Full tilt

Hey everyone,

The book launch event went absolutely as well as I possibly could have expected last night. I contacted Coach Ron Lievense at Barton last Tuesday, six days ago, asking if we could do this. We packed out Barton's student movie theater, and Ant gave an incredible message, and lots of people got to meet him and get the book that might not have had the chance otherwise.

Last night, though about the book in a way, was really about thanking Ant. It was tough for me, as a journalist, to pry into the bad areas of Ant's life, particularly his background, because he is one of the best guys I know now. I was really happy to have him involved in this, because it meant a lot to me for him to open up to me the way he did. He understood that for one of the book's greatest themes -- redemption -- to come through most powerfully, he had to work with me to let others see how far down he went, and by seeing that, also seeing how far back he came. The end result really was a thing of beauty.

So thank you, Barton College Fellowship of Christian Athletes, for helping me thank Ant. You're all rockstars. 

I've really been meaning to blog more, but life has gone into hyperdrive right now. I'm going to do my absolute best to keep updating you on the amazing people I run across in life, and keep you posted on the book progress, and let you know about fun promotions we'll be doing for it in the coming weeks and months. But I'm amazingly swamped right now. It's a great problem to have; it just forces me to prioritize, and right now, writing has to take top priority. 

It's weird. I'm stoked, of course, that the book is out, but it hasn't really hit me yet that I'm a published author, what with all the hustle going on to get the book out there. I'm loving every second of it. This is what I've dedicated my life to for the past year and a half, so busting my butt to promote it is easy. It's also exhausting, and makes it tough to focus on my freelance contract work, but I have to put just as much time into that as always, too, to be fair to those clients. They mean a lot to me, because they've made it possible for me to spend so much time writing this book. 

Hopefully, this weekend I'll be able to step back for a moment, and breathe, and just enjoy seeing the finished product. Because it really has nothing to do with my name being on the cover. It's all about the story inside. I'm so blessed to have been shown this story, and given the chance to show it to others. 

One day, I will be doing nothing but writing books and magazine features for a living, and it will be a grand time full of much fun and many adventures and a guaranteed blog post a day.

Hopefully that day comes sooner than later. And you know what, it will, if you go buy my book!

Some other quick-hit thoughts:

• Had an amazing interview today for a story I'm writing for North Brunswick Magazine. It's due tomorrow, so I gotta quit blogging and go actually write the durn thing, so I'll tell you more about it later, but had to mention this lady. Her name is Reasa Willis, and she founded and runs Brunswick Housing Authority, and some of the things she said brought to mind Papa from The Shack. Seriously. Gonna be a great story.
• I'm excited that the book's out, but i've found myself always on edge, wondering what I could have done better. Today, I read a verse in Proverbs that put my mind at ease some. Proverbs 21:5 says, "The plans of the diligent lead to profit, surely as haste leads to poverty." Another version says, "Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you further behind." We've pushed this book off multiple times to make sure to get things right in it. Yeah, absolutely, I could have done some things better, but that's how every writer worth reading feels, I believe. If they didn't want to get better, then why would you want to read them? That would be like watching Kobe say, "Yeah, I'll keep playing ball I guess, but I don't care about winning any more championships." Yeah right. So that made me feel better. I'm wholly at peace with the final product, but I'm also now at peace with the unease I feel when I think about doing things better. I'm 23. Of course I'll learn how to do things better. Moving on....
• The book is now available at several select locations in its first day out, and will be in more soon. Right now, you can find it online, of course, on Amazon and at EdgeOfLegend.com, but also in these stores:
  • All you Wilson folks can find it at the Barton College Campus Bookstore, at Heaven's Rein Bookstore in the Wilson Mall, at Vineyard Book Store on Forest Hills Drive, and at the Kenly News office in Kenly.
  • Wilmington folks, you can find it at RBR Books in Leland for now, and hopefully in other bookstores in the area soon.
  • It will also soon be available at Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, and Borders. 

Thanks everyone. You all rock. Love you all.

- Brandon

UPDATE (9/21/10 4:49 p.m.) - Thanks to Ben Steelman at the StarNews for writing up a blog for the book's release! Awesome dude, Ben. You can read his blog here.