The Dogs On Main Street

About a week ago while busting chops on Facebook one of the Grape Apes posted the following sentence:

"Shut-up and write me something, bitch."

And it kick-started an entire thought process.

You see, I haven't been sitting here idle. I have continued to write.

That's the only way I know to survive.

I have two books 'in the tank' and two more in varying degrees of completion. A part of me was real selfish about the whole thing.

As long as I was writing, who cared if anyone else read it.

When I was in New York at the awards ceremony something clicked and I came to the realization that I didn't care anymore if I was ever honored again, or interviewed again, or received a hearty thank-you, but that one sentence...

It brought me back to why I had wanted to do it in the first place.

Because I love reading.

More than almost anything else in life.

I had started writing because of that love for reading. I recall being about thirteen years old and in the middle of a well-written book that made me come alive.

That's what I want to do. I want to write something that means something to someone. I want to have readers. I want to make them laugh, and cry, and love reading my books.

And what I forgot, in the middle of the business end of things, was that I had done that, over and over again. I brought stories to life for people I've never even met.

I gave them something to read, bitch.

So my buddy kicked me in the ass with a throwaway comment.

There's a long ways to go.

Because of the stupid business.

But I want to do it.

The cover sketch of the book is just a working sketch. It was drawn up by a real talented guy. (More on him as we get closer) and I'm not sure we will ever use it, but again, it got the ball rolling.

What's the book about?

It tells the story of four middle-aged people who have chased a lot of things in life, and have basically failed, but they each have an idea, a hope, and a lot of faith in the fact that they're chasing the right things. They target shaking hands with their idol - Bruce Springsteen - and set off chasing him from city to city.

I wrote it fast.

I used a lot of my own Bruce stories. There's a lot of fun there. I used a lot of the lessons I've learned about fear, love and loss.

I created my favorite character ever in the pages.

A sad-sack of a man who tries hard to do the right thing.

The adventure was in the writing.

And it may have sat right there on my hard drive had I not got the subtle kick.

Something to read, bitch...

Coming soon.