04/29/15

“Grandpa and the Truck” Going to 2 Big Audiences in Tiverton, RI

Our flyer announcing our first BIG show….

“Grandpa and the Truck” coming to Walter E. Ranger and Ft. Barton schools May 13, 2015.cab and trucker

Named to Atlas Van Lines’s “Elite Fleet” (of drivers,) “Gator” drove millions of miles, flawlessly, across America in the big rig.

Now, he tells his exciting adventures to student audiences, focusing on the men and women who drive these big metal beasts….their challenges…natures’ role (hurricanes, fog, ice) and the beauty and diversity of our great land.

“Grandpa and the Truck’s” trucker and 30-year retired teacher, Providence Journal Op-Ed writer, Colleen Kelly Mellor (trucker’s wife and author) bring their lively show to Tiverton little ones.

Signed and personalized books may be ordered right here, on this website

www.grandpaandthetruck.com

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11/5/14

We Were a Smash Hit at the Authors’ Expo

 

This past Saturday was our first appearance at RI Authors’ Expo…We are the first to produce the Grandpa and the Truck books (for kids 4-9), about husband’s 30-year big rig career, transporting household goods all over America. OOIDA has named us “Cool Gifts for Kids” and Women in Trucking endorses us, too. And now, schools are inviting us in, since we’re the perfect vehicle to teach geography, nature, science, math, and important life lessons.  They love the fact, too, that we meet  Common Core standards.

This is our first entry into the book fair circuit but we’ve got lots more appearances on tap. We’re especially thrilled with the schools who are signing up to test-drive our books.

Our books are perfect as gifts for the countless children’s birthdays folks need a present for…Christmas…Channukah…kwanza.

If you’re a trucker, why not give a gift that tells others the important job you do, in moving ALL of America’s products? So far, no one’s done that. We aim to change that.

If you’re a trucker’s family, you’ll love the fact we recognize truckers as True American Folk-Heroes.

If you buy our books for a child, tell us how to personalize and we’ll autograph (how cool is that?) Then the books become a rare, individualized gift for a child, instead of a store-bought, everyday item…

Finally, your purchase will enable us to continue telling a trucker’s tales to our biggest fan base (kids), so truckers can finally get the recognition they so richly deserve.

Pay buttons are above….and “Thank you.”

01/10/13

“Like Us (Grandpa and the Truck)?”….Then “Like Us” Please…On Facebook

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We attempt to build audience across America, and as a husband/wife trucker team, that’s not easy.  But I’m encouraged…

The e-mails sent, personally, touch me.  They’re from folks from all walks of life.  Just this past week, we were “Liked” on Facebook, by two Canadian drivers…Why?  Truckers everywhere share experiences that cross barriers and borders…

Last summer a woman wrote me about how very much she appreciated my putting a trucker’s stories to print…Her Dad was a long-haul trucker, many years ago, carrying wheat across the Plains states.

She wanted to share what her father did with her children–his grandchildren. Now, she could.

Then, there was the woman who was going to her family reunion in California (she lived in Texas.) While there, she planned on giving each of her siblings copies of the books, to give to their children.  She wanted to insure their Dad’s legacy.

A woman wrote me, saying “My son is 12 and he loves the big rigs, but I can’t find anything age-appropriate for him” (our stories are for the 4-8 age group, primarily.)  She asked my advice:  “Did I know any books she could get?”

I suggested she might want to try our Grandpa and the Truck books for him, anyway, and if they don’t fit, she could store them and give them away as gifts for little ones, in future.

I advised this because adults seem to enjoy our books, too.

You see, Grandpa and the Truck books are unique:  They’re the stories of hundreds of thousands of truckers worldwide and I know:  Their families, friends and all who love the big rigs will appreciate reading tales from one who drove millions of miles for 3 decades, moving households, against often-impossible odds.

Two books covering 4 specific exciting adventures (each book has two) are already available.

Now, we ask Trucker Nation and all others to “Like Us” on Facebook and get the word out to friends, family, and business associates.

