thebourbonguyandrye.com

Sign Up for Steve’s Newsletters: Email Registration

Twitter: @steveakley

Instagram: @steveakley

What’s App: Steve Akley

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IT’S BECAUSE I WRITE 2/10

IT’S BECAUSE I WRITE 1/10

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Hello everybody… I hope you are having a great Memorial Day weekend. Maybe you are enjoying some down time, perhaps spending some time with family, maybe doing something fun and hopefully taking a few moments to reflect on the brave men and women who have give us the gift of freedom.

I’ve been doing a little reflecting myself recently. A lot of great things have happened for me as a result of a decision I made to start writing a little over three years ago. In the spirit of this self-reflection, I’m starting a little mini project in the form of a 10 week run where I look back on some of the cool, incredible and amazing things that have happened to me since I became an author.

First up is my O.P.U.S. interview blog (check it out at: steveakley.tumblr.com). Earlier this year, I embarked on a social media journey designed to meet new people by interviewing them for the aforementioned blog.

I honestly didn’t know what it was going to be when I got started. Was it a journey inside of my own mind by asking questions about other? Would I actually meet new people and make new friends? Was it an opportunity to simply promote my work? Would anyone even really do this… or better yet, would anyone READ this?

These were the things that were going through my brain as I got started. Luckily, the first person I asked, Samm Lim, agreed to do it. While I was working on Samm’s interview, I also asked several others… no one would bite. Once I got Samm’s interview posted, though, it became a different story. People got what I was trying to do and it did become easier to get people to participate.

These interviews aren’t necessarily easy. It takes time to compose the questions…even though they are completely idiotic, I’m telling you it takes time. I’m guessing maybe even more time than a legitimate interview because I want to be irreverent and funny without being offensive. Then you have to format them and find the images to go with what they are saying.

One of the strangest, yet most delightful aspects of these interviews is my co-host… Kate Upton. No, Kate’s not actually involved in the project, but she’s a big part of it for sure. For some reason, I just love adding Kate Upton questions into these interviews. People are confused by them… they want to act like they don’t like her because she’s like a caricature of youth and beauty… I don’t know, it’s just fun. Trust me, when I don’t have a Kate Upton question in one of these interviews, I hear about it.

Yes, it’s another fascinating aspect of O.P.U.S. is the fact people reach out to me. They send me messages about the interviews. They like a certain one, or they were inspired by the story of a person… or hey, where was the Kate Upton question? It’s just cool. People I don’t know blindly reaching out to me about my work. It’s something every author wants… you have touched them in some way. It’s great by me even if it’s not my books. The way I look at it, hey, we’ve broken the ice and hopefully they are made aware of my writing from that point forward.

With the interview I just posted this morning, I am officially halfway done with my O.P.U.S. journey. I interviewed Kris Kettner, a blogger from Oklahoma I met on Instagram through our shared interest in bourbon. Kris was interview #50 of 100. Even though I can’t imagine not doing this anymore, and worry I’ll be potentially missing out on some of the great friendships I’ve made through this project, everything has a shelf life.

As I continue on with my writing, and my interviews, I’ll leave you with 10 keen observations I have made so far with my O.P.U.S. project:

There are standard questions I ask to everyone and the most confusing is clearly, “Do you have anything to plug.” I would say 15% of people ask what that means.
I have found most men will say Kate Upton is “not their type” when you ask them a question about her. I always can’t help but wonder if that would hold up if they actually met her?
I have about a dozen people helping me out with my Bourbon Zeppelin newsletter project. Every single one of them I met via an O.P.U.S. interview.
I’m always amazed at how well people do to the question “what celebrity would play you in a movie?” It inspired me to start adding pictures to the interviews which is now a very popular component of them.
The first interview I numbered, was Jenna Brownson. She was number 9 of 100.
The idea of adding the internet photos to the interviews started with Dawn Husted (#11 of 100). She said the actress to play her was Piper Perabo. I had no idea who that was so I thought it would be good to include a picture. Then I thought it would be good to do that in everyone so people could compare the celebrity to the person since I always had a photo of the interviewee.
I really started adding a bunch of photos with my interview of Sarah-Mitchell Jackson (#13 of 100). I started just tying in photos to what they were saying starting with her.
What’s my favorite? Whomever the most recent one is. I really like all of them.
Am I friends with all of these people still? Not really. Some you kind of lose track of and I won’t like speak to again. Others are off the radar but I feel like I could give them a shout out and pick up conversation at any time. One, I have since blocked from social media. Who? I’m not saying.
Which one was most popular? Depends on how you look at it I guess. The most likes I ever got on the Instagram announcements I have ever received was Brooke, the Beer Yoga lady. I love that gal. She’s really awesome. I think the one that hit home with the most people based on comments was pretty recent. Christa Gayle, a women who I later found out lives like 2 miles from me, shared a really touching story about her life. The victim of an abusive relationship she struggled with feelings of no self-worth only to get a divorce, move on and find love. It was cool. Way more than I ever thought an idiot with a computer asking people silly questions would ever uncover.

Sure, we’re halfway done, but it also means we’ve still got half of our interviews in front of us. I look forward to making more friends and finding out about Ordinary People/Unusual Stories…O.P.U.S.

_______________________

Coming Sunday: We’ll be continuing on with my “It’s Because I Write” series next week!

In the meantime, follow check in on Steve in a variety of ways:

Steve’s Catalog on Amazon: http://goo.gl/kJpKcP

The OPUS Blog: steveakley.tumblr.com

Evan Haskill’s Blog: I am a contributor here: thebourbonguyandrye.com

Sign Up for Steve’s Newsletters: Email Registration

Twitter: @steveakley

Instagram: @steveakley

What’s App: Steve Akley

Untappd: steveakley