This is a book about being alive. Damn Good Things: Small Moments That Make A Big Difference by Peter Andersen Book Tour with Author Q&A
Synopsis (from Amazon):
This is a book about being
alive. The stories are real and reflect moments when we feel fully alive—but
perhaps are not aware of it, unable to take time to appreciate or recognize
these unexpected gifts. I call them Damn Good Things, and they’re easy to see
once you know how. When you do, you might just improve your day, learn
something about yourself, and even change your life.
Excerpt:
Damn Good Thing #1
Gus
My
dog Stanley is a two-year-old yellow lab who has just about everything a dog
needs: food, shelter, love, tasty bones and squeaky toys, several comfortable
beds and best of all, his daily play at the off-leash dog park. For a half hour
every day, Stanley can chase after his ball, run with other dogs, sniff the
trees and swim in the lake. It’s his moment of freedom.
It
was on one of these trips that Stanley and I met someone who taught us two new
facts about Damn Good Things.
Fact
#1: Damn Good Things can be shared. That is, you can experience a Damn Good
Thing simply by watching somebody else experience one.
And
Fact #2: That somebody else doesn’t have to be a person. On this particular
day, it turned out to be a very lucky dog named Gus.
It
was a gray December afternoon and we pulled into the parking lot a little later
than usual. Stanley was barking and drooling and pacing the back seat of the
car, eager to get out. As soon as we were inside the enclosure and the gate was
closed, I unclipped Stanley’s leash and he took off like a rocket across the
big field. I swung the Chuck-it over my head and Stanley’s favorite bright
orange rubber ball went soaring ahead of him, an ecstatic flash of yellow
bounding along in pursuit.
The
ball bounced twice on the far side of the field before Stanley leaped up and
nabbed it in mid-air. He brought it back and dropped it at my feet. We repeated
this a half dozen times until Stanley’s initial Oh-My-God energy had settled
into a regular happy dog energy.
Then
Gus entered the picture.
The
next time I threw the ball, a small brown blur streaked past me. It was another
dog. He outran Stanley, snatched the ball up with hungry jaws and bolted off
across the park, head high. I studied him – he was a young brindle mutt, happy
to run, proud to have a ball. I looked at Stanley, who didn’t care. He’d
already lost himself sniffing the butt of a nearby Newfoundland.
“I’m
so sorry!” came a voice.
A
middle-aged woman holding a leash walked toward me, shaking her head.
“We’ve
been here an hour,” she said. “He hasn’t stopped running the whole time.”
She
introduced herself as Rosie and told me her dog’s name was Gus. The look on
Rosie’s face told me that he was a dog who simply couldn’t be stopped.
I
introduced myself and pointed out that Stanley was perfectly happy doing what
he was doing, and didn’t need his ball right now. But Gus did need the ball. He
was so happy! Bounding around the park, so proud of the bright orange rubber
ball. It was wonderful.
“He’s
a rescue,” she explained.
“Ah,
good for you,” I said.
I’ve
never had the guts to adopt a rescue dog. You don’t know what you’re getting.
My dog and I have a solid understanding: I’m the emotionally needy one, and
you’re here to help me get through life, not the other way around. I’ve always
admired people who adopt a dog who might have issues of its own. Maybe someday.
“He’s
a year old,” she went on. “They told us that before we adopted him, he’d pretty
much been locked in a kennel for three months.”
I
stared at her.
“Three months?”
I
looked for Gus, but it took a minute to find him – there, nearly at the
horizon, still galloping ahead with joy.
Three
months, I thought. And I had a hunch Gus was thinking it, too.
Watching
him run made you smile. Watching him run after three months in a kennel – well,
that took your breath away.
You
see, Stanley could never understand this kind of joy, because he’d never been
without it. Gus had, and now to him the world was very sweet indeed. Because
while all the other dogs ran and jumped and zigged and zagged and chased and
tumbled, Gus soared in an endless circle around the outer edges of the park,
running as fast and as far as was physically possible. Gus had paid his dues,
and the kennel was behind him. All dogs at the off-leash park enjoy their
freedom, but watching this guy run – head high, soaring, tireless – you
wondered whether happy little Gus wasn’t Freedom itself.
