Episode #217: How I Became a New York Times Bestselling Author

I’ve had worse things happen.

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 217. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In this episode I tell the unpublished story of how I came to be a New York Times bestselling author, what that really means, and why your kids are gonna giggle at you anyway.

The band and I are playing in Minneapolis tonight, if you are in range and see this in time.

This week’s marginalia…well, you’ll see (scroll down).

Meanwhile, thank you.

Mike

From here sprang art. Not my exact model but you get the idea and can imagine the noise. Photo from American Laboratory Trading.

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The book that got me on the charts, Visiting Tom.

The video mentioned in the letter above.

The rest of the books, humor and music albums, T-shirts, and can koozies, cuz I still gotta get one kid raised.

Playing with my band in Minneapolis tonight if it’s still tonight when you read this.

The Alexander Chee book mentioned in the marginalia section (scroll down) is How To Write An Autobiographical Novel: Essays. It’s one of my favorites, and it’s available at BookShop.org and Amazon (Law requires me to let you know we catch a little commission if you order through those links. Are we good, law?)

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Not mine, but the memories are mine. Although my monitor was amber only. Photo from Virginia Computer Museum site.

MARGINALIA

Each week I share notes I’ve scribbled in books I’ve read, or excerpts from journal pages, or rough drafts. I make a couple of comments and folks react. It’s a way to show how writing and reading is part of my life behind the scenes—not just in the “official” places.

Notes on an early draft of the piece featured in today’s episode. I’m always talking to myself, sometimes out loud, sometimes in the margins. That Chee book is a dandy. See the link back up the page.

You can always tell when I’m taking notes in a meeting that’s running a little long…

We almost done???

Nope, still going…

Just one more thing…

OK back to revisions. This is just a note to remind me that if I ever write about the business of being a writer, I need to include the bit about how I used to sign books and leave them at the local farm implement store otherwise people would show up at my house when I was gone.

Once again, thank you for looking and listening. I don’t take it for granted. See y’next week, Lord willin’ and the crick don’t rise.

Mike