Questions and Answers

Q: About your book....the biography of Senator Al Simpson: The mayor of New York City threw a party in your honor. How do you think the success of your book has changed you?
S.T. Billings, MT

A: During the six years it took to write this book and see it thorough to being published by the University of Oklahoma Press, I had no idea whether it would successful. Then, when it set initial sales records, I was a combination of excited and surprised. Now, in the wake of those major celebrations with the rich and famous in New York and Washington, DC, I’m just floored -- grateful, thrilled and incredibly fortunate.

Q: You and your wife traveled virtually nonstop for several years. Now that you settled down to write your book, do you still have the travel bug?
D.H. Helena, Montana

A: Absolutely, and we’re acting on it right now. I’m writing this in a condo in southern Portugal. We arrived here from the USA aboard the cruise ship Crystal Symphony. In a few days we’ll travel to Seville, Spain, and from there to Barcelona where we’ll again board the Symphony and travel to Monaco, Italy, Greece and Turkey. So in our case, we are lucky to have been able to do it all.

Q: Are you making enough money from your book to pay for your extensive travels?
T.T. Chicago, Illinois

A: Not even close! I get only 10% of book store and on-line sales, payable in the following year. In fact, I’m writing this on March 30, 2012 and haven’t seen a cent of what I’m due from the publisher for last year.

Q: You are hanging it up? Stopping the website? Why?
I.E. New Orleans

A: Not hanging it up, but entering a new phase. We traveled for a long time, and wrote a book for a long time. We cruised aboard both Crystal Cruise ships and lived in jungles and saved a little girl in Nepal. we logged a half million miles at an average of 109 miles per day for more than twelve years. We’re going to continue promoting Don’s biography of Senator Al Simpson of Wyoming and pursue an audio version, and have lots of other plans. But we’ll leave this site to demonstrate what we did for a dozen years, and hope others might be inspired to becoming involved in the lives of people unlike themselves somewhere out there, in the world’s nooks and crannies.