My first book, Critters is an award-winning compilation of 32 short stories, including one about the late Jim “Catfish” Hunter that his best friend called “the greatest story ever written about him.” The ten funniest stories were later recorded as an audiobook with sound effects.
Because of my love of comedy and my days telling jokes in nightclubs, I have spent a large portion of my life thinking up stories and writing punchlines. Critters is a collection of short stories I wrote because I had to: my head was getting very crowded. I’ve had a fabulous, funny life and wanted to share some laughs.
Most of the stories are true. The ones that aren’t are exaggerations rooted in the truth, names changed to protect the guilty. The ten funniest ended up in an audiobook with sound effects. My sound engineer was fabulous. He had tens of thousands of sounds archived and knew them all. I had as much fun working with him to add exactly the right amount of squishiness as I did describing what was being squished.
Despite being my first book, readers include Tiger Woods, Cal Ripken Jr., and many other sports notables. How lucky was that?
Far more important than the gold medal for humor the book received from CIPA (a Colorado book organization) was a phone call I received from a reader in North Carolina who was a close friend of the late Baseball Hall of Famer Jim “Catfish” Hunter. Hunter died on 9/9/99 of A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig’s disease). The fellow cried as he spoke to me, introducing himself and then calling my chapter “Thanks Mr. Jimmy” the greatest story about Hunter ever written.
While the book is now out of print, in Jim Hunter’s hometown (tiny Hertford, North Carolina) the Perquimans County Chamber of Commerce museum still has a few copies.
I made sure of it.