11/9/24. A one of a kind event was held by Shows at Rustic Barn second floor banquet room. Call it an author’s appreciation event for the folks who were instrumental in helping to bring his book, The Footless Girls Of Camp C, to life.
The highest of praise goes out to Deena Chappell, Mike Dubois, John Cehowski and Joel Patterson. That praise also includes the many folks who either read and commented on early drafts of the book or who have been all onboard since its publication in promoting the book.
The day started with introductions and appetizers while everyone got to know everyone else. Shows then made a brief reading from chapter one, the story of when he learned to “crook a deer”, as a young boy on his first hunting trip.
Second up was Deena who spoke about how she and Shows met and how they came to work on the book together. Deena is the editor and was key in smoothing out rough sections and keeping the grammar and articulation on course. This was especially challenging as there are many speaking characters and they all have their unique dialects and language.
Next up was Mike Dubois. Mike is a nationally known graphic artist in the music and art world. Shows was jazzed that Mike designed the book jacket art and if you think you can’t judge a book by its cover, Mike might change your mind with this one. Check Mike out at www.happylifeproductions.com
John Cehowski also gave a detailing of how he and Shows met and became musical friends. Shows overheard an original song by John with content that relates to one of the book’s tenets. John was kind enough to not only allow use of the song for the audiobook but he performed the song in the recording studio and made the book’s ending even better.
At this point a fantastic meal was served up by Jody and crew while everyone relaxed, chatted with each other and asked questions.
After dinner, Joel provided insight into how the audiobook came to fruition. He demonstrated his Digital Audio Workshop on his laptop and spoke about the various sound effects and musical aspects found only in the audiobook. Find Joel at www.joelpatterson.us
Shows closed out the event with a monologue and reading about the food varieties, or lack of varieties, that the platoon ate during the mission. Robin highlighted that aspect by creating table settings featuring samples of the most eaten food such as SPAM, jerky, tabasco sauce, tuna and so on.
Special thanks to all of the book’s premier supporters – Maggie Gallagher, Kim Oppelt, Jim and Cheryl Collier (who came from Florida for the event), George Hubbard, Jean Tansey, Matt Warner, Deb Cavanaugh, Kristin McClenaghan, Mike Mercier, Lou Amendolara, Jody Brenenstuhl, and Amy Modesti.
John Wensley, MIchael Correia, Sarah Babushkin, Joe Koval (from Rochester), Tom and Angie Schaller (from North Carolina) couldn’t make the event but they are included in the support list.
Shows also wants to express his gratitude to the hundreds of other fans of his book. Many people, friends and strangers have brought one of the versions of the book and provided excellent comments and feedback. Every single person who has read or listened to the book is deeply appreciated by Shows.
