So as some of you may have noticed, I have a new book out: “Getting in Touch with Your Inner Rich Kid.”
I suppose it may come as a surprise to some that, even though there are all these pix of me in tuxedos, running around the globe with famous maestros, I did not grow up in the rose garden of an elegant conservatoire. Quite the opposite, in fact. I grew up on a dirt farm in Ohio, and we were dirt poor. And I have always been a little ashamed of it.
In writing this book I discovered that I was not ashamed of being poor, as that was not through any fault of my own. What I was ashamed of was not facing up to it and accepting it. And exiting that poor kid mindset is what this book is all about.
When I was fifteen years old, I attended a poor kid school. I got so sick of it that I just dropped out. I guess you’re not supposed to do that til you’re 16, but there it was. As it worked out, some scholarship money was available, and I suddenly found myself transferred, from one of the poorest public schools in Ohio, to one of the richest private high schools.
The culture shock was huge. There are various big industrial companies in Toledo, and there I was, sitting next to the children of the people who owned them. These people had a completely different attitude towards just about everything. I had lived with the poor kids. Now I was living amongst the rich kids.
I always said to myself that someday, someday, I would write a book about that experience. I always felt like Jane Goodall. Here I was, a total outsider, being more or less accepted into the society of these rich kids. Well, sort of.
Anyway I will be blogging more about the book and the impending marketing thereof. It’s on kindle now, and I am selling the first edition paperback copies in personal appearances and via my website bookstore only. Once I get the ISBN lined up I will be going full bore distribution with this thru Ingram/ Lightning Source.
