About the Book
What the reviewers say: "A fun fast read" "really, really well written" "Really enjoyable, great voice" "a perfect read for a lazy afternoon." "It's all good! A well written, entertaining read by a likable guy."
Author Al Macy is a character and a tightwad with a unique sense of humor. He and his wife squirreled away enough money to retire early, do interesting things, and take unusual trips. As he puts it: “Every day I wake up with nothing to do, and by the end of the day, I've only gotten half of it done.”
During his working life, Macy was a neuroscientist, computer game programmer, jazz trombonist, chef, CEO, piano player, clam digger, and technical writer.
The book is a journal of a car/bicycle/camping trip from California to St. Louis and back, but Macy promises that “if it starts sounding like one of your brother-in-law’s boring slide shows, I will stop this book, and we’ll turn around and go home. I mean it.”
Interspersed with the journal chapters, you'll find thought-provoking life tips, stories from the past, and descriptions of Al's wacky inventions. You’ll hear poignant anecdotes about what happened when doctors discovered a golf-ball-sized tumor in his wife’s brain and how everything they owned burned.
Al Macy writes because he has storiesto tell. In school he was the class clown and always the first
volunteer for show and tell. His teachers would say “Al has a lot
of imagination.” Then they'd roll their eyes.
But he put his storytelling on the back
burner until he retired and wrote a blog about his efforts to improve
his piano sight-reading. That's when his love of storytelling burbled
up to the surface, along with quirky words like “burble.”
He had even more fun writing his second
book, Drive, Ride, Repeat, but was bummed by non-fiction's
need to stick to “the truth” (yucko). From then on it was fiction
all the way, with a good dose of his science background burbling to
the surface.
Macy's top priority is compelling
storylines with satisfying plot twists, but he never neglects
character development. No, wait … his top priority is quirkiness,
then compelling storylines, then character development. No, wait …
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