Hanging out in Grand Rapids, Michigan

I was warned before I left that Chicago O'Hare is terrible. How they mangaged to miss my one bag during a 2 hour stop in Chicago on my way to Grand Rapids, is hard to understand. Nevertheless, my stuff isnt' here. So I can have them "deliver" it to me 90 minutes away or I can just wait it out.

So I decide to hang out for a couple of hours and go check out Zondervan's headquarters.

The place is HUGE! It was so cool. I went in there and was so dumb. The lady asked if she could help me...so I say, "Yeah, my wife is one of your author's and I was in town and I just wanted to see the place where her books are going to be made." (They don't make them there. But they do store them and distribute them.)

The receptionist was so nice. She called down a lady named Joyce from the Author Care division and she gave me a tour of the whole place!

I got to see the warehouse where they have just tons and tons of books and got to see them wrapping up some books and putting tons of cases of them into a UPS truck. They had these huge conveyer sytem and everything. It was really cool.

Because Jen's books and my books are being done with YouthSpecialties, no one in Grand Rapids actually messes with our books. Everyone with YS is in San Diego or Colorado.

Got to see the offices including the history of Zondervan. Also got to see the big head honcho room, the board

room where every new release is showcased for a couple weeks for all the big wigs to see them.

Joyce said that if she knows an author is coming she makes sure to put thier stuff out there too.

Probably the coolest part was when Joyce took me to meet the contact with YS. And while he isn't working on the team yet with our books, he had seen the prospective covers and he said that everyone is really pumped about how cool they look.

It was so cool. It really is a dream come true for me to be published with YS and it is all to Jen's credit so it was fun to have her be the high light.

At the end, Joyce took me by her office and hooked me up with some free pens and paper as a thank you for Jen being in the Zondervan family.

Good times.

Now, I'm off to pick up my stupid dufflebag...