A new question about Keeping the Tryst: What happened in the cafeteria at Elon

My book Keeping the Tryst has been out for a little over a month and a half now.  It's been doing pretty well sales-wise.  Okay it's NOT a bestseller by any stretch.  But enough people have been buying and reading it to make me pretty happy so far.  Maybe there will come to be some word of mouth and knowledge about it will spread around.

People are reading it.  And their comments have been rather kind.  One of my friends said that it's a real page-turner that he's barely been able to put down.  A number of people have praised its readability, saying that it doesn't come across as a 500-some page volume.  I've also gotten good word about the design: it's page color, the font size... so it's something comfortable on the eyes.  Considering that I had to design everything about this book, hearing those things makes me smile.

There have been a number of questions from those who have been reading Keeping the Tryst.  I've been doing my best to answer them as well as is possible.  Here's the latest question that's been asked.  I suppose it's a good one, because I didn't expound on it very much in the book...

"What happened in the cafeteria in chapter 19?"

Harden Cafeteria, Elon College, circa 2000

The answer is: I don't know.

I have vivid and troubling memories about what happened a few hours earlier, then a week and a half following my salvation experience in November of 1996.  I remember being in my bedroom at our apartment, sometime after midnight.  There is the memory of calling someone.  What took place between going to the cafeteria and winding up back home, that's gone.  Just... gone.

When dawn came, I didn't get ready to go to class.  I was too torn to pieces, too wiped out.  My mind was a wreck.  I skipped school that day.  And the next.  Friends called me, wanting to come over.  But I turned them down.  I wasn't ready to see anyone.

My friend Gary was the one who suggested that something very horrible had happened that evening in the cafeteria.  And over the course of the next few days, a number of friends from what was a close-knit community of Christian students intimated also that a terrible occurrence had transpired and that I had been at the center of it.

There are some mysteries in my life.  Things that I can't explain or have ever fully grasped.  What happened that night in Harden Cafeteria at Elon College is one of those.  It's among the biggest enigmas that have come about in my time on this earth.

What  I wrote about in chapter 19 of Keeping the Tryst is whatever it is.  Something terrible, that I've never had a solid answer about.  But I believe that God has brought me a long way from that.  It doesn't cast a shadow over my life as it had.  In fact, in the grander scheme of things it's really something pretty minor.  I came through it, God is good, and that's all that matters.

But maybe someday, though it's already been almost thirty years, there will come to be a clear understanding of what happened.  And who knows, but maybe I'll write about it.

Read More

Yet another question about Keeping the Tryst: Uncle Frank's superposition

It's been a little over three weeks since my first book Keeping the Tryst was published.  It's been selling fairly well, considering that I'm a first-time author who's been pretty under the radar for awhile.  I'm happy with it and I'm hoping still more people will come to discover it.

Since it's now "out in the wild" some people have had a number of questions about it.  I'm going to be answering those as they are asked.  Who knows, but I may add a "frequently asked questions" to a future edition of the book.

Here's the latest question about my book:

"How is Uncle Frank in 2014 after he died in Florida fourteen years earlier?"

I really should have clarified this in the book.  In my life there have been two Uncle Franks.  One was Mom's half-brother.  He's the one who moved to Florida and had a family there.  He passed away in 2000 from lung cancer, a few months after Granny's passing.  Uncle Frank was a real character.  He's someone who has always been an inspiration for me, to live for God and also to allow time to laugh.  He was a good man.

The other Uncle Frank is Dad's brother-in-law, the husband of Dad's sister.  That Uncle Frank has always lived in Reidsville.  He's the one who came with Mom to our house the night after Dad had his accident (and who I told the joke to).  In 2012 Dad and Uncle Frank rented a car and took off on a cross-country odyssey to Arizona to visit a fellow knifemaker.  They had a really good time exploring the western United States together.  During the visitation for Dad at the funeral home we had a bunch of Dad's knives on display.  Uncle Frank was eagerly telling people who came about Dad's craftsmanship.

Like I said, I really should have cleared this up.  But maybe most people will figure out on their own that they're two separate people.  In any case, there have been two Uncle Franks in my life, and I've respected them both.

Have a question about the book?  E-mail me at theknightshift@gmail.com and ask away!

Read More

My book is getting around!

Here it is during a cruise to St. Martin, St. Thomas, and Nassau in the Bahamas:

Much thanks to good friend Roberta for sending this along :-) 

Read More

A new reader question about Keeping the Tryst

Following the first question a few days ago,  I've received another query from someone who is reading my new book Keeping the Tryst. And it's a good one...

"What was the 'most disturbing visual aid' that anyone in the argumentative writing class had ever seen, that involved a jar of tea, some aluminum foil and three or four balls of Silly Putty?"

