You do not have to be a golf fan to take something away
from local author Rob Nelson’s book “Trees, My Way, Golf Stories for
Mortals.”
While Nelson, who lives by Lester Prairie, may be writing
about golf, his messages cover something much more than just sport they
tackle life’s issues, but still incorporate a sense of humor.
One of his 18 tales includes a story about a gentleman
who received a cell phone call on the golf course. Much to the aggravation
of his fellow golfers, he took the call.
“Hello . . . yeah, the reception is better. I was
in the car before. I’m on the course now,” Nelson writes of a conversation
in his book.
While the golfer’s partners look at each other, dazed that
the gentleman would take a call on the golf course, the man proceeds to
talk.
“Yeah, OK,” the man continued with his call.
“We’re teeing off now, I’ll call you after the second hole.”
This story, like the 17 others, can happen not only on
the golf course, but out to dinner in a restaurant, in the car, anywhere
“normal” people are going about their daily lives, and that is
what Nelson strives to portray.
“I don’t think the book is about golf so much, but
more human nature,” Nelson said. “Golf is the perfect backdrop,
and so many people can relate to it. People in the book are people you have
met on the golf course or off, there are bits of all those people
in the book.”
The book itself was written before Nelson moved to the
area, and is the sixth book on Nelson’s resume.
He began by writing short stories about golf and showing
them to a co-worker, who would doodle some drawings to go along with the
stories.
“He (Bill George) ended up doing the cover, as well
as the drawings on the inside,” Nelson said. “A friend of mine,
Alaina Fedie, who is also an artist, did the company logo for me.”
Nelson cites golf as a favorite pastime, making that his
first choice to write short stories about.
“I wanted to write some short stories, and golf was
my number one hobby. Once I sat down and started writing, they just came
like water over the Niagara,” he said. “I would write on the train
to work, lunch hour, and on the train during the ride home. When I got home
at night, I would type them into the computer. The stories came to me so
quickly that it only took a couple months total to write all of them
they were such fun to write.”
After the stories had been written, Nelson approached several
major publishers all whom liked the book, but said that “because
I wasn’t myself a famous golfer or writing about famous golfers they couldn’t
publish it.”
Not to be taken down by this roadblock, Nelson realized
that there are many people out there who are sick of the standard jokes
and anecdotes.
“There is a great deal more to golf than that, and
one of the unique things about golf as a sport is that all of us ordinary
people can play it.
“We’re not as good as the pros, obviously, but we
get out there and play our own brand of golf that they don’t play. There
is a huge market for this and I decided to do this on my own
and self-publish,” he said.
Self-publishing included page layout and cover design.
He spent an entire year editing it, getting the pictures together, and putting
the book together for printing.
“It’s fairly costly,” he said about self-publishing,
“and there is no guarantee of success with it. I believed in it and
had enough encouragement from people who read it that wanted to see this
book in print.”
After that year of work, Nelson’s dream of having that
book came true with “Trees, My Way, Golf Stories for Mortals.”
“This is the book for ordinary people who are tired
of reading the same old thing,” Nelson said.
A final piece of inspiration for Nelson to get his book
self-published was meeting author Susan Green at the Professional Golfers
Association (PGA) Tour last summer at Hazeltine, who also self publishes.
“She has some golf books for children, is self-published
also, and has been very successful with it,” he said. “After speaking
with her, I thought to myself, I can really do this.”
Nelson was born in Madison, Wis., and when he was four
years old, his family moved to Chicago, Ill.
He wrote his first story when he was seven years old, and
took a lot of writing classes in high school and college but he had
intentions to become a college professor in physical sciences.
“When I got into college and was working for a professor
who was doing what I thought I could do,” Nelson said, “I just
realized I couldn’t do it.
“I fumbled around quite a bit and ended up working
as a retail broker in the commodities industry for seven years when
I moved up to Minnesota, I saw the chance to start over and to become a
professional writer.
“I moved to Minnesota a little over five years ago,”
Nelson said. “I have family nearby and wanted to be closer to them
plus the weather is a lot nicer.”
Nelson applied for, and received, a job as a reporter at
the Lakeshore Weekly News in Minnetonka. The editor recommended Nelson to
a trade magazine publisher, where he has been writing ever since.
“Since I started doing that,” he said, “I
have realized that this is what I was meant to do.”
“I love living in Lester Prairie,” Nelson said.
“I have gotten to know a lot of people through Bethal Lutheran, and
love meeting new people.”
Nelson will be at the Hutchinson Mall signing copies of
his book outside of the Hallmark store Friday and Saturday, Nov. 29 and
30.
Nelson will be also be doing a book signing at the Winsted
Library Friday, Dec. 6 from 2 to 5 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 7 from 9 a.m.
to noon and 1 to 3 p.m., in conjunction with the library’s silent auction.
He also has a book signing in the works with the Old Town
Gallery in Howard Lake.
Watch Nelsons’s web site, www.lagapublishing.com, for updates
to his schedule and to order his book, “Trees, My Way, Golf Stories
for Morals.”
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