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RJBurkhart 03:49, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Prairie Heartland Hometown Heroes

The term "Heartland" is also frequently used to describe the region in the United States that lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains.

• Prairie Passage Hometown Heroes, December 19, 2005

Reviewer: geoWIZard "@ Pathfinder Passports" (Monticello, KS United States)

Having relocated to the Great Plains Heartland from the shores of (Lower) Lake Wobegon, I can relate to yarns like these! Jerry's artful word weaving helps me feel like I've found another prairie home companion ... only warmer!

While re-calibrating my Kansas "compass" with the Kansas Environmental Leadership Program during the past year (2005), I'm sure I'd met dead ringers from several of Jerry's composite characters. These extended family tales help create a sense of belonging to a much broader community ...

ISBN 0977125505

Just Folks: At the age of 59 when most people are focusing on eventual retirement, Jerry Engler of Marion, Kansas purposely started a second career just by writing a book.

His book, Just Folks: Earthy Tales of the Prairie Heartland ... includes 65 short fiction stories that use vivid description to capture humor, nostalgia and history. They seem to be capturing the hearts and imagination of many persons who have come from the rural regions of the central states.

Engler said he is beginning to hear from such readers several times a week. One man even told him he bought the book for his 93-year-old mother because she had always loved to read, and was having trouble staying awake to read books. The man thought the collection of very short stories might allow his mother to get through the very short stories one at a time. Instead, Engler said, the mother reported back that the stories delighted her so much, she was unable to stop with one, and often completed three or four.

Engler said he once thought hearing from a few fans like this now and then would be the only thing out there to interrupt his writing when he isn't at work for his regular employer, "The Hillsboro Free Press." Instead, by mid-November 2005 with the shipment of his 500th book and demand accelerating, he found that he has become part of a trend in modern publishing that demands effort by the author.

Changing times

At the Ozark Creative Writers Conference in Arkansas during October, Engler heard Gary Goldstein, editor at Kensington Books in New York City, and other authors describe a changing publishing world ... Many small regional publishing firms and self-published authors are releasing the really creative new literature while the traditional New York houses are now buy-out targets of European financial interests. These deals have turned once editorial concerns to accountants for maximum returns. Conference participants said these interests often usw third-world printing rather than North American printers.

Authors said they frequently are left with doing most of the promotional work themselves where the large houses once played that role. Goldstein said on-line services like Amazon.com are changing the world so that self-published and regional writers have more opportunity to become known in mass markets if they have good products.

• Well-known Emporia, Kansas author Don Coldsmith, who endorsed Just Folks, said he loves the way the stories always give a twist at the end to put a smile on a reader's face. He said the stories are nearly a new genre that also could qualify as essays or anecdotes.

• Kansas Sampler Foundation Director Marci Penner noted the stories frequently take ordinary circumstances, and turn them into "a marvelous story."

• Jonathan Holden, poet laureate of Kansas at Kansas State University said the stories are at the top of his list for authenticity and humor.

Self-publishing success

Engler said he feels fortunate to have had almost immediate public and commercial verification that he has a good product with Just Folks. The cover illustration and 22 illustrations inside the book by his daughter, Sheri Schmidt, helped boost the perception of quality, he said.

The Free Press newspaper and its parent company Print Source Direct gave Engler his first thrust forward by printing and paying for one of his fiction stories weekly in a smaller publication, The Free Press Extra. Occasionally the larger circulation Free Press would run one of his story to help begin a fan base.

After a year and a half of publishing stories, Engler decided to self-publish a book of them through Print Source Direct. It was done in time for the Marion County Fair in August 2005 where Publisher Joel Klaassen of Print Source told him he had done better selling and signing books than most people ever had.

That became even more true in September when Engler autographed books at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, Kansas for Book Kansas at their booth in the South Sunflower Building. The former record for sales of a single book by a single author for Book Kansas at the fair was 70 books. Engler's book sold 101 copies.

The nature of the humor in his stories was evidenced by the crowd that came to see nationally known public radio humorist Garrison Keillor at a grandstand show. Engler and Book Kansas noted that the "Keillor crowd" bought Just Folks very well more than doubling the rate of sales of it for the day. Sales people said this was especially impressive because normally the late night grandstand crowd leaves the grounds in a push to go home.

Expanded distribution

As a result of this, Engler pushed ahead with a commitment that will have Just Folks paired with Keillor's new poetry book on Amazon during December. He also continued a schedule that averages from one to three book signings a week in book stores and libraries.

Partners Book Distributing of Holt, Michigan, after examining Just Folks, offered Engler a contract in October for national distribution that may put Just Folks into most bookstores.

Engler said he has enough stories for the next volume of Just Folks with its publishing probably coming in the middle of 2006. He said he feels that writing fiction was always what he was destined for even though he is beginning it relatively late in life. He hopes he is still writing as Coldsmith is well into his 80's.

Readers who want a copy of Just Folks can check on-line at Amazon, or at their favorite bookstore.

To order by telephone, just call The Free Press at 1-800-947-5702, or to Book Kansas at 1-877-878-8127.
RJBurkhart 05:01, 28 January 2006 (UTC)