Ahhh yes.  That.  It was January of 1993, when I was at Rockingham Community College, when I did that little stunt.  Involving nothing but items found at the average grocery store or Walmart.

Listen: I'm not sharing that with anybody.  It's something you HAD to be there to experience.  Twenty-some innocent souls including Mr. Conte the instructor were there to witness it and I doubt any of them have spoken about it either.  I doubt they've even wanted to think about it.  It was just too much.

All I'll say is that the power of suggestion can be a terrible, terrible thing.

It did help get our group an "A" though.  And Mr. Conte said that it made him think about some things he'd never considered before.  And after that stunt it seems EVERY other group had to have a gimmick to make their presentation stand out. 😀

Funny thing though: Every class that Mr. Conte took roll for after that, he would call out my name and then give me this look, like "Oh Lord please don't do anything crazy today."

Read More

First question from a reader about Keeping the Tryst

Okay, someone just asked the very first question that I've been given about Keeping the Tryst.  This is from a person has finished part one.

Here's the question: "What was the joke that you told your uncle?"

If you've been reading the book, scroll down past the spoiler space and you'll find the answer...

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

The question pertains to the joke that Mom asked me to share with my Uncle Frank, who was Dad's brother-in-law, late that night after they got back from the hospital following Dad's accident earlier in the afternoon.

I had heard this joke at school earlier that afternoon.  And I admit that at the time I thought it was pretty funny, though I hadn't grasped yet just how serious it really was.  It's not a joke I would tell now, forty years later.

Here's the joke:

"What do you call Rock Hudson in a wheelchair?"

"Roll-AIDS."

This wasn't very long after actor Rock Hudson had died of AIDS.  Hudson's coming forward about being infected with HIV was a revelation that sent shockwaves through American pop culture.  And of course Rolaids is a popular antacid/heartburn medication.

Definitely an Eighties-era joke and like I said, it's not one I would tell anyone these days.  But I fleetingly mention it in the book, it sort of adds to the scene that I'm describing: Mom and Uncle Frank returning after being at the hospital all evening, bringing cold hamburgers from Hardee's for my sister and mine's dinner.  When I had told Mom the joke on the way back from school that afternoon she said she didn't like it.  And now here was Mom wanting me to share that same joke with my uncle.  It kind of underscores how dire the day had become just like that (Chris snaps fingers).

If any more questions come, I'll be sure to provide an answer (as best I can).

And if you want to read my book here's the page on Amazon where you can find Keeping the Tryst.  Available in hardcover and for Kindle readers and apps.

Read More

It's been a week since Keeping the Tryst was published...

...and I just checked the metrics.  According to the report, the book has sold very well so far, considering that I'm a relative unknown (outside of this blog, various stunts over the years and the occasional op-ed piece).  Right now it's holding at around #90 in the survival biographies genre, and hovering about #1200 among all memoirs in the Kindle store.  Not bad at all for a newly-minted book author eight days in.

I've gotten some feedback from people who have bought the Keeping the Tryst hardcover.  Every one has commented on how readable it is, despite the 537 pages length.  The font size and the cream-colored paper are very easy on the eyes, and that the chapters are divided into so many sections also makes the book readily digestible and fast-moving.  One person read the entire book in two days.

At the moment, I'm quite pleased about what's happened since its release.  I'm hoping that there will get to be some word-of-mouth and that others will consider purchasing and reading it.  I never expected to be a bestselling author right out the gate and that probably won't happen.  But a lot of people over the years have said that my story is one that many would find not just interesting, but captivating.  I believe them, enough so that I worked on this book on-and-off for over a decade.  I've said that if even just one person found reading it to be time well spent, then my task as an author will be successful.  Based on the figures I looked at earlier, the book has smashed through that target... and how!

Keeping the Tryst is available in hardcover edition and in Kindle ebook format.

Read More

Keeping The Tryst has been released!!

Eleven years of on and off work.  A lot of things happened in that time.  Quite a few events and situations that kept changing the shape of the project.  All of that effort and at times sacrifice... and it culminates in tonight.

Keeping the Tryst hardcover edition just popped up on Amazon a short while ago.

Here's the hardcover version's page.  You can order that now.  The Kindle ebook version (Amazon page here) is still showing pre-orders but I imagine that status is going to change soon.

I don't know what else to say right now.  Just so very thrilled to see my book on sale, and maybe it will enlighten and edify and even entertain its readers.  That's one of the goals I had all along in writing it.

Okay, I didn't sleep at all last night, and I've got some work to do in the morning, so I'm going to turn in for the evening.  But I go to bed tonight a published book author... and that's a pretty neat feeling :-) 

Hope y'all enjoy it.

