A BIG day in my writing career

I got some great news this week: Stackpole Books let me know that "Forts of the Northern Plains" was on their reprint list for August!

For a writer, that's almost as good as news that you're getting published - you might THINK there's a market for your work, and your publisher might think it will sell, but it's only when they run out at the warehouse that you KNOW there's a market. And that made me happy!

The nice thing about it is that the advance Stackpole sent me to sign the contract and deliver the manuscript is essentially paid off and I can now start collecting royalties. The not-so-nice thing is those checks are cut only twice a year and it's a VERY small percentage of each book's sale that I actually see. So I'll still be out there speaking and selling books myself!

Speaking of which, I've been keeping busy at that. I've been selling at the new Florence Mill Farmers Market - it's run by the owner of the mill and a friend of mine, Linda Meigs, and has turned out to be a pretty good outlet for sales! This weekend, however, I'll set up my tent at Columbus Days in Columbus, NE. I'm looking forward to this as it's my first appearance in the city (I've already had three in North Platte!) and it's always good to try out a new market.

Next week is a presentation on the "Forts of Nebraska" at the Gretna Public Library, and the next day is a trip to Oklahoma for my nephew's wedding. It's the same day as my birthday, so in return I've convinced the missus to allow me to visit the new visitor center at the Washita National Battlefield (lucky me!)

September includes a couple Kiwanis clubs, three senior communities, and two state sites for my Forts of Nebraska talks: the Neihardt Center in Bancroft and Fort Hartsuff. Looking forward to both of those, but the Hartsuff trip is especially anticipated because I've got a promise to get me to the site of one of the fort's few (maybe only) fights, the "Battle of the Blowout." Three Medals of Honor were given after this battle and few people know about it or have visited the site. I'll get plenty of pics!

Yes, I'm Still Alive!

I'm guessing there aren't THAT many people who track me solely from this blog, because I surely would have heard from them in three months asking when they'd get a new posting! It's really not that hard to blog, although I'm trying to make it look that way...



What's new since April? Well, since my last posting, I've had 25 different appearances including two national monuments, two state parks, two libraries, nine retirement homes, three museums, three community festivals, two associations and my first bus tour of the Omaha-area forts! (I'm missing one in there, but that's plenty.) VERY busy with the speaking engagements, especially with the first of those with the Nebraska Humanities Council starting up.

One of the state park presentations came at the end of April with the Nebraska State Historical Society at the Fort Robinson History Conference. This is held every two years with a different theme, and this year's just happened to be "U.S. Army Posts of the Central and Northern Plains." My book came out AFTER the agenda for the weekend was sent, but I just HAD to get in. They did find a spot for me on opening night - I gave my "Lost Forts of the Northern Plains" and it went over fairly well. Of course, the BIG attraction for me for the weekend was meeting many authors whom I've read for years and getting them to sign my copies of their books. Herb Hart, somewhat my "godfather" for my book after his series of fort books, was the guest of honor for the banquet and even made special mention of me in his remarks!


At the end of May I did a very unusual role, that of the founder of the town of Barneston, Nebraska! No relation that I've been able to find, but I still dressed up 1880s style and had great fun walking in the parade and giving a short talk on the book. You'll note in the photo that I'm the ONLY one walking - "Mrs. Barnes" and the Indian performers in the wagon didn't want to walk, but I couldn't see renting that costume and not allow anyone to see it! So I allowed my ham side to take over for a few blocks on the streets of Barneston.


The June bus tour for Metropolitan Community College went fantastic. I had just over a dozen people come with me to visit Fort Atkinson, Fort Omaha, the Omaha Quartermaster Depot, and Fort Crook (Offutt AFB) for a full Saturday. Beautiful day for the trip, especially with the living history people at Atkinson and a great guide at Offutt. The next one is already planned - Oct. 3. Hope to see you on it!

I also got involved in the fight to save Fort Hartsuff (Neb.), or to keep its operating hours and maintenance from being severely curtailed. I had an editorial published in the Lincoln Journal-Star which helped get some other things fired up, I got the Nebraska Concrete & Aggregates Association to help out (Fort Hartsuff is nine historic concrete buildings) and even testified before the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission (they didn't like me too much). The planned cutbacks were cut in half but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

Many speaking gigs around Omaha, but just got back from a great trip west which had me at Scotts Bluff National Monument (for my first nighttime presentation), the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney, and the North Platte Public Library.


