My first book, Rich People Shop Here, is about to publish, and nobody is more surprised about that than me.
This all started a few years ago when I wote a series of guest columns for the Houston Chronicle. One of those columns was a story about how when we were boys we were kind of poor and my mom would take us to the thrift stores to buy our school clothes. She would always preface these little shopping sprees with the admonition that we “shouldn’t feel bad about shopping in these places because a lot of rich people shop here.” I noted in my guest column that if the definition of wealth was having a good reputation and friends and family who love you, then she was and still is one of the wealthiest people I know, and yes, rich people DID shop there after all.
The story was very well received and I thought often about expanding the story and writing it down so that it wouldn’t be lost forever. After a three year stint in Georgia with The Gallup Organization, I came back to Texas and decided that the the time was right for me to write mom’s life story and go down to Kinko’s and print it off for the kids and grandkids.
But then, a good friend in the publishing biz started reading chapters as I finished them, and after the book was completed she strongly encouraged me to try and get it published, that this story had great potential to inspire and encourage others.
So, I’m holding the first official copy of Rich People Shop Here in my hand. George Gallup, Jr. wrote the forward, and it has been endorsed by best-selling authors Bob Beaudine and Carolyn Castleberry. We had a book release party last Sunday with a hundred or so of our closest friends and family. I’ll talk more about that in my next post, but suffice it to say it was one of the highlights of my life.