The Origin of Damn Good Things
My book Damn Good Things was inspired by a rollercoaster ride I took with my Dad. The funny thing is, after it happened, I completely forgot about it for 20 years!
I was 21 and heading to London to be an assistant teacher in a writing program there. My Dad’s a professor and he was on sabbatical in Copenhagen, so I stopped to see him on the way. My Mom was there too, but she was out of town at the time.
Summer in Copenhagen is absolutely beautiful. My Dad and I walked all over the city, talking about this and that. Somehow we wound up at Tivoli Gardens, the grand old amusement park, and somehow we wound up going on the rollercoaster. It was a fun visit, and we had a good couple of days together.
After that, I went on to London and taught and got on with my life.
Twenty years later – now married with children and moving into our second home – I was going through some boxes and I found an old journal. I sat down and started reading through it, and there was this entry about Tivoli! By this time I’d completely forgotten about it, but here was this great entry about Dad and me going on this enormous rollercoaster, and how we did all those rollercoaster things – shouting and laughing and waving our arms as the roller coaster climbed high hills and then roared down them and thundered around turns with everyone screaming and having fun.
The last line of that entry was, “What a damn good thing for me and my Dad to do!”
It was so fun to find that, even more so because I still had no memory of it. But I loved that phrase “damn good things” and I started wondering what makes a good thing into a damn good thing. I eventually hit on the idea that there are certain moments in life – very brief moments – when we feel completely alive, and that’s what was going on with the rollercoaster ride. I liked that idea, so I started looking for more of these, and eventually collected a bunch of them into this book, Damn Good Things.
It's funny to think that journal was sitting in a dusty box somewhere for 20 years, like it was waiting to be found. And I’m so grateful I finally found it!
Q&A
On writing:
What advice would you give budding writers?
It takes more work than you think, but if you dedicate yourself to your craft and stick with it, it goes faster than you’d expect. It takes work to find your voice but once you do, there’s nothing in the world like it!
Do you have another profession besides writing?
Yes, I’m also a writer! (A technical writer.) And I run a business that helps people record and preserve their life stories. I love hearing people tell their stories!
How long have you been writing?
I remember one particular story I wrote in 4th grade and I’m pretty sure I’d been at it for a few years already. It’s funny, that story actually foreshadowed some of the themes I’d come to embrace years and even decades later. They must have been in me from the start.
Do you ever get writer’s block? What helps you overcome it?
I have to say… I don’t really get writer’s block. I do a lot of thinking before I begin writing, so I have a general idea of where a piece is going to go. And if at some point it’s not moving forward – and that happens plenty – I know something’s broken. I stop and go back and see what in the big picture doesn’t work. If I can find that, I can usually get going again.
What is your next project?
I’m gathering material for More Damn Good Things, another collection like this one. I’m also trying to wrestle with a book about my very dear friend and old writing partner Jeff, who passed away much too young. During the last four months of his life we spoke by phone almost every day. We talked about SJ Perelman and Ring Lardner and all the writers we loved, and he told me amazing stories about his life that I hadn’t known. It’s a book about our friendship and how writing was always central to it.
What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
I was telling our daughters a bedtime story one night, and the younger one interrupted me and said, “Dad, when you tell your stories, I feel like I’m having a chocolate milkshake!” I don’t need any more compliments after that one.
What were the biggest rewards and challenges with writing your book?
The biggest reward was actually finishing the book and completing that whole process. I think any writer wil tell you that’s a huge milestone. As for challenges, it’s an endless process! There’s always one more thing to fix, or change, or whatever. But finally it got finished.
Which authors inspired you to write?
Ray Bradbury, first and foremost. All the classics, too, but reading The Martian Chronicles as a kid taught me how much power and energy could be conveyed through writing. Even today I’ll pick up anything he wrote and after reading a sentence or two I think, “Yeah, there it is.” He really lit a fire under me and I'll always be grateful for that.
