A Two-Time Self-Published Author and Capturing and Promoting the Journey

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to publish my own posts here on the Big Words Blog Site, but life has given me a window to do so now. I monetized my blog for a season from 2016 until recently, 10 years in the area of SEO. I think that season may have come to an end, which I plan to write about sometime. It’s hard to believe that it has been 10 years.

During that 10-year span I became a two-time self-published author. You can read about my book project entitled, The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story on the writer’s blog Big Words Authors. Part one of the story is subtitled Innocent Basketball Dreams, and there is a special significance to that name. I envision part two being subtitled, The Fate Of Innocent Basketball Dreams.

Starting as early as 2014 when I wrote for the Examiner, I wrote promotional essays about this project. I interviewed a total of 43 players and coaches for the project and starting in 2018, I started publishing what I called the ‘big ones’, the notable interviews. Leading up to the publishing part one of my two-part story in 2024, I generated roughly 13 promotional essays, and book and interview excerpts. Early in 2026, I decided to compile this promotional content into my second book entitled, Western New York Basketball Stories: Basketball Essays And Interviews From The Far West Region Of New York State.

Why Bother Writing These Stories?

These compiled essays and interviews give insight as to why I wrote my two-part story, and they provide a record of them should the internet go down for some reason. This second book also provided a way to spread my story. I know that my family, people from the Buffalo community, and people who I’ve met since leaving Buffalo for school and then settling in my career have likely wondered why I would write something like this. Many may have also wondered what qualifies me to write something like this and why I wouldn’t focus strictly on my career.

I’ll answer that by saying that while my story is about basketball, it also has deeper messages about life and the adult world. There is more to it than simply that I wanted to be a basketball player when I was younger, and that dream didn’t pan out like the majority of kids. This might shock some readers, but our civilization is facing some stark challenges right now, many of which most people don’t see. One is making and teaching masculinity to boys so that they can become competent and functional men. That’s actually something that’s getting lost, and as fellow author and clinical psychologist Dr. Orion Taraban stated in one of his videos, masculinity in itself is a culture, and it can be lost in three generations. Author Erica Komisar stated the same thing about motherhood. Our current society is actually flirting with losing both of them right now, believe it or not.

Literacy: A New Class Divide?

Publishing these books has been quite the adventure for me and I’ve learned a lot. One of the most valuable lessons you learn as a self-published author is that you have to get your messaging and writings out to the masses somehow. Publishing quality books is just part of the journey, but who will support you after that? Who will care? Going forward I also want to use my voice to at least try to help reinvigorate a love for reading. Afterall in this new digital era of artificial intelligence and digital devices, many believe that literacy is becoming the new class divide.

If you haven’t, please check out the page for my books on my writer’s blog Big Words Authors. Also with the 2026 holiday season upon us, please consider purchasing a copy for a younger person in your network, or for yourself if you like stories. Please consider purchasing a copy no matter what season we’re in. Both of my books are available on Amazon and at my online store. And with that I’ll end this blog post. As the late Coach Ken Jones, a key figure in my story, used to tell us as his players, “YOURS IN GOOD SPORTS!”