Click Here To Purchase From Amazon The Day I Hit a Home Run at Great American Ball Park.

Author: Paul Mullen

ISBN: 978-1-933197-30-2

Today, Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is honoured to have as our guest, Paul Mullen author of The Day I Hit a Home Run at Great American Ball Park.

Good day Paul and thanks for participating in our interview.

Norm:

Paul, Please tell our readers a little bit about your personal and professional background. I understand you have three degrees?

Paul:

That’s correct, Norm. I received my Bachelor of Science degree from Southern Illinois University in Industrial Technology while I was enlisted in the Air Force. I received my MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University and Ph.D. in business management from Walden University. A synopsis of my dissertation on using money as a motivational tool in the workplace was published by Industrial Management

Norm:

Why do you believe illiteracy to be a huge problem in the USA?

Paul:

A: Statistical evidence proves what happens to nations when disparity exists among its citizens and their educational level in terms of earning power. For example, according to the 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, the average earnings of a non high school graduate is 19,000 dollars and a college graduate is over 50,000 dollars annually.

Assuming a forty year working career, the college graduate will earn a million dollars more over his/her lifetime. The Knowledge Foundation reports that over 70% of the jobs that will be created in 2008 will require at least some postsecondary education.

Unfortunately, disparity exists today that will cripple many of our youth in a life of poverty and crime. A report sponsored by the Gates Foundation has concluded our own government has over reported the number of high school graduates nationwide and the true high school graduation rate is more like 70% not 87.5% which was reported. Even more staggering was the divide in African American graduates, which the Gates Foundation believes to be 52% and not the 85% recorded by our government.

Uneducated citizens are more prone to violence. The National Adult Literary Service (NALS) has stated that 70% of prisoners read below eighth grade reading levels. One study indicated that prison officials use third grade reading test scores to estimate what the new prison population will be in ten years from now.

If a nation loses its ability to read, then it is also more likely to lose its ability to communicate effectively and thus will likely divide as a strong nation once founded upon sound principles.

Norm

What do you have to say about illiteracy that not only exits among the youngsters but also among college and professional athletes? Should they be given scholarships when their reading and writing is not up to par?

Paul:

My daughter, Erin, received a college scholarship in softball. Erin was always taught by us that education came first and foremost. Belmont University, where she received her bachelor’s degree, prides itself on its athletes’ top grade point averages in the Atlantic Sun Conference. From my daughter’s experience, I’d say that most colleges shy away from high school students who don’t put forth the effort in preparing for college. After all, education is all about training and discipline – two key features required for the next level in college athletics.

And yet what we have to bear in mind is that not all high schools are alike in terms of preparing the high school athlete for college, so I’d have to leave it up to the coaches and the athletes themselves their freshman year to decide if it will work. Erin had several softball players drop out of Belmont after not making the grades.

Norm:

The Day I Hit a Home Run at Great American Ball Park has a broader mission than simply entertaining or storytelling. Can you talk more about that mission and what you hope readers will take away after reading your book.

Paul:

My whole perspective on the importance of reading changed when I had the opportunity to teach struggling eighth grade readers. I was appalled by the lack of respect many of these students exhibited toward me and teachers in general.

Many of these students were so violent, I had to break up fights routinely in my classroom. I learned very quickly that basic reading skills and having a strong family base are essential to properly teach students.

Many of the students I taught had given up on society by the age of fourteen. To some, their heroes were gang members and prisoners. Several of my students were migrant workers who had recently arrived from Mexico and didn’t have a clue what the American dream represented. It scared me; it really scared me as to how far my America had let these students down.

So I pulled out THE DAY I HIT A HOME RUN AT GREAT AMERICAN BALL PARK which had sat idle for some 15 years and began re-writing the story with these students in mind.

Fuji, in a sense, represents our America, the average citizen who through hard work and believing in himself is offered a chance to prove that he can succeed with the support of his brothers and sisters, girlfriend, mom and dad, and coaches.

Everyone around Fuji wanted him to be the first in the family to hit that home run at a major league park – the same dream that they all had wanted to live out before Fuji; and isn’t this the America we want for all of our children?

