P. A. RITZER took to the road and spent four years traveling through Kansas, Colorado, and especially Texas — from Amarillo to San Antonio — researching primary and secondary sources, as well as the land itself and the people who live on it, to inform his crafting of Seven Ox Seven: A Story of Some Ways in the West.
Ritzer's own western odyssey lends a certain authenticity to Seven Ox Seven. He knows the day-to-day journey into the unknown, the nights in darkened campsites, the concern about provisions, the seeking for that which may not be attained, and through it all, the ongoing communion with those who lived out the pioneer experience in the time and place of Seven Ox Seven and left behind their accounts for any who might find, treasure, and learn from them.
Ritzer has signed copies of his first book Seven Ox Seven, Part One: Escondido Bound (674 pages) at over 225 bookstore events. Some stores have hosted him twenty times or more. Why? Because he sells books. He has written Love and the Art of Bookstore Book Signing as an answer to authors, bookstore personnel, distributors, and others in the book business who have sought to know how he does it. Ritzer does not just detail a method but goes to the heart of the matter. He exposes the real basis of his success in interacting with customers and the people who help him sell books.
