Flyover People Daily News

Or – If you’re bent, go to Dr. Dent.

On 5th Street building in Larned.

Cheryl commerce, life on the ground

Home. Just outside Pawnee Rock, this is the road to the Arkansas River. I learned to drive on this road – not much to run into out here (wise mother.)

Cheryl landscape, life on the ground, sky

Play ‘Kansas Trivia’ Friday morning at 8:58 a.m. on Kansas Public Radio. The first caller with the correct answer to the trivia challenge will receive a copy of Flyover People: Life on the Ground in a Rectangular State.

You can listen to KPR online.

Or tune in with your radio dial -  Emporia 89.7, Lawrence 91.5, Junction City 91.3, Manhattan 99.5.

Listen and win!

Cheryl Flyover Book, on the radio

The other day Lynette Olson at the Emporia Public Library called and said she knew I had a book coming out and that the library would like to buy a couple of copies.

It will take a few weeks to process these as library books, to dress them up in electronic gear and such. So, they won’t be on the shelves immediately.

One book will go in the Kansas room. The Kansas room! And the other will likely be shelved in my favorite section, the 814s – essays.

And then I stopped by KVOE to give a review copy to Jeff O’Dell. (He happens to be in the book, pages 55-56 “Living in the Alley.” Tornado alley. When the tornado sirens go off, Jeff O’Dell’s voice is the one I’m scrambling to listen to. When bad weather strikes, Jeff jumps in his car and gets on the air to give us the scoop from “Mobile Unit No. 1.” And he always remains calm and cool. Maybe 30 years of chasing tornadoes does that to you.)

Anyway, I started telling Jeff what was up with the book – that the Book Launch is at Town Crier on Sept. 1 (5- 7 p.m.) and he said, “Well, if you have events scheduled, then I can do a news story on this.” So, we recorded a short bit. I was hit-and-miss around a radio this afternoon and I didn’t hear it, so I don’t know what he aired – or if my babbling responses were even airable. (I know, that’s not a word. Sometimes I make words up.)

This evening, a friend from Illinois sent a message that she had called Town Crier and ordered a book from them, but that she wanted me to personalize it. So I went to Town Crier after dinner and there were two books that needed personalized.

Well, you’d think I’d know how to come up with words by now, but personalizations are difficult. Just difficult. So, if yours ends up says something strange, please forgive me.

Anyway, I leaned on the bookstore counter trying to come up with words. And then when I finally got done and turned around, I saw this….

I stopped, stunned. Absolutely stunned. I thought I was going to cry.

Maybe I’ve mentioned it, but those women at Town Crier are absolutely incredible people. They do everything they can to make your shopping or authoring experience a good one.

Town Crier is at 716 Commercial in beautiful downtown Emporia.

Cheryl Flyover Book, commerce, on the radio

Flyover People books are now available at The Raven Book Store, 6 E. 7th Street, in downtown Lawrence.

I spoke with Heidi Raak, one of the owners, and she suggested that a Flyover People book event with The Raven might be a possibility in the near future, so that’s exciting.

The Raven is a gorgeous store with a lot of charm. I’ve shopped here before an they have a wonderful selection of books – including a great Regional section. They promote local writers with regular events. If you’re on Facebook, you can learn about these events if you like their page.

Tonight, Emporia’s own Kevin Rabas will be reading poetry at The Raven. Kevin is a recent Kansas Notable Book winner. (And he wrote a blurb for the back of my book.)

Thursday, August 26 7 PM
@ The Raven
Big Tent: Stories and Poems in Three Acts

Clancy Martin, fiction
Rachel Gray, prose
Kevin Rabas, poetry
Amanda Frost, poetry

Next time you’re in Lawrence, stop by The Raven, 6 E. 7th.

Cheryl Flyover Book, commerce, other people's stuff

Donna Cook at Mennonite Press called this afternoon and said my books were printed and packaged and ready to go!

So, I went to Newton and picked them up. My car was riding low to the ground.

While in Newton, I checked with Holly Nickel at Pages Books and Coffee to see if she’d want to stock some Flyover People books and she said yes! So, I made my first sale 10 minutes after I picked up my books.

This is a great little bookstore. If you’re in the Newton area, stop by 605 N. Main Street and support your independent bookseller! I’ve purchased books here myself.

This photo is B.F., before the fence (water main construction in front of the store). I was so giddy this evening that I forgot to take a photo at Town Crier. But I stopped by when I got into town and left a few copies at Town Crier, my beloved hometown independent bookseller. They have the most wonderfulest people working there. Seriously.

I hadn’t expected the books until Friday, so today was a surprise.

