TRIP TO SAN ANTONIO BY FREDRICKSBURG

I called ahead to see if Kathy Shearer would have lunch with me a little late. She was available and we ate at Hondos. As in Hondo Crouch. It was good food, but the conversation was better. We caught up on all of our kids and grandkids, her book retail business and her book publishing business that is now concentrating on cookbooks. She has a new business model. Chefs and restaurants that want to publicize their food come to her because of the great books she has published and in place of using royalties she has them put up the cost of publication plus a percentage for her work and then they get all the profits from the book and she isn't out any up front money. I told her she was the smartest business woman I know.

I fussed at her because her book distributing business doesn't have any Quotable Texas Women and she said that they drop titles that don't sell a minimum quantity at inventory time at the end of the year and I guess it didn't make the cut last year. That is the book business. She distributes books for small publishers that only publish only two or three titles a year.

I was interested in her son Travis who works for KBG and lives in Dhrain? and covers all of the Middle East countries for the company. He started out in Iraq and now has projects all over.
We discussed the economy and she is worried about small business in the current environment as I am.

I got to SA and Kathy and Keith have a nice home and we enjoyed eating with Bob and Carol Thormer at an Italian cafeteria and I am full. Tomorrow we go to Bryan and the Aggie game with two going to the game and the rest of us watching on HDTV. Keith being an old Aggie has to go early enough to see the march in. The Corps is holding its own in Aggieland.