Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Happy holidays everyone …



It's a week before Christmas and even though bowl practices have started up there's a very different feel when the football regular season comes to an end. For you Spraceballs fans, I compare it to going from ludicrous speed down to something almost normal (but not quite, because basketball continues).

So while I have a quiet moment I just wanted to wish everyone happy holidays and a prosperous new year.

There's really very little to update with the book. As I've posted before most of the manuscript was completed by July, and I had to turn it in by the end of October. Since then there's only been pockets of editing and fact-checking, and I actually have a copy highlighted with everything that has to be updated after the bowls conclude in January.

I figure it'll take about a week, give or take, depending on work and breaking news -- because like always the manuscript takes a back seat to the daily gig. I also had specific contingency plans for if Alabama won the national championship, or did not, and those were carried out a couple of weeks ago.

Regardless, we're still set for a July release.

In the meantime, I'm determined to do more reading in the coming year and have already gotten off to a good start. I just polished off Tom Clancy's Threat Vector (which, yes, was a Christmas gift last year), and now I'm really enjoying Lars Anderson's Carlisle vs. Army: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower, Pop Warner, and the Forgotten Story of Football's Great Battle.

I now leave you with this following holiday thought: Do you know where your Christmas attack moose is?

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween everyone!

It's October 31, which in Alabama means one thing … it's Nick Saban's birthday.

That's right, the coach is 62 today, and everyone goes out of their way to celebrate, going so far as to dress up in costumes, and the university cancelled classes for the weekend.

How cool is that?

It's also the deadline for Nick Saban vs. College Football, which will coming to a bookstore near you over the summer. The book was essentially completed by mid-July and I've just been making some adds and tweaking while we've been going through the editing process. Next up I'll be giving it another read over the month of November and marking everything that needs to up updated as soon as the 2013 is complete.

That may be around the next big holiday round here -- something involving a parade or something …

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Whew ... finally

I'm happy to announce that late last night I turned in the manuscript for Nick Saban vs. College Football, which will be coming out next summer (Triumph Books). The last thing I added was a chart of something that BamaOnline readers will be seeing later this week, but I'm really happy with the way the book turned out. I also like that I handily beat my deadline, which ironically was Nick Saban's birthday, Oct. 31. 

So if you're thinking I'm done, not quite. After the season ends I'll be updating the book with 2013 numbers, and trust me with this project that's a lot. I'll then get to see the book laid out and give it a final round of editing. 

I'll be really surprised if this doesn't become my best-selling book yet. 

Now, back to the 2013 season ... 

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Michigan makes nice move to honor legend

Saturday night (Sept. 7), Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner was awarded a No. 98 jersey in honor of Wolverines legend Tom Harmon. Gardner will wear the number 98 for the remainder of his career. 




For those who don't know, Tom Harmon was actually known as “Ol’ 98,” and he's considered probably the best player in Michigan history.
In 1940, Harmon opened the season on his 21st birthday and scored on runs of 94 (opening kickoff), 86, 72 (punt return) and 65 yards at Cal. He even eluded a drunk fan on the field on the 86-yard score. … Harmon’s final college game was in Michigan's 40-0 victory at Ohio State. He ran for three touchdowns, passed for two, kicked four extra points, returned three kickoffs for 81 yards, intercepted three passes, and punted three times for an average of 50 yards. Consequently, the Columbus crowd gave him a standing ovation. ... As a senior, Harmon led the nation in scoring for the second consecutive year, which had never been done before, and right before he won the Heisman Trophy was on the cover of Life Magazine.

Incidentally, his son is Mark Harmon, the former UCLA quarterback who became a pretty decent actor ... 

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Kind of fitting ...

Alabama came out with this poster recently and I thought it was very fitting with the book as there's a section on Saban's draft success. I wonder if my publisher would be interested in including it, or if that's even possible ...

I'm thankfully on the home stretch for finishing the manuscript, although things are pretty hectic now. Hard to believe that the 2013 season is just two weeks away. Training camp is winding down and students are arriving.

So some more trimming and making sure there are no redundancies. Death to typos ...

Sunday, August 11, 2013

The reign is winding up ...

Looking forward to seeing this year's winners ...

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

More about the book ...


