David Doyle Books News #31

New Years Sale!

Dear Friends,

As 2024 comes to a close and we ring in 2025, we are celebrating with a sale brought back by popular demand – for today and tomorrow (December 31- January 1) enter the discount code COLD to take $25 off any order of $125 or more of in-stock publications!
 
Today gives us an occasion to look back on a very busy year, and we’ll share some of the high (and low) points with you.
 
Our much sought after, long out of print US Dodge book was revised and reissued in limited numbers.
 
Pat Stansell’s coveted Son of Sherman tome was reprinted in VERY limited numbers.
 
We began distributing a number of new and new-to-us lines, a few of which are:

Abrams Squad books and magazines

Warpaint Books

Wings and Wheels Publications (WWP)

Scale Aircraft Modelling magazine

Military Modelcraft International magazine

Phoenix Aviation Modelling magazine

Doolittle Publications, including Tamiya Model Magazine, Model Military International and Model Airplane International

The above pretty much covers it for our New Years sale and business news, what follows are reflections on a more personal level:
 
In January Denise and I welcomed the healthy birth of our second grandson.

In early March my son came from Washington for a very nice several-day visit.  Unfortunately, a week after he left my mom fell, severely injuring her eye.  Thankfully, the Lord put in place a team of EMTs, flight nurses and trauma surgeons and physicians that preserved her life – although much different today than it was a year ago.

In April I went solo to the great Armor Modeling and Preservation Society International Convention in South Bend.  My friends Sean and Kevin very kindly stepped up to help me manage the tables since we did not feel comfortable with both of us being so far away from mom given her condition.  Denise is looking forward to joining me at the 2025 AMPS Convention in Pennsylvania.

By mid-year mom was released from rehab and moved to assisted living, and a series of surgeries began in hopes to restoring sight to her previously “good” eye, along with physical and occupational therapy.  So far these have been moderately successful. However, her other ongoing health problems have made it hard to juggle schedules in order to maintain steady progress.

In June we launched our Armor Book of the Month Club, membership in which sold out almost immediately!  Because of the popularity of this, we are considering similar programs for 2025.

Also in June we visited Memphis so Denise could participate in the Mid-South District LWML convention.  While it was a bit strange to be a visitor in a city we’d lived in so long, it was nice to see so many friends.

In July we traveled to Madison, Wisconsin for the International Plastic Modeling Society (IPMS) convention, with our largest display yet – 14 tables!  Denise and I enjoyed catching up with many old friends and making some new ones at this event and are looking forward to seeing everyone again at the 2025 IPMS convention in Hampton, Virginia, August 6-9.

Denise’s sister joined us several times during the year, beginning with New Years 2024 and continuing sporadically until October.

In September we returned to Wisconsin – this time Oshkosh – for a convention celebrating my hobby – the restoration and preservation of full-sized military vehicles – where we displayed a selection of our books at the MVPA-HA International Convention.  It was a great time to renew friendships and see a number of scarce and interesting vehicles.  We look forward to doing that again, in Louisville, Ky June 12-15.

Also in September we celebrated one year in our new home in Milan, Tennessee.  Milan is a small community 90 miles east of Memphis, best known as the former location of the Milan Army Ammunition Plant.

We were able to share a quiet Thanksgiving at home, and were especially happy to be able to have mom join us before the flurry of shipping activity surrounding the Christmas holiday began consuming so much time. Part of that time was consumed by trying to chase down various shipments from overseas, some of which still have not arrived!  Shipments that normally take just under a week are now well over a month past due!  While almost all of our outbound shipments went smoothly, we have a few that seem to be going around the world in order to go only a couple of states away!

We are happy also that mom was also able to join us for a couple days at Christmas, including joining us for Christmas day church services.

We end the year thankful that we have two healthy boys, and two healthy grandchildren, that mom continues to improve. We are thankful that we have an amazing group of friends, customers and suppliers who have worked with us through some of the year’s struggles. I am thankful that I have very patient publishers, as the many unexpected bumps this year have caused me to get WAY behind on my writing (which thanks to Covid was already WAY behind).

And I am thankful that the Lord has blessed me with an incredible wife who puts a lot of work and a lot of love into making not only our business, but our family work.
 
We hope that you have a happy, safe and Blessed New Year!

Sincerely,

David and Denise Doyle

https://daviddoylebooks.co