Admittedly, some readers who have ordered this book in haste believed it to be a cookbook. I did not intend to deceive, only to indicate that some of the included material was "left over" from other un-published Balona stories. At the time my "focus groups" thought the title was "cute."
So much for focus groups. Politicians learn more quickly. Nevertheless, the space in the schedule was created, and I have actually considered producing a second volume, and a third--as I have that much stuff of which readers have been thus far deprived.
In Balona stories after Finding Dad I was unable to provide readers with more information about early Bapsie and Sammy Joe, the Doctor Fring family, Kenworth Kuhl, Nim's mama and her travails, and the estimable Nimitz MacArthur Chaud. That situation needed remedy.
Nim has a wonderful "back story," having been an excessively noble fellow even as a teen. (I am reminded of Clark in Smallville!) Nim was certainly a hero in Vietnam. After his early and brief marriage he left Balona for Yale, where he earned not one, but two doctor's degrees--one in philosophy and one in theology. Doesn't that deserve a book all of its own? But Two Gentlemen of Balona turned out to be 250,000 words and included recipes, weather reports, diary pages, house plans, sermons, and other stuff I found personally interesting but not germane to the problems of a new Pastor. And no sex to speak of. (Balonans don't seem to "have sex." They drink beer and watch TV.)
To make this long story shorter, I decided to select some stories and sketches, call them "leftovers," and go ahead and offer them to the public. A Cuisine of Leftovers has proved more popular than I believed possible. So I thank you!
