By Kelly L. Holleran, Daily Mail staff
Charleston Daily Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Charleston police officer Duke Jordan is dreaming big again.
When he’s not working the streets in uniform, the former Marine has tried his hand at various entrepreneurial adventures.
He sold Mary Kay makeup for a while after he was injured on the job, hocking cosmetics with the hope of scoring the company’s most coveted sales prize: a pink Cadillac.
He got a couple of patents on exercise equipment, using his own physique to try and convince other people he could help them shape theirs.
Now the man who was voted Charleston’s sexiest back in 2003 is using his charm to try and sell something new -- a book, and an idea.
Jordan has just published his how-to relationship guide, “Hook, Line and Single.”
He’s sold about 400 copies so far, but he’s aiming much higher.
He’s got goals of being on Dr. Phil or Oprah, talking to the world about his theories on navigating the complex world of dating and commitment.
With the $3 million profits he hopes to rake in -- he doesn’t deny his goals are lofty -- he wants to pay for his next big project: building the city of Charleston a new skating rink.
“I tried to write this book to bring money to the table,” Jordan says. “I’ve sold enough books around here to put gas in my truck, but I really need to go national to bring millions to the table. I don’t want to walk around asking for handouts.”
Jordan, 40, has worked for the Charleston Police Department for the past 17 years. He’s now supervisor of the patrol division.
But he’s got more on his mind than keeping Charleston’s streets safe.
He wants to see the city have more fun.
He has the idea that Charleston needs a roller rink, a place for young people to congregate and let off some steam and for older folks to get a few thrills, too.
It was his own outlet as a child -- fishing -- that helped inspire his latest money-making venture.
He’s been selling his fishing-themed dating book so far on Amazon.com, airleaf.com and at Taylor Books, but he’s looking for ways to get the $12.95 publication out to more stores and more readers.
“I’ve been dealing with people for 20 to 25 years in the field,” he said of his work with the public. “I’ve always developed one-on-one relationships with both men and women. I found that there’s some common things that all couples or families or relationships that failed have.”
After watching his sister struggle to start dating again after her divorce, Jordan decided to write the book to help people dealing with similar situations.
“I know others who have recently gone through a divorce or are single, and they have no clue about relationships in the present, about identifying some of those game players and different types of people who are out there,” Jordan said.
Jordan lives in Teays Valley with his two children, 8-year-old Connor and 4-year-old Kalei, and his wife, MaryAnn.
He’s not one to talk too much about his own personal life, but he promises he has learned a thing or two about flying solo and finding a good match from the hundreds of people and couples he’s encountered during his career.
For the reader who wants to learn how to succeed in a relationship, Jordan suggests taking a glance at chapter four of his book.
“A lot of (relationships) have failed due to lack of communication,” Jordan says. “A lot of them were failing just because they were unequally yoked or unequally matched, which comes back to communication.”
Jordan expounds about the different kinds of “fish in the sea” in chapters one and three, where he tries to translate today’s single people.
“I talk about game-players and non-game players,” Jordan says. “In the book, I explained (game-players) as bottom feeders or carp. What we’re looking for is a trophy bass or trout. You know, a good clean person.”
The fishing metaphors are derived from Jordan’s childhood memories of family fishing trips while he was growing up in Rand.
“We grew up fishing,” he says. “Most people knew our family as a fishing family. A lot of people fish. I just thought fishing would be a fun metaphor.”
Jordan illustrated the book’s cover, which features a confused looking man sitting in the crook of a fishing hook.
Keeping the book short -- it comes in at just 50 pages -- was something Jordan did on purpose.
“When I wrote this thing, I said, ‘You know, I don’t want to read a big, thick Stephen King novel myself,’ and I don’t expect people to,” he says. “I want someone to look at my book and say, ‘Hey, I can read that.’”
Jordan says he hopes the book presents some powerful information, but that people can read it “over a pot of coffee or a pot of tea, and they won’t be able to put it down.”
Jordan sold about 100 copies of his book a few weeks ago during a signing at Taylor Books.
He hopes it starts a sales trend.
He has visions of himself being retired from the police force in a couple of years and running the roller rink he dreams about.
He’s already drawn up design plans for the facility, which he envisions as more than just a place to skate.
The plans include a putt-putt golf course, a laser tag course, an arcade and a restaurant. Two rooms adjacent to the restaurant will be reserved for teenagers or young adults who need help finding their way in life.
“A lot of kids out there need something,” Jordan says. “You just don’t know their whole situation. That’s where I want to come through.
Jordan got the idea for a skating rink after he reflected on his childhood.
“I grew up in a time when we had skating rinks, and it was an excellent, family-orientated atmosphere,” he says. “I think all the race barriers and all those things were left at the door. It was like a huge family.
“If you’re not in church, you’re not in a club, you’re at home. There’s got to be a balance,” he says.
Jordan said he knows now of only one local skating rink in Kanawha County, in Campbells Creek, but he said it’s open only on weekends.
If everything goes as planned, Jordan hopes to build his skating rink and family fun center on the vacant parcel in land in Kanawha City that’s right next to Lowe’s.
In the meantime, he’s not sitting still.
He’s working on getting a patent for his newest invention, what he calls a “burnless coffee cup.”
It’s got a bottom chamber to keep liquid hot and a special tube mechanism that quickly cools it for drinking.
He’s also already thinking of writing a follow-up to his dating book.
“There were some ‘hows’ that I didn’t answer in this book, so I’m getting input from different people,” he says. “I think I’m going to have to get the how.”
Copyright 2007 Charleston Daily Mail