Three years ago I opened a blank document and started typing. I had no idea what was going to come out of me. My favorite singer/songwriter Rich Mullins once told his bandmates after playing them a new song, “All these words are in me, it’s just whether or not I have the guts to pull them out.” It took years of guts to get out these words.
Two years ago I bought the domain saturdaynothing.com and had my dear friend Brian Kalwat (who was living with Amy and I at the time) work his magic and make it into a functioning blog. I always knew one day, it would turn into a website for my book.
The book has been done for over six months. Sure I’ve edited and re-written and edited and re-written, but the final word was written over six months ago.
I’ve sent out copies of the story to my friends on multiple occasions, hoping they would tell me they hated it and I should quit writing. But no one did. They encouraged me, told me to keep going. I have gracious friends. (Thanks Kate-Lynne, Beth Van Wie, Jessica, Dorothy, Katie, Pat, John, Phil, Drew, Darla, and many others)
Three month ago I met with Aaron Rench, a book agent who showed me the ropes and gave me tons of wisdom about self-publishing, while still going forward with the hope of being “publisher published.” Meeting with Aaron made the whole thing feel real. Sobering, exciting, and real.
Last week I was having coffee with Charlie Westerman. He’s a writer—a real writer. I don’t know a lot of real writers. You know, guys whose love language is language and folks who get a kick out of wrestling words into submission and have twenty ideas of short stories and poems they want to write. Charlie is that guy.
Anyhow, over coffee, I (in passing) mentioned I wrote a book. Charlie stopped me and said, “What? You wrote a book? How many words? For real? What’s it about? That’s so awesome! Way to go man! Congratulations!” Then he lifted his coffee in the air and started to toast me.
Something about that moment with Charlie pushed me over the edge. I knew I needed to move forward. I needed to finish. Which of course, is much harder than starting.
So, I wrote a script, got my friends Brian and Eric to meet me in a freezing cold parking garage and film a kickstarter video. I’ve got a response from an editor, who worked for Penguin Press, who says he can start on my book April 2nd. So, the process has begun. Hopefully within the next 6 months I will have a hard copy, of a paper-back book, in hand.
