After my remarkable experience being “discovered” on the inter-net in a search by a couple in Washington, D.C. for a wedding photographer I am a believer. Anything can happen.

However, I would not have thought lightning would strike the same place and in the same way twice. So it was with surprise that in late 2015 I received an email from a woman who introduced herself as an “acquisitions editor” for a small publishing house in Berkeley, California. She explained she was working on an idea for a book of puns to be published just before Father’s Day of 2016 and had been searching the inter-net for authors of puns. She had come across my name and some books of puns listed on the Amazon.com website and wondered if I would be interested in discussing working with her on her project. Lightning strike #2…!

I of course agreed. How could I not? I suggested that with the 8 self-published volumes of puns I had a little over 800 puns that could be used with this project, and had a little over 200 additional puns that I was in the process of self-publishing to bring my published books to ten volumes on Amazon.com. We came to an agreement that I would contribute these 1,000+ puns to the project and would refrain from any further self-publishing or promotion of sales of my self-published works through the life of a contract with Ulysses Press and we concluded arrangements with a signed contract.

Thus began a whirlwind adventure for me working with a real publishing house over my work with puns. What made it personally delicious was that Berkeley is my former home, the place where Barbara and I bought our first home and where we raised our two children. And we’re still Bears at heart!

One of the first issues I raised was the matter of my grandchildren. With each of my self-published volumes of puns I had worked in collaboration with my four grandchildren, Casey, Venice, Xander, and Teiya, in publishing those works. I wrote all of the puns, they each drew illustrations and drawings to go along with selected puns in each volume. They were thus already published artists in 8 volumes of puns.

I requested of the editor that she consider including some of the illustrations of my grandchildren in this project, and she initially said she would consider it but the final decision would rest with powers above her level. That was ok, at least it was being considered and that was fine with me.

Eventually the decision was made to include several drawings of the grandchildren in this work, that it fit right in with the projected promotional effort of selling the book leading up to Father’s Day in 2016. Including the grandchildren’s illustrations would add a sentimental factor to the work set for Father’s Day of 2016. As it turned out illustrations by each grandchild were used on the chapter pages and my grandchildren became for-real published artists.

One other issue that was a major concern for me had to do with the illustrations of fathers on the initial mock-up of the front and back covers. With the title, “The Ultimate Book of Dad Jokes,” the covers contained line drawings in a 1950s style of father’s headshots. Big Problem: all of the father’s faces were of young white men. There was no diversity, no images of men of color. This struck me immediately as an omission and I sent an email to my editor explaining what I saw as a problem and how it struck me. I concluded with a plea for the addition of faces of fathers of color, reasoning that more than white fathers enjoyed and told Dad jokes. After a brief time I received an email attachment with a revised mock-up of the front and back covers with faces of African American and Asian American fathers prominently displayed with the other faces.

I was most pleased, in part because the book would be going out over my name and it was important to be fully representative of all fathers, but more significantly because my editor showed an amazing side of character in how she resolved this issue. It was a win-win all around.

Here’s a link to Amazon where you can purchase this volume: https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Book-Dad-Jokes-Telling/dp/1612435564/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=gordon+nagai&qid=1584635368&sr=8-3

After two years of successful sales of “The Ultimate Book of Dad Jokes,” I collaborated with the editors of Ulysses Press in Berkeley with a second volume of puns, this one containing some 1,400+ Dad Jokes in a volume titled “Born to Pun,” published in April of 2018.

Here is the link to Amazon where this volume is available: https://www.amazon.com/Born-Pun-Jokes-Groan-Worthy-Punchlines/dp/1612437885/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=gordon+nagai&qid=1584635330&sr=8-1