It seems like every time I tell someone I wrote a book, they always respond in shocking disbelief, “You wrote a book? Why and how?!
It’s true. I’ve written a book! And I must say I’m just as astonished as all of you that I actually completed it!
The funny thing is, I never dreamed I’d actually ever write a book!. It just kind of naturally came to be through my job as the “In-School Suspension” instructor at Liberty High. As you can imagine, it was never my dream to become an ISS teacher either. This job, however, has turned out to truly be a blessing. It’s given me the opportunity to experience a side of education I never anticipated on working within, and it’s been a pleasure getting to work with some of these kids. In addition, through my massive amounts of down time, I’ve gotten to read books I never would’ve read, be “ultra” prepared for my team’s basketball games, and had the unexpected opportunity to write this book!
After reading several books in ISS (Leading with the Heart, Uncommon, More than a Carpenter, etc.) I started thinking about my own life, my own basketball philosophies, and my own beliefs about Christianity. The more I reflected about these important aspects of my life, the more I felt I wanted to write some of them down. Thus, my writing began.
After writing about a couple of my major basketball experiences (my time with the Colts and Rockets), I decided to keep writing until I had enough to make it a father’s day gift for my dad since he’s been such a huge influence on my basketball life. The more I wrote, the more events, ideas, and lessons kept flowing from my memory, and before I knew it, I had enough information for several chapters of a book! It was then I decided to turn my dad’s father’s day gift into an actual book–but I still had no intention on getting it published! After finishing the book, my family and my friends encouraged me to explore publishing it. The more I looked into the process, the more I felt I shouldn’t do it. It’d be too risky, it’d make me too vulnerable, and it wouldn’t matter to anyone outside of my family.
As I began to surrender the idea of publishing my book, I decided to give it one last chance by posting a couple of chapters on a Christian manuscript website where publishers are able to view your manuscripts and contact you if they’re interested. Thankfully, my manuscript caught the attention of several publishing companies who contacted me about my book idea. This gave me the confidence I needed to go ahead and publish the book after all! Like so many things in my life, God seems to have had his hand in this process from the beginning (through my life experiences that are included in the book, to my ISS job that allowed me to write it, to inspiring me to write it, and to finding the outlets I needed to follow through with publishing it).
My goal with this book isn’t necessarily to make a financial profit (even though it’d be nice!). The goal of my book is to help people strengthen their faith in Jesus and hopefully share with them some of the lessons I’ve learned in my life. Hopefully my book is able to do that, and I hope that you consider reading it for yourself! If you have read it, I hope it was meaningful for you and was worth your time. Thanks again for everyone’s support in this process, and I look forward to seeing how God uses this book in the days, months, and years ahead!
In regards to this blog, I hope to continue updating it on a regular basis–especially in regards to my book. I’ve grown to really enjoy writing and hope to continue doing it using this blog!
-BH
By the way, let me know which of the following cover designs you like more (Cloud Cover or Court Cover)? I’m still deciding upon what type of design to use!
Brady Hammond 