If you’re a trucker, you deliver the goods across nations (and internationally.) Isn’t it only right you should deliver a message about books that sing the praises of truckers everywhere, while teaching little ones wholesome lessons of life?

Here’s the link (https://www.facebook.com/GrandpaAndTheTruck)… Now, please go there and “Like Us” (if you appreciate what we do) and help us get our message to all. 

Order our books, too, if you wish your kids and grandkids to learn what a trucker does (we’re the only ones writing these accounts)…..

Thank you and Enjoy….

 

11/24/12

Why Are Grandpa and the Truck Books Great Gifts? (6 Reasons)

 

Grandpa and the Truck Books Are “Made in America” (that’s important to us.)

It’s Small Business Saturday and since Grandpa and the Truck’s a small business, I can unabashedly sell my products across the airwaves, without appearing ‘tacky’ on this day following Black Friday.

Unlike Black Friday, I won’t be killing you with constant reminders, extensions, etc. There won’t be other forms of killing, either…no pushing and pulling of hair…no stray bullets flying (it happens every year at those store events.)

So, here it is:  My one-time, official Small Business Saturday business ad as to why folks should want to buy the Grandpa and the Truck books:

1.  They make great gifts for Christmas, Hannukkah, birthdays (keep a stash for that inevitable gift for a little one you need in future.)

2.  Our books are “For Boys and Girls.”  We made them that way.  They’re colorful, with beautiful illustrations.

3.  If you buy the series (we’ve got two books available now,) your little ones learn geography:  The truck goes through a different state in each story; and because of that, children learn regional differences of our great land.  Book 1’s set in northern California, on a fog-bound highway, and in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia; Book 2’s action takes place in Biloxi, Mississippi (where a Cat. 5 hurricane hits) and in little Rhode Island, birthplace of two phenomenal women truckers.

Book 3 (in creation stage, available after January) sees our trucker traveling through farmlands of central New York (not NYC, the place most children associate with “New York”) as he revisits the Woodstock Music Festival. In that same book, he’ll go on a hair-raising ride through coal-mining territory in West Virginia.

To this point, Books 1 and 2 are available (more info on each if you click “Books” on our top banner.)

For these reasons, we call Grandpa and the Truck “a Mobile Geography Lesson.”

4.  Along with geography, we teach a whole lot more, as each story comes with Lesson as focus, Question page, Trucker Terms page (fun!) Maps.

5.  We’re endorsed by OOIDA (major international trucking association) and Women in Trucking (WIT), so industry leaders know we’re true to the trade and speak “Trucker truths.”

6.  Finally, too…we’re “Made in America,” important to us because we highlight what truckers do.  We didn’t outsource to a country who could make our books even less expensive than our current $9.99 for two beautifully-illustrated stories, with all the other ‘stuff” mentioned above.. We’ll only ever use American products and American shippers…

So, when you buy Grandpa and the Truck books, you’re “Buying American.”  That’s important to us, as we lend our  efforts to rebuild our great country.

11/21/12

Super Endorsement: When Friends Order Several

Oh, I LOVE being a businesswoman.  Especially yesterday.  That’s when our primary care physician ordered 12 of our Grandpa and the Truck books….signed, sealed, and delivered. And we can’t think of anything we’d rather do more….

He’s had copies of the books in his office now, for about a month.

As of Christmas, little ones in his family will have their own special copies.

And it’s a BIG family. He either told me his parents have 40 grandchildren or 400, but I obviously misunderstood that part.

No matter–we’re getting out there.

Now, his purchase has given me a great new idea:  I’m going to bring my books to pediatrician’s offices and see if there’s interest…They’re educational (I made them that way); they cover geography–as the truck covers America; they teach important life lessons.  Good reading material for those lengthy wait times in a packed pediatric office.

I can hear the chatter now.

In marketing, it’s all about the big picture, and I thank my primary care doctor, Dr. Chad Lamendola, for helping me see this one. If you’re a self-publishing, indie writer (like me), you have to see all the avenues for sale. If you don’t, someone else will, and you’ll be left in the dust.

No self-respecting big rig driver wants that!