Anyway, the book is now available at Town Crier Bookstore ($15 plus tax) in downtown Emporia.

And it’s available on my Quincy Press website. ($20 which includes shipping and all applicable sales tax.)

Cheryl Flyover Book

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:

MY BROTHER, MY EDITOR

Heading out the side door of our motel in Great Bend, we passed by the ice machine. I pushed the button and a half-dozen small cubes dropped into my palm.

My brother, in front of me, heard the noise and turned around. He knew exactly what I was up to, that I intended to drop that ice down the back of his t-shirt.

Opening my hand, I let the ice fall onto the sizzling sidewalk.

I hung my head, slumped my shoulders and said to Leon, “I’m sorry. I forgot. You edited my book – I have to be nice to you for the rest of my life.”

For the past five months my brother has been my editor and my savior. He helped me bring my book of columns into existence.

Yes, a book! It’s my first so I’m very excited. In early September, I’ll be releasing “Flyover People: Life on the Ground in a Rectangular State.”

This paperback is a collection of 80 columns that have been published in The Emporia Gazette over the past seven-and-a-half years, including my first piece, “On Being a Kansan,” which ran on Jan. 28, 2003.

The book has about 200 pages and is divided into eight sections: Pure Kansas, Life on the Ground, Seasons, Nature, Looking Back, Childhood, Small Towns and Earth & Sky.

A few of my husband’s photographs are in the book and the stunning cover shot “Flint Hills Road” is his work. That picture is a bright and clear autumn scene, a lone tree alongside a dirt road. Dave also helped with the book in other ways, including much-appreciated moral and tech support.

One day last March, I realized that the state’s sesquicentennial (Jan. 29, 2011) would be an optimal time to have a book of Kansas essays available. And if I was going to have it done before the calendar struck 150, I’d have to publish it myself. All I had to do was start.

I wrote to my big brother who lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, and asked if he’d be my editor. He said he’d be glad to and immediately sketched out a plan to proceed.

He was certainly well qualified to help produce my book of simple prose. For about 30 years he worked as a newspaper copy editor – for the Austin American-Statesman, Wichita Eagle, Dallas Morning News, and the Anchorage Daily News. And since 1989, Leon has edited 12-15 college textbooks each year on subjects such as business, linguistics, psychology, law, economics, etc.

Last year Leon became the editor at the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks where his job is to edit and produce books in or about the 20 Alaska languages.

“All books, all the time,” he said about his work life.

He enjoys his job and loves learning about the Eskimo and Athabaskan languages. “It’s fun,” he said with a grin. “They pay me to make books and anything else I soak up is free.”

There are many things I don’t know about publishing, but Leon has been my North Star. In addition to editing, Leon also designed my book and prepared it for printing.

One of our deadlines was to get the files sent to the printer, Mennonite Press in Newton, before Leon’s trip to Kansas in early August. From April through July, I had my head inside of my computer, so I don’t even remember those months. On July 27, Leon forwarded the book to Newton. I received the proofs a week later and Leon and I were able to look those over together.

During Leon’s Kansas visit, he went with me to Mennonite Press to turn in the proofs. And since we had a few details to work out there, it was handy to have Leon around to speak the language of printers.

My brother came through in every way I could’ve hoped for – and then some. For me, his help on the project was the equivalent of donating a kidney. Obviously, I should treat Leon with the kindness and respect he deserves. So forevermore, I will put away my childish toys; there will be no more attempts to slip ice down my brother’s shirt. Even if we walk past an ice machine when it’s 135 degrees outside, I will behave.

Copyright 2010 ~ Cheryl Unruh

Leon’s website: PawneeRock.org. Leon’s blog: Too Long in the Wind.

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Cheryl Flyover Book, Kansans, columns, life on the ground

A couple weeks ago, students enjoyed some summer fun (a water slide – it looked like) on the lawn at Sterling College in Sterling.

Cheryl life on the ground

Coffey County.

Cheryl small towns

This photo isn’t a great reproduction of the scene, but a couple weeks ago, while driving through Harvey County, I noticed that the clouds there look a lot like the clouds in Phil Epp’s Blue Sky sculpture.

I had always thought that he had stylized them a bit, made them a bit pointy but no, that’s the way clouds actually look in Harvey County where Epp lives.

Blue Sky Sculpture in Centennial Park, Newton.

Cheryl other people's stuff, sky

The George Stumps Nature Trail is at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center at Cheyenne Bottoms.

The metal work on this sign and other signs at the KWEC is by B & B Metal Arts – Bruce and Brent Bitter – of Hoisington.

Cheryl nature