Fighting in the Dark

OK my friends, here we go. You might recall that some 10 months ago that I announced there would be a new book of essays coming. It's more likely that you don't recall, because you have lives of your own to lead, but you might. Books (as many of you probably know move at the speed of book, so it's been the long crawl to the finish line you might have expected ... and we're not there yet.

However, we do have a pretty good idea now of the finish line. Even better, we have a cover! It's designed by the almost impossibly talented Marina Drukman, who designed my other two books. Take a look at that image up top; just feast your eyes. Could a simulacrum of this very image be found resting upon your shelves before too long? That's up to you, but theoretically, yes it could. What a world of fancies we inhabit.

Fighting in the Dark is a collection of selected essays from this very newsletter. "Why publish essays that are already available online where people can read them already," you may ask? "For a very good reason," I may answer. "I have readers who say that's what they want, and they proved it last time I published such a book by buying it, that's why." It's sort of like how sometimes essayists would publish books of essays that were previously published elsewhere, like in magazines and so forth, even though people still had those back issues in their basements and could read them whenever they wanted. Sometimes you just want something booky. Or maybe not you, but some people.

So that's what's up. Here's what's next.

I'm on vacation. I don't know if "vacation" is exactly right, since I'll be using the time I usually spend on new essays to work on publishing this book. Whatever you call it, there will be no new essays until early April or so, unless I get really ambitious.

I expect to be able to report a publication date in the coming weeks. I'll share it with you then. The publication date, in case you don't know, is the date that a book will be on shelves and shipping out to anyone who placed a preorder. It's probably going to be a month that starts with a "J" or and "A" or even a "Q," though I'm hopeful of getting this project done before Quoctober.

A little after that, the book will be available to preorder. That's where you come in. There is very little somebody can do to support an author like preordering their little booky-wooky. We usually work on these things for years and even weeks, all in the hopes that this will happen, and when it does well you just cannot imagine the levels of excitement and joy. And I'm saying all this in a sort of tongue-in-cheek way but it's true you know; I really do hope that you want to get this book so that you have it. If you don't want to get the book, I hope you get yourself something else nice instead. You deserve it.

So that's what's next. Here's what's before what's next.

You can help support the publication of this book right now. Have you ever wanted to be a part of publishing a book? You can! It costs money to publish books as it turns out, because we still believe in paying people here at The Reframe Corp. LLC Ltd. International, which means we (I) have to pay the people who print it and distribute it, and pay the bookseller, and pay the talented people who design it and edit it. My patron-level members (known as Founding Members for reasons lost to the mists of time) are how I do that. In return and in gratitude, each patron gets a copy of their very own, signed by me with an inscription of their choosing, and in the Acknowledgements I thank them each by name (unless they ask me not to), and I mean it, too. To be clear, this book is already budgeted, so this isn't a fundraiser, and there will be a book no matter what you do, but if you want to be somebody whose money goes into a pool from which this book and future ones are funded, this is the way.

In about 4 weeks I hope to have a finished manuscript. This means locking the pages so they can be designed for publication, which will lock in whoever is named in the Acknowledgements. After that you will still get the free book if you sign up at Founding level, but I won't be able to thank you in that way in this particular book. That's the nature of the publishing industry and its overweening devotion to the allegedly linear nature of time for you. So if you've been thinking about supporting my work in that way, either by starting a new subscription or upgrading a lower-level paid subscription, now would be a particularly auspicious time.

If the above paragraph describes you, click right here and pick the Founding Member option.

Or hey maybe you can't swing that level but you'd still like to support my work. If you'd like more details about why you might pay for a free newsletter, click right here and read away to your heart's content.

If you don't care about any of this, I don't blame you – click right here for something better than I can do.

OK that's all for now. See you in a few weeks.

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If you liked what you read, and only if you can afford to, please consider becoming a paid sponsor. If you'd like to be a patron of my work, there's a Founding Member level that comes with a free signed copy of one of my books and thanks by name in the acknowledgement section of any books I publish.

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A.R. Moxon is the author of the novel The Revisionaries, which is available in most of the usual places, and some of the unusual places, and the essay collection Very Fine People. You can get his books right here for example. He is also co-writer of Sugar Maple, a musical fiction podcast from Osiris Media which goes in your ears. He knows it's only rock n' roll, but he likes it.