Reason Enough To Write A Book

I recently started writing what I hope is going to be my second book. My first book “Red Letter Days” (signed copies available HERE) came out almost exactly a year ago to the day that I started writing book #2. It seemed like an appropriate time to start writing again. So far I’ve been able to stick to the thousands words a day regimen that I had on the last one.

The first book was written when I was still drinking but then edited after I got sober … which was odd. Similar to re-listening to old albums, reading your own words in a new headspace like sobriety can be jarring. I almost wanted to scrap the book and start over with a clear head but decided that I’d put in too much work to just throw it in the bin. So, there’s something of a “warts and all” quality to the book which I wouldn’t say I’m in love with but it is, if nothing else, honest.

What promises to be my second foray into authorship is a companion to the album I’ve written. The book and the album will both be called “The Salton Sea”. Both will tell the story of the last six months of my drinking career and how I ended up in the hospital. On tour last year I would write my thousand words each day in a sort of free association writing exercise. What Julia Cameron calls the “Morning Pages.” The only guideline being that it had to be written about that six month time frame. At the end of thirty days I started taking those stories and turning them into song. Not word by word but thematically. I spent November coming up with melodies and then using the stories as a template to dictate the subject matter of the lyrics.

The album was recorded in January and is being mixed as we speak. So, now I begin the process of turning the songs back into stories. However, I found that it was more difficult to get back into that dark headspace, to try and understand, let alone explain how I was feeling at rock bottom. So, in what I hope was a moment of inspiration and not foolishness, I decided to change it into a novel. Even though the main character is obviously based on me, switching over to the third person seemed to make a big difference. Something about becoming the narrator of “someone else’s story” was less taxing on my emotional well being than writing it as a first person memoir. Plus, I don’t want to be exclusively a “Memoirist”. I don’t want to be exclusively anything other than a writer. Whether its stories or songs I just want to keep continuing to create things that interest me.

So, one book down (and available HERE) and the second one is just getting started. I can’t wait for you to read it. As it gets closer I’ll start publishing excerpts from it. That’s still a ways away though but I’ll keep you posted.

Be well.