St. Petersburg Press is a local publishing company that helps authors through all steps of the writing, publishing, and promotion process.
Photo courtesy of Amy J. Cianci
By Irena Mesa
After working as a fan host at Tropicana Field for 16 years, Bruce Reynolds has plenty of stories to tell. He had enough to pen a novel, “There Is No Place Like Dome,” which is a collection of his experiences.
Reynolds took his novel to a smaller, more local publisher because the stories are based in St. Petersburg. Dave Mishkin, the current radio play-by-play announcer for the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Mike Nabors, a sports broadcast journalist who now teaches at Florida Southern College, also brought their stories to St. Petersburg Press.
Their publisher, Amy J. Cianci, pitched a book panel to the three authors, and they all readily agreed. For three authors who worked in the wide world of sports, Ferg’s Sports Bar and Grill on October 7 was a fitting location for the event.
“The publishing process, the way [St. Petersburg Press does] it is very intense, but a one-on-one experience. So, I love when the authors are then able to share some one those moments with more people,” Cianci said.
Mishkin began work on his book in the mid 2000’s but he put it on the back burner because he wasn’t happy with the work he was doing. Fast forward to 2022, when the Lightning were facing an early playoff exit, Mishkin considered working on the novel with a longer offseason.
Even though the Lightning wound up extending their playoff run that year , Mishkin still had the motivation to finish what he started, and that work culminated in “Blind Squirrel,” a fiction novel about a hockey player who navigates the trauma of losing his parents after a career-ending injury.
“My hope is that for the people who take the time to get the book and read it is that they are impacted in some positive way, and they enjoy the story,” Mishkin said.
Nabors took on a different genre, writing “Don’t Quit, Pivot,” about how to find fulfillment in their career.
“This book is for all ages. You can be 20 years old, you can be 100 years old, and I think all of us have skills that we really take for granted,” Nabors said. “I thought all I could be in my whole life was a sportscaster, and I realized at the age of 50 that I could do so much more, so now I’m teaching.”
Reynold’s book, “There Is no Place Like Dome,” is a compilation of stories from his time as a fan-host for the Rays. A standout moment that made those pages was assisting a visually impaired child in running the bases after a game.
“When he got to the field and he could put his cane on the field, his face lit up like a Christmas tree,” Reynolds said. “I’m getting chills now and it’s been 10 years since that happened.”
While their books cover very different topics and genres, they all chose St. Petersburg Press as their publisher because of the opportunities offered from a smaller, locally based publisher.
“I never had visions of my book being a great bestseller, and I knew with St. Petersburg Press that it was going to be local because I’m a local guy and the story is local,” Reynolds said. “There was no sense for me to go to a national place like Amazon because it’s still about St. Pete.”
The community of writers like Reynolds, Mishkin, and Nabors is one that Cianci is proud to be a part of.
“We have a lot of amazing talent here in the Tampa Bay area, and some amazing writers no one’s ever heard of,” Cianci said. “We want to have them in a position where they can share their story with the world. That’s why these events are so special.”
