Trajectory of a book

Legs Get Led Astray is coming to a close, is going out of print, (my idea) and in honor of that I wanted to post about the trajectory of the book.  Some back story is that in 2011 I’d been writing essays for a few years. I was putting together a manuscript of them. The title I used was Sun Down Yellow Moon and I Am A Human Being and Have a Human Life. I didn’t know where to send it—I’d just recently started reading indie stuff: I’d heard of xTx, Elizabeth Ellen, and Amelia Gray. I sent the book to Elizabeth Ellen at Short Flight/Long Drive because when I Googled her I thought she seemed cool and she had the same Bday as my mom. She didn’t want it but it’s ironic isn’t it, because she ended up publishing Women. She sent me a box of SF/LD books and a flask as a consolation prize. I couldn’t find many places looking for nonfiction—it was all fiction an poetry. Plus I had nothing published online so no one knew who I was. But I saw that Future Tense Books was open to fiction, and non, so I sent to them, and the rest is history!

i was really hardcore back then. this was me most days for 8 hours.

my editor Eric’s style sheet, cracks me up

I love this part, specifically: brie, bloody marys, oxycontin, film forum, chartreuse. Seems like a disturbing to do list.

Fun part, deciding what order to place essays in

Possible LGLA cover by Bryan Coffelt

Another possible cover by Bryan

Picking up my book at Time Out Chicago! Went to Chipotle after. Feb 2012

Signing books at Powell’s, thinking I was hot shit

My mom in our driveway

my cousin, me, and my mom at Powell’s

I loved the cover we chose, because it reminded me of this photo of me as kid.   Anyway, LGLA has special meaning for me because I was so young when it came out, and it’s such a nuanced slice of my life. If you don’t have it and want it, get it before it’s gone forever! You can buy it here and here. It’s also an audiobook. Love CC