After reading Fuji’s exploits, I want the youth in America to live with hope and to find a dream, find a passion and commit to that dream, that passion.

Norm:

How did you create Michael “Fuji” Powers in your book and is there much of you in the story?

Paul:

I’m often asked this question. Fuji is Paul Michael Mullen. My nickname in the ‘60s was Fuji. But please don’t ask me why. I’ll just say my brothers always teased me that I was adopted.

Norm:

Was your book improvisational or did you have a set plan?

Paul:

The first title of THE DAY I HIT A HOME RUN AT GREAT AMERICAN BALL PARK was THE DAY I HIT A HOME RUN AT CROSLEY FIELD.

I had started writing the story for my daughter as I mentioned in 1993 about my days of playing baseball near Cincinnati, Ohio. Erin gave me back my youth when she and I used to play baseball every day. She wanted to become an Allstar Little League baseball player, and when she turned twelve she actually earned a spot on the Cressona Little League Baseball team. She went on to play women’s baseball and helped Team USA win the gold medal in the first sanctioned Women’s World Baseball Cup.

My original story was intended to be read by the baby boomers, but as I mentioned, I revised the story and added more current affairs and appeal to the youth in America. So this is a story the whole family will enjoy reading.

Norm:

Do you believe that if you want to write a good story or novel you need to create struggles of powerful descriptive individuals and not just issues. Through their accomplishments and travail, we very much comprehend the issues? If so, please elaborate as to how it applies to your novel?

Paul:

A dream should never come easy, and most never happen at all. It was key for me to write this story in the first person, so I could have the reader encounter the struggles Fuji went through in his quest to live out his dream.

A good story, in my opinion, must always have key characters because we as people can better relate to the human element, more so than just the political issues which can turn the reader away from the story.

Norm:

Why do you think that young adult literature is so popular today?

Paul:

In my youth, our parents didn’t participate in our lives as much as they do today. So just as Erin and I were always in our back yard practicing baseball together, parents are now reading the same stories that their children are reading. I encourage parents to read my story because I hope it will inspire them to help participate in their children’s dreams like I did with Erin.

Norm:

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

Paul:

Writing a book is always the easy part. Trying to get a publisher/agent to believe in what you have written is the hard part. The publishing industry is only interested in fictional bestsellers and the author’s name is what sells.

New writers will always have to come up with a new angle on selling their work before they’ll ever get the attention of an editor/agent. My book has an important cause in overcoming illiteracy in the United States and is an effective tool to help get our youth not only reading, but to also help guide them in what they must overcome to live out their dreams. I can’t think of any book that has a more important mission than mine has right now.

Norm:

How has the feedback been so far? I understand that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has expressed a need for 30, 000 copies of the book if funding can be found. Please tell our readers more about this.

Paul:

I have received very positive reviews, and the children love the website. I believe in Brother Joe of the Cincinnati Archdiocese, and he believes in me and my cause to help eradicate illiteracy in America. Brother Joe’s willingness to hand out 30,000 books of THE DAY I HIT A HOME RUN AT GREAT AMERICAN BALL PARK to the students of Cincinnati’s Archdiocese will be the crowning moment in my life when it happens, which I pray will be soon.

Norm:

Is there anything else you'd like to share with us? What is next for Paul Mullen?

Paul:

I want to thank you, Norm, and your readers for helping me in this worthwhile cause to get our students sharing a book that they’ll enjoy reading with their moms and dads. After the 30,000 book drive, I’d like to take the story nationally and I am working with some national agents right now on this important mission.

I will continue to write more stories and hope to inspire more readers in living a life fulfilled.

Thanks once again and good luck with The Day I Hit a Home Run at Great American Ball Park.

To read Norm's review of The Day I Hit a Home Run at Great American Ball Park CLICK HERE

Click Here to read Paul's speech to a student illiteracy in Biloxi, Mississippi at a Reading Conference.

Click Here To Purchase From Amazon The Day I Hit a Home Run at Great American Ball Park.