I know I'm leaving a lot out here, but considering that I don't know if anyone reads these, I don't feel too bad about it! (Let me know if there IS anyone out there!)

An Busy (and Ornery) Opening to April

The first week of the month included some April fooling, an appointment and an appearance.

I don't usually participate in April Fool pranks but I did this year, on my Facebook page. I made an announcement that I had accepted a position as executive director of the Lirpa County History Museum in Loof, KY. I figured everyone would see right through the Lirpa (April) and Loof (Fool), especially after I commented that both the county and town were a little "backward." Still, some of my friends bit and bit hard, to the point that they were planning goodbye parties (maybe they WANTED to see me go?) I 'fessed up before it got too far, but it's a good thing it happens only once a year.

Sunday I showed up at Fort Omaha to take on a little additional work, but work I think will be enjoyable and enriching - I am one of the new members of the Douglas County Historical Society board of directors! I had asked friends on the board about the possibility of filling a slot if one came open, and wouldn't you know it, my timing was perfect - a couple of the members had just completed their terms, so I found out about my appointment about four days before the annual meeting! I'm truly looking forward to this - I've already been named to the marketing committee so I'll have a chance to help promote the Gen. Crook House, the DCHS resources and special events. Join today to make sure YOU don't miss out!

And today (Wed., April 8) I gave my first presentation on the forts along the Union Pacific Railroad, with the Council Bluffs Public Library as the premiere site. This was sponsored by the Gen. Dodge House, which held it at the library since the ballroom of the house involves some climbing to get there. The library is a great facility, however, and there was a fairly good-sized audience that showed up: more than 25, including my sister-in-law Andrea; Jeff, an old buddy of mine from Glenwood, Iowa; and K.J. (aka Krystal), a former favorite co-worker of mine who's now at the Council Bluffs Nonpareil. Good, good times.

A FULL Month of March

It's the final day of the month, and WHAT a month! It started out with a couple days at the Missouri Valley History Conference in Omaha; not so great for sales, but good for contacts and talks about topics that interest me. That was followed in the month by a presentation to the Military Officers Association of America, a great group which also gave me one of their challenge coins as a souvenir (VERY cool - I collect these things!)

The next weekend had me at the Council Bluffs Public Library. I'm thinking March Madness or the nice weather kept people away, because there were only THREE people in attendance and all of them had the last name "Barnes" - my folks and my second cousin Alvin. This was probably the most informal talk I've ever given, but it worked out alright - I hadn't seen Alvin in years and it was a good opportunity to catch up.

I closed out March with a big trip to the west - the first day included a booksigning at the Hastings store in Kearney and a talk at the Kearney Public Library to a great crowd. The second day I made an impromptu call at the Dawson County Museum and got them set up with some books and posters; that night was the State DAR Convention in North Platte. By the way, I love the DAR - my mom and daughter are both members and the group has done more than any other in installing markers at the historic sites. I presented "Forts of Nebraska" to the organization and was seated with a fairly prestigious group, including Adrian Smith, congressman for the Third District, and the state senators for the region. One of them - LeRoy Louden - I expect to see at the Fort Rob History Conference next month! Anyway, GREAT sales to the ladies - hope to come back again someday.

I had a fun signing at A to Z Books in North Platte the next day, talking for about an hour to the three people who were there (not counting Dickens the cat). I stopped at Fort Kearny on the way back and got them set up with some books, and even made several stops along the way to see the Sandhill cranes.

The day after I got back I presented at the Sarpy County Museum on the forts of the region. We had a full house there - two head counts set it at 32, so I was very happy with that.

Next month, April, I've got presentations in Council Bluffs, Beatrice and Fort Robinson. Hard to believe there's nothing scheduled for Omaha - I'll have to work on that!

A Tale of Two Talks

I presented to two audiences in the past week: one on a very historic occasion and the second to an unusual audience.

Last Thursday was the "world premiere" of my new Forts of Nebraska presentation at the W. Dale Clark Library in downtown Omaha. The historic occasion was the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth - he's my favorite president and I really wanted to do something in my hometown to mark the date.

