Baker Teague

I spent enough years behind the mic, I figured it was long overdue to write a book incorporating some view of radio into the mix. Baker Teague will more than likely be a short book. I need to write, and to do something that gives my brain a break.

This exercise is a tribute to a couple of friends from radio. The character, John “Baker” Teague, is the one-man-band of news at a hole-in-the-wall station in the Midwest (hence the obviously-dated dial on the cover I’m working.) He’s got the Dangerspouse ‘tude and readheaded wife. Plus “Baker” is his nickname for a reason.

But I also have a soft spot in my head for a former colleague whose on-air and real name was John Baker. He was among the lunatic fringe, funny as heck, and we had a blast working together. We were Johnny and LeiLani in the Morning while it lasted, before the station owner decided to install her niece and herself in the morning slot. I resigned and left the business altogether because I saw the writing on the wall. A few days after I left, John understandably walked away with a well-deserved fuck-you to the idiot brigade.  (Neither the owner nor her niece had ever been on the air before, nor did either of them have any background in radio. They just liked the idea of trash-talking in public.)

I lost track of John, like so many people from my radio days. Some have died, including one extraordinarily-talented young man who died in his 30’s; others have, like me, left the business. At least one switched gears and went into television. It’s a business where if you stay in small markets, you’re screwing yourself over. Small-market broadcasting means low wages, long hours, and no benefits. It’s typical for a talent to switch jobs several times.

This book, a comedy-cozy-murder-mystery, will definitely draw from some of my own experiences in the business, hopefully without getting into so much jargon it bores the world at large.

I don’t have Dangerspouse’s touch with audacious comedy, sad to say; but you can’t live through radio without having or developing a sense of the absurd. And I can write.

I’m getting more inquiries about the publishing company. Most indie companies are scams, little more than vanity publishing. One friend was planning to pay $1500 up front to publish her book. That’s with a company where the editing is a joke, they don’t have good cover designers, and they don’t offer any other services. She’s an excellent writer, and was the one who convinced me to go live early. After her previous experiences, she was overjoyed to find out there are alternatives.

I’m determined to absorb setup costs for anyone whose work is worth the trouble, and just take a cut. At the beginning, I’ll have to do a lot of the work myself. What I can’t do, I can hire out to pros for a decent price. (Setup of a book can cost anywhere from a few hundred bucks to a couple of thousand, not counting promotions.) So while I can’t pay advances at this point, I can at least offer new authors the ability to publish at no out-of-pocket cost to them.