To follow up on my previous post, here are some more details about my latest book: 

- The tentative title is Nick Saban vs. College Football.
- The length of the initial draft was about 200,000 words. For a little perspective, War and Peace was 544,406 words, while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was 198.227
- I've since edited it down to about 100,000 words, which is close to the final length. That's roughly the same size as The Hobbit, and the first Hunger Games book. 
- I'm nearly done with the crucial round of editing, after which most of the changes will be style ... until the end of the 2013 season, when the book will be updated. 
- I really, really like the way it's looking.

As for the photo, I just like it, and was taken with my iPhone ... sometimes you just get lucky.

P.S. For those of you who are interested, the Ultimate Football Database http://www.ultimatefd.com as been re-designed. Hope you like it.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Time for the big reveal ...


So you've all known that I was working on a book.

There have been some hints that it had something to do with college football, and was probably Alabama-related. 

Many of you have also seen some of the charts and stories I did for BOL this summer with a 15-part "Their place in history series."


Well, to quote Randy Bachman, "You ain't seen nothing yet."


The book is about Nick Saban, and I didn't just want to write "a" book about Saban, but "the" book when it comes to putting what he's accomplished as a coach into perspective. I'll be shocked if it doesn't become my most successful book yet. 


As for when it's going to be released the target date is next summer, but it could be influenced by how Alabama does this season. Although I'm in the middle of making some major format changes the first draft of the book is done, with the manuscript due, ironically, on Saban's birthday, Oct 31. 


While you all wait, here's some food for thought on Saban's place in history as he was asked about being compared to Paul W. "Bear" Bryant during SEC Media Days on Thursday:


"I think Bear Bryant is probably the greatest coach in college football in terms of what he accomplished, what his legacy is. I think the biggest thing that impacts me is how many peoples' lives he affected in a positive way, players that played for him, because they all come back and say how he affected their life. They don't come back and say, We won a championship in '78, '79, '61, whenever it was. They come back and say how he affected their lives. There's a lot of Bear Bryant stories that I've learned a lot from, that have made me a better person. I certainly appreciate that, have a tremendous amount of respect for what he accomplished.

"There's no way that we have done anything close to what he's done in terms of his consistency over time, how he changed what he did to impact the times. They threw the ball and won. They ran the wishbone and won. I mean, he changed tremendously to do what he needed to do to be successful. I don't think that it would be fair that anyone really be compared to what he was able to accomplish, the way he did it, and how he impacted other people."

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

... and football season is here

Johnny Manziel drew a ton of reporters today when Texas A&M attended SEC Media Days, and it was every bit of the circus you would expect. The bad photo to the right was about 15 minutes into his session because it took me that long to get that close. 


"Off the field, there's no question he's made some mistakes,” Coach Kevin Sumlin said. “Today will be a great experience for him."

Ah, tough love.

It's been a long week, and it looks like we're making a significant change to the book (one that will make things a lot easier for me), but I'm still on target to announce the subject and tentative title on Friday ... if I survive Media Days. Thankfully there's just one day remaining (long week).

Friday, July 12, 2013

Last summer "fling" if you will ...

I headed up to Nashville with friend Jonathan Harder for a little inspiration Wednesday, to catch Neil Gaiman's final book tour and land a copy of his latest release, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. 

Actually, the idea to go was Patrick McDonald's, who three years ago wasn't able to attend Neil's visit to Tuscaloosa, so a friend snuck me into the dinner/celebration afterward and Gaiman was nice enough  to sign an autograph for him (very nice guy). However, Patrick got called away on work, so again we were left just getting him an autograph.

Neil was terrific. He normally does a reading from the beginning of the book, but said he had promised himself that if there was ever a thunderstorm he would read that part even though most of the audience would be clueless about the plot. A nasty one was rolling through town, with lightning and thunder providing some wonderful atmosphere as 1,800 people at War Memorial Auditorium listened intently, and then he had Bela Fleck join him on stage for another reading.

I'll be honest, I didn't know that Fleck's considered arguably the best banjo player in the world, but new and unique experiences turned out to be a theme for the night as we later discovered The Patterson House in Nashville and wondered why no one had told us about the wonderful place before.

