ISBN: 0595356982

The following interview was conducted by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Editor of Bookpleasures. CLICK TO VIEW  Norm Goldman's Reviews 

To read Norm's Review of the Book CLICK HERE

Today, Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest, Kathleen Cleary, author of If This is Heaven I am Going to Be a Good Boy:The Tommy Leonard Story.

Good day Kathleen and thank you for agreeing to participate in our interview.

Norm:

Please tell our readers a little bit about your personal and professional background.

Kathleen:

I’ve always been a bit of an entrepreneur and risk-taker. My college degrees are in recreation management and community service; my career was with the YMCA until my husband and I bought our first small business, the Cork ‘n Hearth Restaurant in the Berkshires of western MA. I became a licensed real estate broker in the 90’s. We sold the restaurant in ’97 and bought a lighting retail store in 2001.

The interest in writing has been within me since childhood. I had a couple of poems published as a young girl; took some writing classes in my 20’s. Between raising 3 boys, caring for aging parents and taking care of our businesses, I never was able to focus on writing. I began to write personal essays in the 90’s, which were published in our local paper and read on NPR’s northeast station, WAMC.

Norm:

How did you come up with idea of writing about Tommy Leonard? What methods did you use to flesh out your idea to determine if it was salable? What was your main reason for writing your book?

Kathleen:

I’ve known Tommy since 1979. He’s a great story-teller and the stories about his own life were always so moving, humorous and entertaining. The more I learned about his childhood, the more I realized how remarkable the accomplishments of his adult life were. “A day in the life of Tommy Leonard” was never just an ordinary day. I began to realize that we all have a lot to learn from someone like Tommy about the power of positive thinking and belief in oneself and others and so much more.

Tommy has had a tremendously positive influence on a huge number of people yet even his closest friends were not aware of the difficulties he faced during his childhood. I was confident that the people who know and love Tommy would want to read his story and come away with a new appreciation for him.

However, his constant search for a meaningful life touches chords that everyone can relate to – vision, inspiration, love, loyalty, goals and dreams. These make up the fabric of all of our lives and I feel that his story is one that is heartwarming and inspirational to a very wide audience. The heartbreak is tempered with lots of humor. It provides a booster shot to anyone looking to uplift their spirits and that is the main reason I wanted to write this story.

As one reader told me, “This book should be required reading for every malcontent who blames his felonious life on a rough childhood. It is warm, comedic and inspirational.”

Norm:

What challenges or obstacles did you encounter while writing your book? How did you overcome these challenges?

Kathleen:

Tommy was a prodigious project. Like many writers, I faced the challenge of finding the time to do all the research, interviews and writing while trying to cope with many life issues of work and family responsibilities. Raising teenagers poses its own challenges and I lost my father in the middle of it all. There was a point in time in which I had lost all hope of ever being able to complete this book.

Once we hired and trained an employee to help us at the store, I was able to stay home at least two days a week to focus on the book. Sometimes, I rose very early to write and other times I worked late at night….whatever it took. The passion drove me along.

Norm:

Why did you decide to self-publish your book?

Kathleen:

When I first interviewed Tommy, he gave me a list of 75+ people to talk to. Many of them suggested others. A few of his really close friends died before I ever had the chance to speak to them. Tommy is now 72 and I began to feel some urgency to get this book out. I viewed self-publishing as a relatively quick way to accomplish that. Tommy spent a lifetime investing in people but his 40-year career as a bartender did not leave him with a pension. I am contributing 10% of the book sales to a retirement fund for him and I suppose I viewed self-publishing as a way to direct funds to him rather than to an agent. I felt I had a good grasp of the immediate market for this book and how to reach them. I currently feel like a graduate student of marketing studying how one meets the challenge of getting a book before a broader market.

Norm:

Have you been satisfied with the self-publishing experience?

Kathleen:

iUniverse was very easy and professional to work with. They were very responsive to my desire to have the first books printed and ready for the Falmouth Road Race last August on Cape Cod. Tommy is the founder of this race which draws 10,000+ runners annually and another 60,000 people to the area for the weekend. I saw this as a big marketing opportunity and although the schedule was very tight, we managed to have the books.

