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Uncles can apparently sell books, too.

Not to be outdone by my mother-in-law

My Uncle Bob recently sent me some copies of Something Missing to sign and return to him so he could give them out as gifts. He also provided me with a FedEx shipping label to cover the cost of their return, and I assumed that his address and other information were contained within the barcode. It was not, and so the package went out without an address.

Fortunately, the FedEx label did contain the name and contact information of the purchaser, so the company contacted Uncle Bob to retrieve his address. Amid the conversation with the representative, he said, “It’s very important that the package arrive safely. My nephew wrote a book, and he signed some copies and was sending them back to me.”

The representative assured Uncle Bob that the package would arrive by tomorrow, and they concluded their conversation. Five minutes later, his phone rang.

“Hi, this is Claire from FedEx. What’s the name of the book that you mentioned?”

Uncle Bob told her the title and the premise of the story.

“I’m going to buy that book!” she said. “It sounds really interesting!”

It’s nice to have such enthusiastic, persuasive family members.