I spent this Friday morning doing phone interviews with potential employees for my day job and started doodling this fellow. He is The Comfort Crusader, the outspoken superhero Xander conjures to help him endure a bus ride for a field trip to the Sugarbeet Falls Hospital. It’s not necessarily my best artistic endeavor, but it did make me feel good. I love the idea of kids and others that read Sugarbeet Falls can naturally think of heroes big and small that would be nice to have around. I mean a super pillow? That guy doesn’t get an invitation to Professor X’s mansion to be part of the X-Men, but he sure helped Xander that day.
Inspiration is a funny thing. Its hard to put a finger on what is inspirational for before you’re inspired by it. I’ve already talked about my inspiration for the book itself is my son Zack, but to take it to the level of publishing and trying to market it has been a mixture of all kinds of inspiration.
The biggest inspiration is my wife. She’s a wonderful wife and mother, but professionally, she is a cheer coach. She is nothing else. She loves cheerleading, she loves coaching, she loves helping cheerleaders get better, and she loves to compete. Twice now, she has opened cheerleading gyms in our small town against long odds, and twice she has been successful. No one could tell her “no,” if they did, she wouldn’t hear it.
I have another friend from Phoenix named Miguel. He felt the call to start an energy drink company called Fuga Energy. To break into that market is a bear, the Monster, NOS, Red Bull, and others don’t take kindly to new guys. Miguel hasn’t put Fuga in every store yet, but he is putting everything he has into it and he will either make it or die trying. Either way, he won’t regret the effort and faith he put into his dream.
I work for a couple of guys who’s story would to too unbelievable for Hollywood. They were students in welding school in 1998 and now they have a company that does more than $100 million in revenue, they own a racing team, they give back to communities in a manner that would cause most accountants to drink far too much, and they’re only just beginning.
Bits and pieces of all of these stories, and more, made me take the leap and self publish Sugarbeet Falls. It has been fun, and scary, and time consuming, and exciting, and stressful. Ultimately though, whether I have already sold my last book or it becomes a best seller, I truly hope someone does something creative or outside of their comfort zone because I took the leap to put this silly little book into print.
Wow…that was a long one!