(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring Carrie Shook Coolidge, class of 1981, R. J. Shook, class of 1983, and Michael Shook, class of 1988, appeared in The Columbus Dispatch on July 24, 2008) 8/4/08

By Bill Eichenberger
The Columbus Dispatch

When his wife died of cancer in 1983, Bexley resident Robert Shook elicited a pledge from each of his three young children: Write a book dedicated to their mother.

The Shook children not only fulfilled the request -- designed as a way to honor Bobbie Shook and keep her memory alive -- but also built careers around writing.

Daughter Carrie Coolidge, now 44, became a reporter for Business First in Columbus before moving to New York to work for Forbes magazine, where she is a staff reporter.

Son R.J., 42, parlayed a series of books on top stockbrokers and financial advisers into a business, the Winner's Circle, which he operates out of Boca Raton, Fla.

Michael, 37, lives in Colorado and self-publishes regional outdoor guidebooks and river maps.

"All four of us (including their father) are deeply passionate about what we do," R.J. said recently by phone. "I think that's the common denominator."

The kids' works, co-written with their father, featured the dedication "This book is for Bobbie, our beloved mother and wife."

Carrie finished hers first, at age 19, working the summer after her mother died on the slender charmer What To Name Your Dog (1983).

In it, she discussed rules for naming purebreds, famous dog names in literature and movies, "Trademark Dogs" and other topics. For the chapter "VIPs and Their Dogs," she contacted celebrity dog owners to ask how they selected their canines' names.

Seven years later, R.J. followed with The Wall Street Dictionary: The Most Up-to-Date and Authoritative Dictionary of Financial Terms, which is still used on Wall Street today.

Michael, in 1993, produced T he Book of Odds : Winning the Lottery, Finding True Love, Losing Your Teeth and Other Chances.

"In retrospect, I'm sure my mother would have been asking herself what I was doing writing a book," said Michael in an e-mail.

Once he finished the book, though, his career was under way -- a path he found appealing not so much for the writing but for "the freedom of working for myself and scheduling my own hours."

Carrie, on the other hand, prefers the hubbub of a busy newsroom.

Still, she has penned six books.

"After What To Name Your Dog, I wrote two more at home, but I was going stir-crazy," she said. "I'm much too social to be locked up in a room writing by myself. I love the camaraderie of working in an office. I love talking to colleagues, brainstorming, taking breaks together."

In addition to Carrie's six titles, R.J. has nine to his credit; Michael has six.

Dad, who has been writing longer, has published 53 business-related books since 1978 -- including, in April, T he Pep Talk with motivational speaker Kevin Elko. It is Shook's first work of fiction.

"I was in sales for nearly 20 years before I became a writer," he said recently in his home office. "And in sales, you get instant gratification: You make a sale, and it shows up right away in your paycheck."

Not so with books.

"You work on a book, and two years go by before you know if you're even going to make any money," he said. "That's a lot of 12-hour days working and not knowing if you're going to get paid for it.

"Writing is like being sentenced to solitary confinement."

Shook, 70, certainly hasn't gone hungry as an author: Among his titles are Longaberger: An American Success Story, The Pampered Chef and The IBM Way -- all New York Times best-sellers.

The IBM Way has sold more units than any of his other works, not only reaching the Times list but also climbing as high as No. 1 in Japan and No. 5 in England.

"The royalties for that book paid for all three of my kids' college educations," he said.

Shook's literary agent -- Albert Zuckerman, founder of the Writers House agency in New York -- said the author's genius is "his ability to come up with salable, marketable ideas for books."

Although Zuckerman noted that several authors have children who write for a living -- Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark among them -- he couldn't think of an author with three children who write.

Shook didn't envision his sons pursuing writing.

"I thought writing might make a good career for Carrie because it would give her flexibility with raising her family," he said. "But I thought R.J. and Michael would go into business, though in a way I guess they have. I'm awfully proud of them all."

The secret to his own success, he said, is no mystery.

"I started out in writing working from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every weekday and half a day on Saturdays and Sundays. I really feel strongly that writing is a craft like carpentry -- where, if you do it over and over again, you get good at it."

A grandfather of 11, he expects the next generation of Shooks to continue the family's professional legacy.

"You'd think there'd be at least two or three writers in that bunch."

 

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