The idea for my book “Look for Something Good” by Robert Drews was sparked back in the fall of 2016 when my wife and I were on a road trip from the West to the Midwest to the South.

Early on as we talked and visited places and watched the landscape go by the idea came to me, why not write a book based on a road trip. With nothing more than that to go on I began taking notes on people, places, and conversations along the way. I thought about it some more when we got back but knew it took more than a simple road trip to write 80,000 words that wouldn’t put people to sleep or have them shut the book at page 19.

Then the idea occurred, why not a road trip by a fella who had been laid off and wanted to get away to clear his head.

At that point the book “Look for Something Good” took shape in my mind, I took more notes at random places like riding the city bus, got out a map of the U.S., and began plotting places the main character could visit, some of which we had visited on our road trip, others I had been to myself in years past, some of which I had never been to.

In writing the book, I mixed and matched places, people, and conversations. With that to go on, I started writing in January 2017.

It went well but early on I realized the book was too one-dimensional based on just this one character and I would never have enough for a full-length book. So I created a second main character. At that point, this was Chapter 3, I knew I could write the full book to the point that I wrote the ending in my notes, and indeed plugged it in with minor variations when I wrote the final page.

I wrote the book starting in January 2017 and ending in December 2018, looked for publishers/agents starting February 2019, got 25 rejections or no-replies, finally was accepted by Vertu Publishing in June 2021.

Editing took place during the spring and summer of 2022, the book waited in queue, and was published in February 2023. My book is currently listed online at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Bookshop, and I have introduced it or will introduce it to bookstores in northern Nevada and Wisconsin, and I went for it at the Milwaukee Airport and will see how that works out.

A writer I may be, a marketer I am not, and this has been a great challenge, but one I embrace, in getting the word out about my book. I’ve utilized the social media, had a couple of news stories published about the book, introduced it in two book clubs I am in. and pitched it to reviewers across the country from USA Today to the San Jose Mercury News. But there are just so many books out there competing for space in book reviews, bookstores, and libraries. The beat goes on.

One interesting dynamic was going through the editing process myself after having been on the other side of the fence as an editor for more than 40 years.

There were times I disagreed with the editing suggestions, particularly in the developmental process, but when all was said and done, the suggestions made the book better. And the line editor was spectacular in her ideas, particularly in having me flesh out pivotal parts of the book. Having worked on newspapers for decades my focus was brevity, but there were times that more was needed, particularly in dialog.

I am keen on descriptive details, both in reading and now in writing.

I don’t think a writer should leave it up to the reader’s imagination how a person or a place looks. And one area in which I love giving oodles of detail is describing meals, from fast-food restaurants to banquets. More than one of my readers said the book made them hungry, which I took as a great compliment.

A little about myself.

I was born and raised in the Bratwurst Capital of the World and from there went on to work at newspaper copydesks around the United States and overseas until settling in northern Nevada with my beloved wife Lisa. My hope for the book is simple: I want people to feel better after reading it. The title says it all, to look for something good.

Please visit my Amazon Authors Page.