Signing a mountain of books on a MURPHY BED during the FLOODS (while eating bologna naked…)

Most people just sell books on Amazon.

But we’re the little rural folk who are so rural that Amazon can’t verify us to approve our store and so we just have to boot strap all of this.

It turns out that rural boot strapping makes for good stories, and the sales of the book Half My Size with the Ridiculously Big Skillet does not disappoint.

There is a lot of laughter and a lot of heart break in this story.

Thank goodness for the laughter.

There is also a lot of success being driven by this book (and its sister books), adding a bit of salve to some of that heart break.

Thank goodness for the salve.

Remember our team of rural postmasters who helped us ship 10,000 books with the launch of the Ridiculously Big Salad book?

They are not okay.

(The original story is here.)

You’ve probably seen the stories of the flooding in the Sierra Nevada of California in March 2023 and all of the little communities that have been completely devastated.

This road wash-out at the post office is not any where near the devastation of the area in March 2023. You have likely seen the extreme footage on the news.

All of those little communities had the post offices that helped us ship the original book.

There is not one of those communities today that looks like they did when the original book shipped.

The 2020 Castle Fire and 2021 Windy Fire plus the flooding of 2023 has completely changed the landscape of these areas.

There are no human casualties of these apocalyptic events to date, just a lot of broken hearts.

No, the little communities are not okay, but let’s just take a moment to recognize that the same resourcefulness these communities displayed in helping us ship 10,000 books against all odds, has helped them survive these natural disasters.

Shipping the new book, The Ridiculously Big Skillet

And sooo, the new book and the same Amazon problem landed me at several locations in Utah, including at a warehouse prepared for far more quantity. In all, I’ve been a vagabond living on the road for over two weeks, at times physically cut off from my home due to the flooding and road damage rampant throughout our region.

—-> Support your vagabond friend by ordering the book here! <—-

All of that is where the story gets a bit punchy, because what else do we have in times like these?

First: Signing books in a Murphy Bed

How on earth did I find a Murphy bed?

(Remember those beds that fold up into the wall? Those!)

It’s a great question. The story does not disappoint.

First, know that I am cheap and I knew I’d be away from home for a while. I found a hotel deal on a mobile app for $65/night. I was running around bragging about it….

What could possibly go wrong?

We had pre-paid for two nights instead of a week, just in case it didn’t work out….

But in those two nights and days we needed to sign books AND take a number of Zoom calls.

We show up in Utah at the end of a very long day’s drive.

We’re tired.

We check in and get the room key.

My husband Sander grabs his bag and goes to the room.

Sander opens the hotel room door to find an entire family sleeping in the room.

The dad comes out. The dad is shocked and surprisingly polite under some pretty unusual circumstances.

(We should have gotten a selfie..)

We go back to the hotel desk to get another room.

Our new room is a neighbor to our sleeping family friends AND it’s really very small and we already start wondering how we’re going to do business. We decide to scope out the common areas of the hotel.

We’re sitting in the lobby area all dejected when I see some rooms along the hallway and say to Sander, “I wonder about these rooms. Maybe we can upgrade for a fee? Let’s ask.”

It turns out they have one room left and it happens to be their “corporate room” and they are apologetic because it has two Murphy beds.

I get all attentive because they are speaking my language.

“MURPHY BEDS? Yes, we’re going to need that room.”

For another twenty bucks we got upgraded.

(An upgrade cost that I am SURE was the “walk in on a sleeping family” special.)

And that’s how I ended up signing these books on a Murphy bed.

—> If you love Murphy beds, you’re also going to love this book. Buy it here! <—-

Many of the Murphy bed books were inscribed with “Go get it!”

And then Mossy Cave…

I also found a special location to sign some books: Mossy Cave in Utah, near Bryce Canyon.

This is simply not an obvious location, at all, unless you follow my Ozark story. After you read this current (very long) article, you should also read the story of Mossy Cave and the Ozark Gravel Road (here, CLICK!)

And in a more reasonable location — the warehouse!

After 500 or so books out and about, I signed another 1800 in the warehouse. That was a far more reasonable way to sign books, but I have to say that those other locations are totally worth their stories!

—-> Help the warehouse get its packing tables back, by ordering the book here <—

And then our community melted hearts and sold 1,000 books in a telethon

Did you see the 5-hour LIVE video?

This was the stuff of Jerry Lewis telethons (though only five hours long and only a few thousand of us…)

The stories in this video blow me away. If you need inspiration and a way to focus away from the stress and negativity of the world, then just put these five hours on repeat. I don’t think it would ever get old!

Notice in the telethon, the “if we sell 1,500 books today…”

We had a goal to sell 1,000 books in our telethon. We did, but we worked pretty hard for that.

That’s why I nearly forgot that I quipped, “And if we hit 1,500 today, we’ll get Brenda on here to tell us the story about eating bologna naked.”

That’s why this whole launch story ends with eating bologna naked… 😉

Thank you to the people who bought one of the 1,501 books we sold by midnight March 8, 2023.

We had a lot of fun in the naked bologna video. I was evacuated from all that flooding while we recorded this live video.

We could also title the video, “How to survive massive wildfires and floods and even laugh.”

Sometimes it’s all you got!

Thank you to the Bare Bear Ladies who joined us in the video and, of course, especially to Brenda.

—-> If you’re into eating bologna naked, then you’re really going to want to buy this book… here <—

“We got this”

As for the books, and where they are shipping today, a family-owned fulfillment center in St. George Utah, Red Rock Fulfillment, has our backs. It is a pretty big deal to ship 1,500 books in one day, but they did it and they are ready for your order.

Related stories

• Rural postmasters ship 10,000 books against all odds.
• Lost Ozark post office found in California’s cattle country.
• Weight loss secret found on Ozark gravel road.
• Can the donut compete with THIS?