The Story Behind My Book
I should write a book. People say it all the time. Funny thing is, I was never one of those people. Writing a book was the furthest thing from my mind the day I walked into my first factory. And it was still the furthest thing from my mind when I walked out of that factory for the final time 22 years later. After
all, why would anyone want to read my story? I was as much of an Average Joe as you can get. I graduated high school, went to work in a factory for 22 years, then decided to try something else. Move along people, nothing to see here.
Then I started working in Myrtle Beach, a land where virtually every employer pays $7 to $8 per hour, many times with no benefits, and just can’t seem to understand why they can’t find reliable employees. I joked about writing a book during this time in my life. But then I would just chuckle and say I would have to bill it as fiction because no one that has ever worked for a decent company outside of Myrtle Beach would believe it. I even dedicated one of my magazine columns to the pathetic wages and unrealistic employer expectations during the off tourist season when the entertainment scene was slow. I coined the phrase “Move-to-Myrtle Beach-itis” in that piece in a flippant manner to describe how so many people come to Myrtle Beach one time on vacation, instantly fall in love with the beach atmosphere and immediately decide they want to live there without doing any career research. I think that may have also been the first time I used the so sad but unfortunately true phrase, “Myrtle Beach, a great place to live but you wouldn’t want to work there.” That column actually received a fair amount of comments and feedback. And it was all positive. That was my first clue that my career experiences may actually hold some entertainment value.
Then I migrated to the poultry industry with all their sweat shop management tactics, third-world manufacturing practices and illegal workforces and I realized I had to write a book.
At first I thought these three different career paths had little to do with one another. But as I started thinking the whole concept through as three separate, unrelated events, I suddenly realized this was one cohesive story from start to finish.
I had several purposes in mind when I first started this project. First, of course, was entertainment value. As a writer, I write with the expressed purpose in mind that people will actually enjoy reading what I have written. The same way that, as a musician, when I play music I hope the people listening will enjoy what
they hear. That’s why even though this is a serious topic; I attempted to add some sarcastic humor and levity where appropriate, just for a little added entertainment value.
I also hope potential future, as well as current management figures in all industries will see the value of this work as an instruction manual of how to, and more importantly, how not to motivate a workforce.
And, of course, I wrote this book as an information guide. People in this country have a right to hear both sides of the illegal immigration debate. And they certainly are not getting the other side from the main stream media or our political leaders.
Available at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0875869009/algorapublishingA
As well as most major online book sellers.