Well, the book is finally out, and like a proud papa, I couldn’t be happier! This is the first time I ever tried an actual semi-legit, planned out release strategy, i.e. scheduling it 3 months in advance and promoting the thing for a change. I’m not sure this worked any better, but it certainly feels less half baked, as opposed to the usual tactics of dropping these things into the void, with no fanfare whatsoever, and then immediately moving on to the next project. So that’s something.

As for the complete novel, here are some ordering options:

My website

Amazon

My website offers the better bargain for the exact same books, but your order from either is greatly appreciated. For those who are unaware, here’s the basic blurb:

Life in a locally owned, health-conscious grocery store chain…it might be organic, but it sure isn’t natural!

Any lowly peon who has ever worked retail or for that matter an office job will find much to laugh about and relate to in this highly comical epic, of a company whose chaos hits all too close to home. From blowhard bosses who insist “somebody” needs to do something whenever any problems arise, to the crybaby technophobes running riot all over the enterprise, to the widely held misperception that Good With Computers is an actual department, it’s all right here, in this fresh, modern workplace tale so realistic you might swear that you have lived it. But of course, nothing this preposterous could happen for real, right?

Print book now available! Get it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQRQ6BJK

Edgar wouldn’t say he’s gotten to know Christie extremely well just yet. They are on friendly enough terms, however, to chat briefly in passing about even non-business related matters. Or for him to become her desperation last resort when, as the day of an event at Liberty Avenue approaches, to ask if it might be possible for him to man the grill.

You can read the individual chapters on Amazon, too! Just go here:

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09948FN2C

Even though rumors are swirling that Palmyra’s butcher, Nick, is on the hot seat, for some reason they hire one of his closest friends, Scott, as Southside’s meat cutter. Nick has been talking him up for months and they finally decided to pull the trigger on the guy.

Part of the wait is that he was only recently released from prison. And the morning that he starts, Dale, Craig and Edgar are coincidentally standing around in the Southside conference room, with the lights off, discussing strategy. This is a fairly common occurrence for many of them, as the two upstairs hallways and three offices all spill intothis intersection. Even though the overheads are left off, if the lights from those offices and the hallways aren’t enough, this bank of windows also helps brighten up the room. It overlooks the last aisle down below, half bulk and half frozen, and at this moment affords them another opportunity to observe this new butcher.

“Hoo hoo hoo,” Craig says, partiallya phrase and partially a chuckle, though all three are snickering.

“Wow,” adds Dale, shaking his head.

Of course, were Scott’s fist flying at one of their faces, they probably wouldn’t be laughing.

Like the story so far? Read more here:

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09948FN2C

The fourth column in the new items spreadsheet is dedicated to brand name. A seemingly straightforward concept which is nonetheless much more labor intensive than he ever would have guessed. Having uniform brand names for every product in a line is a huge help, for searching items in the system, for setting the sale prices in advance of their weekly flyers. But it’s the kind of thing that must be chipped away at over time, because they’re currently not all that uniform.

Like what you're hearing? You can always read the story instead on Amazon! Click here:

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09948FN2C

“He’s almost eighty now, but he’s got a mind like a calculator,” Duane tells Edgar, en route to the Bellwether Snacks headquarters, “and he still works, too: two days a week, like clockwork. You can count on it.”

This trip across town was Duane’s idea. He’d stuck his head into Edgar’s office and said he was cruising over to corporate, suggested this ride along. It was intended as a rapport building exercise, most likely, between the two of them, but is also Edgar’s first opportunity for meeting certain key management if not ownership figures. So they hopped into the president’s spacious, silver colored truck, and now have just about reached their destination.

To read the chapters in progress, please visit Amazon! Here's the link:

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09948FN2C

I'm currently publishing two chapters a week on there. Recording this podcast myself is much more labor intensive, and as you've probably noticed, doesn't happen nearly as often.

Though its weekly sales amount to roughly half of what each of the other two are pulling in, one oddly colored feather in Liberty’s cap is that it is nonetheless the most profitable store. Palmyra and Southside both appear to be rising ships, with slow and steady upticks in volume, but money is continually poured into each in the name of various improvements. Whereas, apart from utilities and its bargain of a lease, expenses are almost nonexistent at their oldest location. The Locke family likes to characterize Liberty as HHM’s reliable, if unglamorous, cash cow.

One of Teri’s first key lessons for him concerns the addition of new items to their computer system. Months earlier, when they first began installing this Orchestra software, she arranged a blank Excel template twelve columns wide, sent this to all department managers, merchandisers, and store managers. It’s fairly self-explanatory, and she is adamant that if anyone wants a new item added to the system, they must email it via this form.

“If it comes in and it’s wrong, fire it right back at them,” she tells him with a chuckle, “sometimes I’ve sent it back to them two or three times, you know? But hey, it’s one of those things, it’s gotta be right.”

Well, yes and no. Edgar is on his own, off to the proverbial races, soon after learning the basics from her. And he is already a little less hardline about some of these stances than she. The first three columns in this spreadsheet are pretty much crucial, yes – UPC, department, product name. But even these, one could argue, were often art forms requiring a bit of nuance.