Read More

Keeping the Tryst: The first copy has arrived!

It got here about thirty minutes ago.

As you can see Tammy approves! :-)

Keeping the Tryst arrives in hardcover and for Kindle ebook this coming Wednesday, October 1st, at 12:00 a.m. UTC.  That's 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on September 30th.  My friends and I are thinking of having a small release party counting down to the moment it publishes.  Hey how many times do you get to say in your life that your first book is being published? :-D 

Read More

Forgive me, for I have sinned (against good grammar)...

This is something I need to get off my chest, before anyone jumps flunky on me about it.  Because YES I know this is wrong.  I'm well aware of it.  But it's not something I can go back and fix so I might as well embrace the horror.

Here is a snapshot of Keeping the Tryst's page on Amazon (for the Kindle edition).  Notice anything?

The "the" in the title is capitalized.  It shouldn't be.  "The" is such a minor word that it's VERY rarely if EVER used in the title of something (except for songs, it seems like every word in a song title is capitalized for some reason).

It SHOULD be expressed as "Keeping the Tryst", and not "Keeping The Tryst".  What happened?  Blame me for typing it so fast on the hardcover edition's title field and not recognizing it until after I had submitted that one to Amazon.  I did it on the Kindle edition too but then realized what I had done.   I can repair the "damage" on the Kindle version but for some reason the system isn't letting me do it for the hardcover.  So I pretty much am just shrugging and capitalizing it as "Keeping The Tryst" for both of them.  The subtitles are appropriately capitalized properly though.

So, that's the story behind that.  But I hope that readers will be kind and overlook it and still be able to enjoy the book.  And hey, maybe in time it will be that I have established some precedent and it becomes good grammar after all: capitalizing every word in a title, but not the subtitle.  It could be my own humble lil' addition to the English language.

A writer can hope, can't he??

Read More

Keeping The Tryst: "What is the deal with your name?"

Some people are asking about my name on my book Keeping the Tryst: "Robert Christopher Knight".  Inside the book I'm almost always referred to as Chris, which is what I've answered to all my life.  So where does "Robert" come from?

Okay, here it goes...

My full name is Robert Christopher Knight.  My dad was Robert Rankin Knight.  Instead of me being a "junior" my parents gave me a different middle name.  And I guess to differentiate Dad and I when someone was attempting to communicate with one of us, they called me Chris.  And that's the way it's been for all my life: I've been "Chris Knight".  I've very rarely been called "Robert Knight".  One of my first teachers in college called me "Bob" early on and he was REALLY confounded about my preferring to be "Chris".

So, I'm Chris Knight.  But whenever I've published something or run for office (which there will likely only ever be one time that I do that) I've done so as "Christopher Knight".  Why?  It's in the pages of my book.  It's something I do in honor of what God has done in my life.  Saul of Tarsus became Paul the Apostle.  Just so, I took on a different name for my writing (and other stuff).

But the REAL reason why my name is "Robert Christopher Knight" on the cover and title page of my book?

I don't want to be confused with Christopher Knight who played Peter on The Brady Bunch.

Read More

A special preview of Keeping The Tryst

In a little less than two weeks my autobiography (it's really more like two or three typical memoirs mashed together... what can I say I've had a complicated life) Keeping The Tryst will be released.  After more than ten years of on and off work it will at last be in the hands of readers, and then I guess we'll see what happens.  I'm hoping and praying for at least ten people to buy a copy, whether the print edition or Kindle ebook, and enjoy reading it.  That would make me extremely happy.  A writer only needs one person to read what he or she has composed and to come away feeling like it was time well spent.  That's who I've been laboring for: just one person, whoever he or she might be.  But it will make me happy if more than that read and like it too!

So since we're in the home stretch leading up to publication, I thought I'd share a bit of it. What you're about to read is the opening to chapter five, which spans the course of a year between my being ten and eleven.  A lot transpired in that period of time: some good but some of it not so pleasant.  These first several paragraphs though convey one of the happier memories of my childhood.  And it delights me to share it now...

 

There is a scene in the movie Citizen Kane where Mr. Bernstein mentions how sometimes a person will remember an occurrence without understanding why that particular memory is so vivid.  He recalls how long years earlier he saw a girl in a white dress, carrying a white parasol.  Bernstein saw the girl for just a fleeting moment, and she didn’t see him.  But he confesses that there hasn't been a month that he hasn’t thought about her.

            My “girl with a white parasol” moment happened on July 26th, 1984.  And I doubt there has been a week since that she has not come to mind.

