The Process

Another photo of the boys working on their shave horses. I like this because Fin looks so damn happy.

My new book comes out on Tuesday, June 11. Which is next Tuesday. Which is sort of soon.

This is my third book, and I am maybe 3/4′s of the way through my fourth, so I’m getting pretty familiar with the process. The strangest thing, I find, is that by the time a book is actually released, it’s been almost a year since I’ve finished writing it, although I suspect that lag time will shrink as digital publishing tightens its grip. This delay between writing and actual publication invariably means that by the time a book comes out, I’m immersed in my next project. I am a working class writer; I can’t really afford for it to be any other way.

To be honest, it’s a little difficult for me to come back into the mental and emotional space of a book I finished writing 12 months ago. For the next few weeks, I’ll be doing a bunch of readings (schedule updated here, if’n you’re interested) and interviews and whatnot, and this is all fine and dandy, but I also find myself struggling a bit to pull back from my current project and fully inhabit the book I’m expected to talk about. At the same time, I am starting to recognize that this may not be as necessary as I once assumed: Each of my books is in some way an outgrowth of what came before it, and it is becoming ever clearer to me how seemingly disparate subjects (food, money, education) are in fact joined at the hip. In a sense, you can’t rightly talk about our arrangements around food without talking about our assumptions around money, and you can’t rightly talk about our assumptions around money without taking about our expectations for our children’s education.

I have also learned to have absolutely zero expectations for how my work will be received and perceived, and how it will sell. My first book has sold fairly well; my second, not so much. Will SAVED sell? I have no idea, and I’m almost tempted to say I don’t care, but of course that would be lie. I do want it to sell, although I can honestly say I’m not certain I’d want any of my books to sell much more than what is necessary to enable me to earn a livable wage from writing. In this regard, to this point of my writing career at least, I can claim a perverse sort of success.

I do not generally read reviews of my work. Positive reviews are best avoided for their potential to make me believe I’m smarter/better/more correct than I actually am, and negative reviews are best avoided for their potential to make me believe I’m dumber/worser/less correct than I actually am. No review and nothing anyone can say about my work – be it positive, negative, or neutral – has any bearing on who I know myself to be and who I really am. This is not to say I’m not prone to forgetting that, which is precisely why I avoid reviews in the first place.

What I am looking forward to most is not the publication of my work, but the chance to connect with people in person and simply talk. I find that my written work is becoming increasingly nuanced and personal, and as it becomes more of these things, I want a level of connection that is difficult to achieve through writing alone. The other thing is, I just like people.

I am not very good at doing the hard sell, but I am not so selfless as to not try. If you appreciate what I share in this space (and if you don’t, you might ask yourself why you’ve read this far) and you are inclined to support me in a material way, please consider buying one or more of my books, which should be available at your local bookseller (if not, they can certainly order them). If you like them, please consider telling others. And if I am coming to a town near you for a reading or other event, please come out and introduce yourself.

Thank you.