On rituals:
Do you snack while writing? Favorite snack?
A cup of tea is good. I don’t eat too much while I’m writing. But if I have some big editing or proofreading thing I have to blast through, a bowl of microwave popcorn can be awfully motivating.
Where do you write?
In my big chair in the living room, which I bought after measuring exactly how wide my dog and I were side by side. I often need a dog by my side for moral support.
Do you write every day?
No. I need to work on that. I really want to be on more of a regular schedule. As it is, I write when I can, and then suddenly it’s three in the morning and I’ve written 10,000 words and I know something in there is REALLY good. It’s exciting but not very sustainable!
Is there a specific ritualistic thing you do during your writing time?
There is some music that can really get the juices flowing. Years ago I wrote at the ice rink when our older daughter had her skating lessons. She was there all Saturday morning, so I’d take my laptop and a heavy coat and get a few hours of writing done. It was noisy, so I needed some music and headphones, and I found some things that somehow really helped.
In today’s tech savvy world, most writers use a computer or laptop. Have you ever written parts of your book on paper?
Yes, absolutely. I can’t always control when ideas come to me, so I’ll grab whatever’s handy, paper or anything. I do carry around a little digital recorder in my pocket, so I’m always recording some idea or other into that. But you know, if the back of an envelope is all you have, then that’s what you write on!
Fun stuff:
Favorite travel spot?
Grand Lake, Colorado. My grandfather had a cabin there and we’d visit when I was a kid. Talk about magic! I read a lot of Ray Bradbury there, too.
If you were stuck on a deserted island, which 3 books would you want with you?
Three copies of Moby Dick! Okay not really, but that would be one of them. The Ring Lardner Reader would be another. And the Bible. Faulkner kept the Old Testament by his bed, and you can tell. Regardless of your own personal religious views, just simply as a text it’s got some of the greatest stories and characters and problems people have ever faced. A writer who never reads the Bible is like a musician who’s never gone to New Orleans. You owe it to yourself!
What TV series are you currently binge watching?
Jack Taylor, an Irish detective show starring the Scottish actor Iain Glen. It’s kind of like Sam Spade in Galway. Great character, great stories.
What is the strangest way you've become friends with someone?
That’s an easy one! I got an anonymous letter in college from a charming young woman who said she’d seen me on campus and she knew we were going to get married. We exchanged letters for a couple of weeks before meeting in person, and falling in love, and getting married!
Who was your childhood celebrity crush?
I don’t know if it counts as a crush because he’s a guy, but starting around first grade I absolutely worshipped Ray Charles. Apart from my parents (maybe!), he was just the coolest, most talented, most charismatic thing in the universe. Seriously, I think his incredible creativity and power spoke to me, because I was just a shy little kid but there was something creative inside me that wanted to come out. Ray Charles showed me that was okay, and better than okay.
Author
bio:
Peter Andersen has been writing since he was a
kid. In his professional life he’s worked as a journalist, writing teacher,
newspaper editor, manager, freelancer, and technical writer. He spent 30 years
producing technical documentation at Microsoft and other software companies.
These days, in addition to writing about
Damn Good Things, he conducts life story interviews with the residents of a
local retirement community.
The idea for Damn Good Things came about when he found an old diary entry about a rollercoaster ride he once took with his father. The entry described how fully alive they both felt in that moment, and ended with the words, “What a damn good thing for me and my dad to do!”
Inspired by that diary entry, he began to research and write about the moments when we feel completely alive. He soon realized that this is what he’d been writing about his whole life. This is truly the lens through which he sees the world. Whether it’s an aging, half-blind pug tearing across a wood floor to get to her dinner, the distant whistle of an approaching train in the night, or a memory-filled relic from a childhood home – he’ll show you how all of these are Damn Good Things.
Website: https://peterandersen-author.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61568941315689
Amazon: http://amzn.to/4jpMum3
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222083322-damn-good-thing
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