            It was the summer after fourth grade.  And it had been a grand one in my little world and beyond.  Summer vacation began with a solar eclipse three hours after school let out.  Between that and the start of fifth grade were two trips by my family to White Lake, the premiere of Ghostbusters, a Star Trek marathon, the race between Reagan and Mondale, the music… the summer of ’84 was on fire!

            The family was at peace, that summer.  I wasn’t in fear of anyone, and that felt good.

            In the midst of all this my parents and sister and I took a trip north to visit our cousins.  We left on Friday afternoon and made it to Virginia Beach late that night.  The next day Dad drove us across the harrowing Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel.  A few hours after taking the Cape May ferry to the southern tip of New Jersey we arrived in Point Pleasant, just in time for dinner with Bill and Mary.

We stayed with them until Wednesday.  Then we left for somewhere that Mom and Dad said would be a place we would never forget: Amish Country.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was unlike anything I had ever expected to see.  “Plain” folk were going about in their simple clothing and riding their horse-drawn buggies.  We passed by a barn that was being built.  All of this and more, a place that was incredibly out of time with the rest of the world… and I loved it!

“Is this just for the tourist trade?” I asked my parents.  They insisted that the Amish really did live this way and had been for hundreds of years.

It was just before noon, following a morning of going on a guided tour of the area and being taught about the Amish and their culture.  We decided that we needed lunch.  We pulled into a McDonald’s parking lot.  The four of us went inside and got in line.

And that’s when I saw her.

            She was a little Amish girl.  She must have been about ten, like me.  Wearing a long blue dress and a white bonnet and black boots.  She was waiting to be served at the counter also.  And it was just such a strange juxtaposition, seeing a girl dressed like that in line at a modern fast food restaurant.

            She was soooo incredibly cute.  My heart began doing things it had never done before.

            And then our eyes met one another’s.

            She smiled at me and said “Hello.”

            I had never seen anyone so beautiful.

            “Hello,” I said clumsily.

She smiled again. 

            The Amish girl picked up her order.  She said goodbye and with a whirl of her dress she was headed toward the door.

            I watched her leave.  I waited, hoping she would turn back around and smile one more time.  At just the last moment she did and waved at me.

            Encountering that Amish girl was the greatest thing that happened to me all that summer.  And more than forty years later, I still think of her.

            It was the noontide of my childhood.  But I could not know that yet.

Keeping The Tryst drops on Amazon at 12:00 AM UTC on October 1st.  That's about 8 PM on September 30th in Eastern Standard Time, if I'm figuring it right.

Read More

Keeping The Tryst: The proof copy has arrived!

It arrived yesterday, actually...

As you can see it has a "Not for Resale" watermark wrapped around it.  I think there might be a few other things that will also differ from the final product.  I've also changed some of the text on the back cover since submitting this version for printing.

This being the proof copy, intended for review before the finished product rolls off the assembly line, I've spent much of the time since yesterday looking it over, finding places that need correcting and improving.  There have been some of those, things that I didn't catch already.  A few chapters for whatever reason had an extra bit of space padding the distance between separate paragraphs.  Don't know how that happened in Microsoft Word, but those are all fixed now.

And late last night I got the notice from Amazon: Keeping the Tryst, both the print edition and the ebook, are set to go on sale on October 1st at 12:00 A.M. UTC (that's 7:00 P.M Eastern Standard Time on September 30th for those of us here on the east side of the United States... I think).

This copy has a nice feel and heft to it.  It's also printed on cream paper.  A lot of friends suggested that it would be better for the eyes instead of pure white.  And I might be biased but reading it has a nice "flow" to it.  I like to think that for all its size, it's going to be a nice book to read.  It's going to go by fairly quickly (sort of like a Game of Thrones novel, back when George R.R. Martin actually did write Game of Thrones books!).

Now, if I can only figure out the best way to market my book.  I'll admit that I'm not the best when it comes to presenting a product.  The best I ever did was when I ran for school board in 2006 (although if we're to be honest, it IS a bit hard to not get people's attention when you're using the Death Star to blow up schoolhouses!).

Read More

And the book's title is.........

 Coming October 1st, 2025, the memoir of Yours Truly.

I present to you: Keeping The Tryst.

Look!  Front cover!

You can thank my friends on Facebook for wanting the title reveal.  I was going to unveil it next Sunday but then I figured "They've waited a year and a half.  Why not show it now?"

It will be available on Amazon, in hardcover and also for Kindle readers and apps.

EDIT: I uploaded the Kindle version this afternoon and was expecting it to be within the next 72 hours when I would be notified that it had passed review.  But I just checked e-mail and they already approved it!

Here is the Keeping The Tryst for Kindle product page on Amazon.  You can find the description but not much else at the moment.  You can pre-order it though and have it ready to deliver to your device on October 1st.

Read More