Unbelievable
Help my book climb past 324,868 on the best sellers list
I hear all the time, “Greg, why the hell did you write a book?” And I always say the same thing, “Mom, it’s 3 o’clock in the morning! How did you get this number?”
I live a charmed life. I love my job and am grateful to have one in an industry where incredibly talented people are on the outside looking in. I have a nice home and beautiful wife, and two stupid, internet-famous dogs that bring in my mail every night. About a hun
dred people drove all the way to Wheatfield to come to my book release party. I got to be on the radio for a few decades and goof around. On any night of the week, I can walk into a Buffalo bar and get up on stage for 4 minutes to tell some jokes, and I wouldn’t embarrass myself (unless I wanted to). If someone pointed a gun at me and said, “Give me the nuclear codes or die,” the codes would be safe because I’ve had an epic run.
I could probably ride the wave and sink into dementia over the next four decades, feeling like I did pretty good, but I have this stupid obsession with writing. My first book, Frank Dates, was a “throw up words and try to make’em laugh” thrill ride of stupidity. It was pointless and very much on-brand. I’m proud of Frank Dates. I wrote hundreds of long, rambling Bachelor recaps that amounted to pounding hate into a keyboard. There are a dozen or so short stories floating around in unopened emails. Only four people have read my second book, Being the Baby. It’s an autobiographical account of being the youngest of seven kids, full of jokes about being folded into couch beds and peeing my pants. I like it, but it’s not ready for primetime.
The third book, Unbelievable, is out and ready. It’s a fictional account of a basketball game played in Moscow, Idaho in 1972, and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever written. There are comical situations, but it’s not a comedy. It falls somewhere between mystery and tragedy.
A quick synopsis: An average man breaks about every record in the books, scoring 100 points in a college basketball game without missing a shot while an ice storm pummels a small Idaho town. An annoying broadcaster, desperate for fame, risks his life to make the game a spectacle. Dark forces go to work to profit, and lives are ruined.
I got the idea a long time ago, wrote three pages, and left it for dead. About two years ago, the document crept back into my life and consumed me. The story contains some of my favorite things, sports and broadcasting, but it’s more about people than anything else. I’m a bit of a floater and a fuck-up, half-assing my way through existence, but I gave this book everything i have.
If you’re looking for an easy read, most of the people who have read it so far did so in a day or two. You can feel accomplished by reading an entire book in one weekend. There’s no swearing or controversy, so you could read it to your kids if you feel like disappointing them. And, when the audio book is finally processed and available, you can hear me voice the parts of the announcer in a familiar old-time-radio cadence.
Radio DJs, dingy hotels, bus rides and philosophy. Get it while it’s hot.