Stories that creep into my mind

So while I'm waiting for the pork loin to finish, I figured I'd dash this off right quick. Since stepping down from management, I'm finding life less stressful. I now drive a forklift and for the most part stay out of the public eye. The impression I'm getting is that's where store management wants me. (The rat bastards.) They want to keep their reputation for hiring the disabled, just keep me out of sight. I get to stay employed, but I'm looking for an alternative on the weekends. If Harper decides to pass on my book, I'm going to look at going the self publishing route. Let's face it, based on the synopsis, they might not look any further. Squeezing 100K down to one page while containing all the spoilers is hard.
I'll be honest, I wrote Travelers Road because I suffer from an over active imagination. When five people come up to me and ask to read what I've written, I hop on over to Kinkos and print up a copy.
My wife and kids like the story. They're family, so while the opinion is nice, I have to take it with a tiny grain of salt. Gradually I let close friends and co-workers read my tale. Here's what they said, (and I'm quoting from the written letters.)
"I consider myself a fan. When's it coming out on Amazon? I want to buy it.", "You weave a good yarn and kept me turning the pages." and my favorite: "It's like Gunsmoke on Mescaline."
Those are wonderful comments and I truly enjoy hearing from fans, but back up a second.
Roughly seventy-five to one hundred people have read it. I've gotten e-mails, post cards and a full fledged letter. I'm getting fan mail from total strangers.
Holy crap on a cracker!
Fan mail. Me. People really want to know what is going on inside my head? Really?
It's considered bad form to plug your book with quotes like that in the submission process, so I didn't. At the same time, no one is going to blow your horn other than you.
Wait, that came out sounding worse than I meant.
My point is: Harper Publishing, it's not too late to get on the band wagon. I'm going to write. People are going to read. Are you going to play catch up or what?