Despite the fact I’ve been a professional writer for 30 years, I never set out to be an author. My world was newspapers, magazines, corporate communications and video scripts – the type of projects in which someone with a limited attention span can find comfort.
That all changed one day in the summer of 2004, when my dad informed me he had offered my freelance writing services to an acquaintance of his named Jerry Parins.
A fellow Green Bay West High graduate with my parents, Jerry was the security director for the Green Bay Packers and a former Green Bay police officer/detective. My dad asked Jerry if he had ever considered writing a book for all the great stories he had, and Jerry stated he wouldn’t know where to start.
I met with Jerry in his office at Lambeau Field, took a few hand-written notes, and made an appointment to bring along my laptop next time. I didn’t know the first thing about putting a book together, much less how to get it published, etc.
All I knew was Jerry had some great stories to tell, I could help put them to paper, and whether or not those stories would become a book was a topic for another time.
It was the start of a four-year journey that eventually would culminate in “Bodyguard to the Packers – Beat Cops, Brett Favre and Beating Cancer.” In between, Jerry and I learned a lot about each other, the book process, and the thrills and pitfalls of Lady Luck.
Next: We have a bunch of words written; now what?