People Said, ''You Oughta Write a Book!'' so I Did.

Author Shideler Harpes career in journalism and public relations spanned more than 60 years and gave him opportunities to connect with bums and barons (that would be hotel honcho Barron Hilton), perverts and presidents, inventors and introverts, hookers and housewives, charlatans and champions. In his new book, People said, You oughta write a book! So I did., he notes that A few were despicable, all were interesting.

Harpe began his long romance with writing at age ten, as a reporter and then editor of the occasional journal that covered news at the elementary school he attended in Indianapolis, Indiana. Since that modest beginning, he has worked on newspapers from New York City to Honolulu. His prodigious newspaper and PR output includes just about everything that can be set in type. The result is a collection of observations, interviews, essays, commentary, short fiction, and great thoughts each a slice of his life which the author shares to entertain and enlighten the reader.

You will read about: When Harpe met Marilyn Monroe. Or maybe not....How a mild-mannered New Yorkers stand against crime has failed to result in a simple public safety measure....An obsessive little boy who drove his mother bonkers and his father to hiding in the garage....Colonel Tom Parker, who discovered and managed Elvis Presley, and made both of them very rich....Rousing adventure that pits heroic men against the cruel and unrelenting sea....One mans premature elation, followed by intense disappointment....Putting fun back into funerals....Ray Bradburys Bicentennial tribute that pleased a very small audience.