I wasn't sure what attendance would be like for a downtown museum in the middle of the week over the noon hour in a part of the library that's regularly closed to the public. It turned out to be about a dozen attendees, but I knew quite a few of the attendees and it was great to see them again. Plus sales were pretty good and I was able to donate to the Friends of the Omaha Public Library!

Last night was my second speaking event of the week. I got an email on Sunday from Mark Bulger asking if I could present to his group since their scheduled speaker couldn't make it. This was for the Omaha Association of the Blind! Since I do a Power Point presentation, I asked Mark if he wanted me to bring the whole set-up; absolutely, he said, since they had sighted members and I may need the images to prompt me in my speaking (I do).

A great tip he gave me was to describe the images on the screen as if you were doing so for someone over the phone. And that's what I did, or tried to remember to do, anyway. The only thing really different was the layout of the room - it was kind of long and narrow with my screen set up toward the middle of a long wall. Not really providing the best view of the screen, but as most of the room wasn't sighted, it really wasn't necessary. The OAB provided refreshments at the end of their meeting, and I had the chance to talk further about the forts with a few of their members, one of whom is providing me with more information about Fort Omaha that I didn't have. A very enjoyable evening!

New Year, New Presentation

In recent weeks I've been working on a new presentation to give when I'm out in the field. The "Forts of Nebraska" presentation will cover the 12 military posts I cover in my bookin a chronological order, giving a brief history of each with images of the time. It finishes up with the forts today, using photographs I took.

Should be fun! I've found some very nice images and historical maps of each of the periods covered. The "chapters" include The Trade Fort (Forts Atkinson), The Trails Forts (Old Fort Kearny, and Forts Kearny, McPherson and Mitchell), The Rail Forts (Forts Omaha, Sidney, and the Omaha Quartermaster Depot), The Reservation Forts (Forts Hartsuff, Niobrara and Robinson) and The Political Fort (Fort Crook).

As you can tell, the program covers the differing reasons that forts were built. There's kind of a general perception that they were built purely for protection from Indians which is far from the truth. I could go into that here, but then you might not come to the presentation! So keep watching the website for appearance dates - I think the first presentation will be at the W. Dale Clark Library (the downtown branch) in Omaha. I've put in for a "brown bagger" for lunchtime on Thursday, Feb. 12, the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth - kind of cool, being the history nut that I am.

Closing Out the Year at Offutt

Since this is probably my final blog of 2008, I thought I might tell you more about selling at the Offutt BX (base exchange).

This was my first time in a pure retail environment on my own. Sure, I've done bookstores, but they've done networking, advertising, store signage and word of mouth to publicize my visits. But in the BX, I was truly on my own - I had to set up the table every morning and spend the day there, putting together an eye-catching display while also trying to make eye contact myself.

I don't come from a sales background, but I almost immediately began getting into the psychology and physics of sales. I was always sizing up shoppers as they came near my table, looking for likely history enthusiasts (generally seniors) or spouses of them (generally middle-aged wives). If they'd look with interest at my book poster, I'd have a look ready that said "Come on over - let's talk about it!" I'd get signage on my poster at eye level that I hoped would further interest them, such as "Featuring Fort Crook" (the original post at Offutt).

I also found myself getting more aggressive, not necessarily with the other temporary vendors since we didn't have similar products, but in fighting for my "turf." My original spot was right in the middle of the BX - people couldn't help but see me as they came in and sales were good. When I got moved to a less visible spot and saw an immediate reduction in sales, I fought with management to get moved back. I even took issue with an aggressive VFW recruiter who was stopping shoppers and blocking the view of my table!

After a few weeks of selling just the book (I was there off and on about 12 times from mid-November to Christmas Eve), I got frustrated and began looking for additional items to sell. My publisher balked at my selling other books in their catalog, so I came up with note cards featuring the forts and even developed my own poster for the forts of Nebraska. Both of them sold pretty well!

I loved talking with the customers. A number of them said the book was just what they were looking for, and others couldn't wait to present their loved ones and friends with the book. THAT was quite an unusual feeling on Christmas, knowing that people were getting my book under the tree!

I also enjoyed talking with the temporary vendors. I learned quite a bit about the profitability and the struggles of making a living that way, but also met some enjoyable people in the month and a half. I'll probably try this again, maybe for Father's Day in June.

Thanks to all for checking in. Hope you had a great Christmas and I wish all of you a very Happy New Year!