In a Minor key

David A. Maurer / Charlottesville Daily Progress
Published: March 20, 2008

Everything from mailboxes to fire hydrants was being painted red, white and blue. The U.S. Treasury minted Bicentennial coins, and the Freedom Train chugged through all 48 contiguous states carrying more than 500 pieces of Americana, such as the dress Judy Garland wore in "The Wizard of Oz" and George Washington's copy of the Constitution.

William Minor became fascinated by all the hoopla and decided to make a contribution of his own. He started working on a humorous, fictional account of one family's salute to the national milestone.

The novel revolves around an ill-fated road trip from California to Detroit to see real American cars, "the big ones," before they became extinct. After more than 30 years, Minor's Bicentennial odyssey, "Trek: Lips, Sunny, Pecker and Me," has found its way into book form.

Minor will be traveling from his California home to Charlottesville to participate in the 14th annual Virginia Festival of the Book, which opens Wednesday and runs through March 30.

He will be signing copies of his new novel, as well as a book of his poetry, "Some Grand Dust," at the festival's annual Book Fair.

The event will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 29 in the atrium of the Omni Charlottesville Hotel.

The journey "Trek" took from the typewriter to the printing press is a study in faith, old-fashioned perseverance and changing conditions in the publishing business.

"I did a first draft of 'Trek' around the Bicentennial itself," Minor said during a recent telephone interview from his home in Pacific Grove. "I had an agent in New York who was very enthusiastic about it, but for whatever reason it just didn't happen, and I set it aside.

"Around 1990 I revised it fairly extensively, and entered it in a contest for Northern California writers. It won for best first chapter of a novel, and I got all excited again.

"I started shopping it around, people were interested, but it still wasn't happening.

While "Trek" was languishing in literary limbo, the author was finding publishing success with his nonfiction works. In 1995 his book "Unzipped Souls: A Jazz Journey Through the Soviet Union" was published by Temple University Press.

This was followed in 1997 by "Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary Years." Minor also wrote the script for the Warner Bros. film documentary of the same title. In 2004 his book "Jazz Journeys to Japan: The Heart Within" was published.

Minor also has published more than 150 jazz-related articles for some of that genre's top magazines, such as Downbeat and Jazz Times. These successes never made him forget about, or stop believing in, his tale about the Bicentennial road trip.

"From time to time I would include excerpts from 'Trek' in poetry readings I would give, and people loved it," said Minor, who taught English, literature and creative writing at Monterey Peninsula College from 1971 to 1996. "People would be roaring with laughter, and ask me where they could get a copy.

"I'd have to tell them that it hadn't happened yet. Publishers were interested in it, but it just wasn't happening. I finally just decided to do it, because I really believe in it.

"I got with a local publisher, Patricia Hamilton, and we did it. She's also a wonderful publicist and has projected a whole year of activities for me to do in promoting the book."

Hamilton founded the self-publishing company Park Place Publications in 1982. She said it differs greatly from the common perception many people have that "vanity" presses are last resort outlets for authors who can't get their books published by mainstream houses.

"In Bill's case there were some major publishing houses interested in 'Trek,' " Hamilton said. "He's a person already well known for his writing who decided he wanted to retain complete control of his book.

"He saw self-publishing as a way to do this. Many famous writers are doing this because things have changed so much because of the Internet. They're basically eliminating the middleman.

"And instead of having to wait for 18 months or more to have your book published by a major house, we can do it in about three months. We can also help get the book to distributors."

Hamilton said one of the main problems many vanity presses had in the past was that their products didn't have a professional look. The technology available today makes a book like "Trek" indistinguishable from any other on the market.

Minor's book provides pretty of rollicking evidence that self-published books can contain first-rate writing. Dan Ouellette, author of "The Volkswagen Bug Book," wrote the following about "Trek:"

"Think Kerouac's 'On the Road' with National Lampoon vacation warrior Chevy Chase at the wheel, and the calamitous cast from 'Little Miss Sunshine' tumbling in for the ride."

Robert Sward, author of "A Much-Married Man" and "Rosicrucian in the Basement," also contributed a favorable blurb for the book. He wrote, "Bill Minor's 'Trek' is that rare thing in fiction these days - Twain-style, laugh-out-loud funny, tall-tale storytelling."

Although "Trek" is a loopy account of one family's run-in with America's past, the author was careful to get the history right. This comes through during the family's return trip home, when they join the Jarvis Spindelshank Overland Trail Re-enactment Party on the Oregon Trail.

"I did a lot of research about the Oregon Trail, and what actually happened," Minor said. "I read diaries, journals and everything else I could to get a factual sense of it.

"A lot of the book is about people who were literally trying to be something they're not. The father is the most unlikely mountain man in the universe, but when they do their re-enactment what does he decide to be- A mountain man.

"Of course their son, Pecker, short for Peckerwood, decides to be a missionary and he's going through this very cynical teenage stage. But by the end of the novel they come to realize who they really are."

Minor will be spending some of his time here doing research for a memoir he's currently working, "The Inherited Heart." His father's side of the family has deep roots in Charlottesville. The 72-year-old writer, artist and musician is a direct descendant of John B. Minor, for whom the University of Virginia's Minor Hall is named. The author also will be searching for information on another relative, Lancelot Minor, who also was born and raised in Charlottesville.

"Lancelot joined the Confederate Army when he was 14 and was at every major battle from Gettysburg on," said Minor, who in 1989 received the Allen Griffin Award for Excellence in Teaching. "Two days before the surrender at Appomattox he was shot through the left lung at Cumberland Church and left for dead.

"The last thing he heard was a doctor telling two guys, 'You dig a hole and he'll be ready for it by the time it's done.'

"The next time he woke up, a woman was spooning chicken broth into his mouth, and he thought he was dead and associated with the heavenly host. When he got back to Charlottesville, he found his sisters were destitute.

"He later wrote that there was one old cow, too lean for beef and not fit to kill. He eventually settled in Arkansas, and when he was 57 my grandmother gave birth to my father."

One of the things Minor is most looking forward to during his Charlottesville visit is meeting other writers. "I think book festivals are wonderful, and I try to get to three or four every year," said Minor, who is also a visual artist as well as a professional musician. "They help to sustain interest in good literature and reading itself.

"I think book festivals are particularly beneficial for writers. They allow us to get together, and I find being around other writers can be very inspiring."

Minor will be signing copies of "Trek: Lips, Sunny, Pecker and Me" and a book of his poetry, "Some Grand Dust," at the annual Book Fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 29 in the atrium of the Omni Charlottesville Hotel. Information on the multi-talented author can be found at http://www.bminor.org.