The jury is out on whether I made the right choice to self-publish. Since this is my first book, it is a huge learning experience. POD books do meet a certain amount of resistance and an author needs to diligently pursue every marketing angle to gain exposure to a book. I did not realize how many of the big review sites want your galleys months before publication and of course, some won’t look at POD titles at all.

iUniverse does have a couple of programs for authors whose sales reach a certain level in which there is more marketing assistance to help an author gain broader recognition and greater commercial success. Naturally, I am putting a lot of energy into trying to reach those sale levels.

Norm:

Are there any unique ways you'll be marketing your book that is different from how others authors market their books?

Kathleen:

Since Tommy is a bartender as well as the founder of several large road races, we have done some joint signings at several restaurant/bars ~ the Quarterdeck where he works on the Cape, Cheers in Boston, the Village Restaurant in Litchfield. People have always magnetized to him so it’s been great fun to sell books in this way. We’ve also done a joint signing at one of my college alumni events on Cape Cod as well as a cable TV interview and an NPR radio interview together.

Since he is so popular among the running community, I will be signing and selling books at many of the road races he has been associated with besides Falmouth ~ the Boston Marathon, Holyoke Turkey Trot, Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Road Race and the Litchfield Road Race to name a few. Friends within the running community are starting to create some online ‘buzz’ in the discussion forums associated with running.

My marketing plans include contacting Bartender Magazine since he was an inductee into their ‘Bartender Hall of Fame.’

Naturally, I am pursuing many traditional radio, newspaper, and TV outlets as well and have enjoyed some very nice publicity in the Boston Globe, the Washington Times, the Waterbury Republican and the Falmouth Enterprise to date. I’ve been invited to a ‘Breakfast with the Authors’ at the Falmouth Library and am participating in a ‘Celebration with local authors’ at the Sheffield Library in western Massachusetts in a couple of weeks.

Norm:

What do you believe is Tommy’s greatest strengths and weaknesses?

Kathleen:

Perhaps Tommy’s greatest strength is his genuine interest in and love of the people who cross his ‘briar patch of good cheer’ and his remarkable memory of people and events. He is very well read and astute yet he has a child-like joy and passion for life that people find so refreshing.

I had no difficulty getting interviews since people love him so much. Even Senator John Kerry was just delighted to be a part of the book by writing the epigraph.

I suppose his weakness is his need to drink. It was a lifestyle choice he made many years ago, which led to his wise decision not to get a driver’s license. He loves his beer and his life in the taverns in which he both works and socializes as they have brought so many friendships into his life.

Norm:

When you wrote the book did you have a particular audience in mind?

Kathleen:

The obvious and immediate audience for this book are runners around the globe, many who first met Tommy at the Eliot Lounge in Boston or at one of the many races that he was influential in starting. In addition, the many patrons of the Eliot Lounge which included a vast cross-section of people from politicians to media personalities, athletes to physicians, policemen to FBI agents, students to sports writers and many others.

However, it has been very gratifying to me to hear from readers who have never heard of Tommy Leonard and don’t have a particular interest in running and yet find his story totally engaging and inspiring. One reader, a former radio executive, told me I had “transcended running and given the book a wide market appeal.” He likened it to a ‘nice Angela’s Ashes.”

Norm:

What is next for Kathleen Cleary? Do you intend to write another book?

Kathleen:

Of the many roles and jobs I’ve had in life, writing is by far the most enjoyable. I especially enjoyed creating a narrative nonfiction book and have my eyes and ears open for another topic. However, at this point in time, marketing this book has my calendar quite full. Since this is a biography, I feel one of my biggest challenges is to convince the general public that the story is much greater than the simple telling of one man’s life and one does not need to know Tommy to come away enriched from reading his story.

I have created a website, which is dedicated to this book to give people a sense of what the book is about and to see what other readers have to say.

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Kathleen

Thank you very much for the opportunity to participate in this interview and discuss Tommy Leonard’s inspiring story.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.