UPDATE: Something is up with the links on Weebly so here are the two links you need to check out:
https://vote.gov/ https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781649218735 I started to write “professionally” when I was eighteen. I put that into quotes because I am being VERY loose with the term “professionally.” What it actually means is that was the age when I started visiting my local Barnes & Nobel chains and grabbing as many literary magazines as I could so I could take them home and research where I could potentially send my poetry. Eventually, I worked my way up to dropping forty-dollars (some of you may laugh, but back in 2006 that was a lot of money to a kid fresh out of high school making eight bucks an hour staining furniture in a warehouse full-time. i.e. I was REALLY, REALLY broke) on one of those very heavy Writers Digest books which contained all the publications and agents I could send my poems to. By nineteen I was attending a weekly writer’s group at a local Unitarian Universalist Church with a group of very talented and lovely writers most of whom ranged between the age of my parents at the time or my grandparents (picture the movie My Girl, I was Vada walking into a group of VERY mature, serious, and talented writers). At the time I was incredibly young so I was very “brave” (I use this loosely because it should really mean stupid and impulsive) with my writing. I wrote about politics like I knew what the hell I was saying. I was critical of religion; I was critical of the way the government treated impoverished and marginalized individuals…but more often than not I wrote a crap ton of puppy love poems to girls who would just as quickly amputate their hand than let me hold it (can’t say I blame them). The point is, I had a reputation with my older contemporaries of having such a raw and refreshing voice because (in their eyes) with youth came a certain charming rebellion that tends to get broken down when you become more fiscally and domestically responsible. I never believed this would be me until I woke up in my thirties with a wife and two young children. What is with all the backstory, Eddie? I’m working up to that…even as a writer in his thirties, while the writing itself is (hopefully) more refined, more concise, and hopefully contains more clarity as a writer I still feel that I have a responsibility to telling stories no matter how polarizing or stigmatizing they may be. This weekend has caused a bit of a low-grade depression which is a welcome change from the last eight months of debilitating anxiety. Why? Because my debut novel comes out “TUESDAY” (not Monday as I previously said several times) if only I had a Joey in my life:
Which means that for the world to know…hey, I am published novelist now I am going to have to promote the crap out of it. As I stated before, I am at a HUGE disadvantage here as I am not on any social media which is why I have asked you previously and will ask humbly you again for some assistance but we’ll get to that.
Right now, I feel that I have yet another disadvantage because I also must ask something else of you. If you’re reading this, if you’re a fan of what I’ve written, if you’re even remotely familiar with what I’ve written, or read this blog…you know how passionately I feel about where the trajectory of this country is going with a glorified dictator in charge. Frankly, while a part of me wants to be read by everyone regardless of color, creed, religion, or politics, the fact of the matter is 1.) Trump is not a politician; he is a virus. 2.) He is the pied piper of dystopia and frankly the way his supporters behave with their perpetuation of detrimental conspiracy theories and structural racism is unconscionable. Vote apathy is just as dangerous as voter complacency. And in 2016 I was both of those things. Myself, my wife, and my own mother refused to vote because of our complacency regarding where we live (primarily a blue state) and the fact that a bigot managed to somehow lie, cheat, and steal his way into the oval office made us apathetic. How in the fuck did WE the American people even let this sideshow freak get so far, he became the Republican candidate on the ticket? So, I am urging all of you…don’t repeat what myself, my wife, my mother, and a lot of us who may be too frightened to take accountability for did in 2016. I am urging you now more than ever to do your patriotic duty this November. If you currently aren’t registered to vote…either because once again you’re jaded, apathetic, myopic, complacent, now is not the time for us to lose even ONE single vote…please do. The people who claim to love and represent this country? They are the ones who are dismantling it. They are the ones who are making us dangerously close to looking more like Nazi Germany than the land of the free. Look, if you’re reading this and you’re thinking I’m a libtard, a snowflake, or a nasty woman? (Man, I’d love to feel like a nasty woman) go fuck yourself. Read “Mein Drumpf” (its in an earlier blog) and realistically if any one is reading at all…I highly doubt any MAGA youth member or white privileged Karen is a fan…so now I can be straight with you. DO NOT LET THIS MAN GET FOUR MORE YEARS. OUR COUNTRY. OUR FUTURES. OUR SAFETY. AND OUR FUCKING LIVELIHOODS DEPEND ON IT. This is legitimately the scariest blog I have ever written because I don’t want to be the reason my kids get ostracized…however, I don’t want to be the reason why my kids wind up wearing white hoods to avoid the 2021 version of concentration camps either. There are already children in cages, white nationalist teenagers gunning down protestors, and law enforcement officers proudly acting as Trump’s errand boys so I don’t exactly think I’m being ostentatious and hyperbolic here. That leads me to another humble request… “Nothing to Get Nostalgic About,” comes out TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1st. If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy already? Why not pre-order your copy now? Want to wait until Tuesday to physically find a location that is selling it (because who knows if anyone who already preordered will have their copy successfully delivered due to Trump screwing with the Post Office?) Here is a friendly nudge in the right direction. If you want to support the writer? Help the writer get it out there. Just one social media post about it, tell your friends, your family, tell your local book store owners to reach out to me for a signing, tell your librarians to stock it, more importantly…I just need people to get it out into the world and remind them that this thing exists, and it should be read. That is of course, if you feel strongly enough to do so. Then, once you’ve read it? (if you didn’t totally hate it) leave a review on Amazon or any book retailer with the option to leave reviews. Alright…just a few more days to retire the used car salesman gig. Look, its very important to me that all of you guys reading are safe, that you are healthy, that your physical and mental health is where it needs to be. Honestly? The biggest reason I want this book to be read. I want to meet you guys and gals. I want to talk to you. I hope you have questions; I hope I have answers. I hope… I hope that I didn’t completely blow likely the only chance I will ever get at being an author. That’s why I can’t also blow the chance to not urge all of you to do the right thing this November if I have a platform…even if its only for ten minutes (or more likely ten seconds).
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