Oh, and organizers did the post-reading autograph session by lottery and our row was the fourth one called. Considering the way our luck was going we went and purchased lottery tickets.

Specific to my books, a couple of things:

1) As some of you may know, yes, for years I've been working on a novel on the side, but have kept setting it aside for other projects. I'm hoping to get back into it in the spring, but who knows?

2) Unless something comes up, or my publisher says to do otherwise, next week I'll be revealing the subject of my book coming out in 2014. I'll do so, right here, because, well, I can ...

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Going from one storm into another

Summer may be just getting going for most people, but it's about to end already for a lot of football writers across the country as NFL training camps start in a couple of weeks and SEC Media Days is July 16-18.

Like usual it's been a busy offseason for me.

First off, I'm happy to let everyone know that the first draft of the book is done. It ended up being more elaborate than I originally thought, just under 200,000 words, which will be trimmed down to near 150,000 and updated after the upcoming season.

Look for an announcement here in the near future about the subject and tentative title. The scheduled release is for a year from now.

Second, I pulled the reins in on the offseason projects and did only one, Lindy's Alabama preview magazine. Like last year I did the cover story, plus two more features and a roundtable discussion with Don Kausler and Andrew Gribble. Hopefully you'll like the issue, which is now hitting stores.

Finally, a quick thank you to the Alabama Sports Writers Association, as I recently took home the best feature award and was second place in the game story category in the Internet division. Always an honor and much appreciated.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Closing in on another step ... (Update #2)

Part I only has about 25 components, or chapters,  to it, so it's roughly the same size as Part II, but is very different with the approach and look.

It also has a lot of charts and breakout boxes, so the people laying out the book with have a lot to play with.

Standalone quotes are also a personal favorite of mine, and this book will have more than any of my others.

Should they use a lot of photos, as I expect and hope, the presentation figures to be terrific.


That's an actual photo of Part II to the right, but double-spaced with 14-point type. I don't be doing that again.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

The process begins ... (Update #1)

I've decided that it might be in my best interest to keep the lid on about the specifics of the book for now, or at least until I get it finished, but I'm cruising along with the writing and can reveal how I'm going about it.

First, I decided on a time frame. The manuscript deadline is Oct. 31, and it will have to be updated later on, but that's not an issue.

Second, I gave myself a deadline for having the entire first draft done, and decided on July 15. Not only will this give me plenty of time to edit the book 2-3 times, maybe more, and complete all the rewrites, but SEC Media Days begins a couple of days later. For those who don't know, that's essentially the start of the 2013 season.

Third, I split the book into four parts, with the last one being the conclusion. Then I broke it down into sections, for lack of a better term), based on the subject(s), but also so I could plan everything out.

There are 90 sections. That works out to basically one section per business day for me to hit my July deadline.

As for the size of the book, I knew Part II would be the meatiest so tackled that one first. Late last night I finished it way ahead of schedule, but it's also a lot longer than I anticipated, about 75,000 words. That's bigger than the initial version of 100 Things. Double-spaced with 14-point font the printed out version is exactly two inches thick.

It gave me a good reference point for where I want to go from here in terms of size. I need to cut Part II down to about 50,000 words (give or take), and balance it with Parts I and III-IV combined, giving me about a 150,000-word book.

So I need to be writing about 1,500 words a day from here on in. That's more than doable, in fact I can actually slow my pace a little.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Yep, another book deal ...

I'm in the process of finalizing the deal for my 19th book, which will be written over the course of the year and hit stores in 2014. Normally I would wait until after the contract is signed, which should happen over the next couple of weeks, to make any sort of announcement but in this case I don't think there's any risk of jinxing it.

Besides, I've already started working on it and already know my deadline.

As for the subject matter, I'm going to hold off a little before revealing it, mostly because I don't want to give anyone any ideas before it goes to press, but the photo is a very strong hint. Tom Brady vs. the NFL makes the case that he's the greatest quarterback to ever play pro football. I'll be doing something similar with someone else.

Meanwhile, for those of you who have read the Brady book, the concept is the same but the execution will be very different. My guess, and hope, is that this book will outsell 100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, which we updated last year.

P.S. I've been asked to contribute to another book as well, which would be No. 20.The details on that one have to be worked out, but I like that it's a nice round number.