Lewis Grizzard Book Talk

Description

Lewis Grizzard book summary says it best:
A Collection of Grizzard Stories the World Has Never Heard, As Told by Many Who Knew Lewis Best. Lewis Grizzard was perhaps the greatest American humor columnist of all time. Sadly he died at age 47 in 1994. In November 2018 Peter Stoddard set out to learn why Lewis's legacy appeared to be fading. He visited the Lewis Grizzard Museum in Moreland and University of Georgia, Peter's own alma mater. He talked to people who knew Lewis casually and others who knew him well. No one Peter talked to knew of any work underway to revive the Grizzard legacy. Pe ... ter then launched an intense but most entertaining effort to learn new stories that only Lewis's closest friends could tell. Lewis was loved by so many it was not difficult to get folks to share their experiences once Peter reached them. The goal of this book is to bring a smile to the face of readers. If it is only marginally as successful as Lewis was at achieving that result, Peter will be thrilled. Lewis gave such pleasure to so many. We hope he is smiling down on all this. Read More

Biography

Amazon Author Biography:
About Peter Stoddard
Peter Stoddard has been writing his entire career. Only recently did he begin doing it for a living.
He began when managing corporate events and continued when selling resort real estate. If he did not communicate well in either field his employers and clients would be in deep trouble, as would he.
Peter graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Marketing.
His first job was corporate Convention Manager at Atlanta's Lanier Business Products. Lanier made insanely expensive dictation and ... word processing equipment that their account executives on steroids sold like banshees. Today your phone does what Lanier products did. But Lanier threw lavish banquets where Peter got in trouble if one out of 100 executive's rental tuxedos did not fit.
Peter's next job was North American Convention Manager at an Atlanta division of Siemens, a company few in America had yet heard of. His friends thought he traveled the continent promoting Seagram's, and their confusion was okay with him. It even attracted babes until they discovered he really dealt with turbines, generators and electrical stuff that ain't so fun at parties.
Peter then took a sales job in Chicago with a company that offered convention center labor less likely to kill their clients than convention center labor that had previously been available. It took a deft degree of humor to not get killed at that profession, especially in Chicago. He soon went into the sales of exhibits, high end corporate showrooms and marketing services where fewer people wished to do him bodily harm.
All this time Peter had to write well, or at least try to. If he wrote poorly his employers would look very bad and/or someone might get hurt or killed.
Then Peter became a real estate agent and later a broker in the Redneck Riviera resort market of Northwest Florida. There he represented some customers who made a killing and others who got killed. Figuratively killed of course, with the occasional exception of rip currents and bad oysters.
As a real estate guy Peter wrote innovative Email Bulletins talking about how the Redneck Riviera was transitioning from the bucolic Best Kept Secret of the South into a New Urbanism mecca a/k/a hoity toity haven for arrogant rich people. He did not write the bulletins quite like that of course, as more and more of his customers over time were arrogant rich people. Still, that transformation is why Peter moved back to Atlanta.
In 2017 Peter founded Stoddard Media, a Public Relations writing business. In his first year a client nominated him for Forsyth County Public Relations & Marketing Firm of the Year. That may not sound like much, but Forsyth is the most affluent county in Georgia. Peter did not win because he refused to buy an ad larger than a competitor's ad at the top of the ballot. Having lived in Chicago for so long Peter regrets not getting dead people to vote for him.
In late 2018 Peter began researching why the legacy of his favorite humor writer seemed to be fading. That writer is Lewis Grizzard, and Peter found his way into the homes and offices of famous people who knew Lewis well and had dang humorous stories to tell that the world had never heard. Peter took it upon himself to tell those stories in a way he hoped would make Lewis proud. Lewis deserves way better than a fading legacy.
Which brings us to Peter's first book, Lewis Grizzard: The Dawg That Did Not Hunt.
Lewis used to comment that if you did not like his column do not complain. The newspaper in which his column appeared cost 25 cents. Adjusted for inflation that would be about $1,723.69 today. If that number is off it is because Peter was a Marketing major and not a Finance major.
Lewis also used to comment that if you did not like a chapter in his book just skip that chapter and do not complain. There are 50+ chapters in Lewis Grizzard: The Dawg That Did Not Hunt. Author Stoddard attests that if a reader does not like at least 40 of those 50+ chapters that reader was likely not a Grizzard enthusiast in the first place.
The Lewis Grizzard eBook runs $9.99. He tried to list the 480+ page paperback at $14.99, but Amazon would not allow such an insanely low price. Thus, that runs $17.99.
Bargains any way you look at it. We hope you will agree. Read More

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Experience

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