I never intended to write a book.
In fact, I never considered myself author material and never aspired to have anything published. I preferred to read what others wrote.
Sure, during my business career, I was involved in writing correspondence, estimates, plans, policies, proposals and a raft of other business related documents. I really didn’t consider such activities “writing.” However, I always considered myself a decent written communicator and occasionally found myself submitting letters to the editors of my local newspapers. I even edited a monthly newsletter for my community’s mens travel club. Still, I never thought of myself as a writer, much less an author.
I always enjoyed reading (especially historical non-fiction) and have always been intrigued by little tidbits of information that were new to me.
About five years ago I happened to be reading something about Buddy Holly and the plane crash that killed him, along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. As a fan of “Oldies” music, I thought I knew pretty much all there was to know about the deaths of the three Rock and Roll stars (i.e., the Day the Music Died). I discovered a number of things that I didn’t know. I reasoned that if I didn’t know a lot of the facts surrounding the Day the Music Died, then probably a lot of my friends and neighbors didn’t know either. I decided to put together an audio-visual talk titled, “The Day the Music Died: The Stars, the Tour, the Crash, and the Aftermath.” In 2018 I presented the talk at our community’s clubhouse to a good turnout of my neighbors and received many favorable comments about the information I shared. I then presented expanded versions of the talk to a couple of local “speaker series” groups, with similar positive reactions.
Before long, I came across another very interesting tidbit of local Maryland history–one that indirectly led to my book. Check out my next blog post to find out how this tidbit influenced the Adventures of an Accidental Author.