Listen to this post:
If you pay attention to such things, you may have noticed I added a widget to the front page a week or two ago with this artwork and a caption that says, “My next book.” I am 95% sure that I will stick with that title, although I suspect the cover will need some tweaking before it gets into your hands (unless, of course, enough of you say, “That cover is gorgeous as is, I can’t wait to hold it in my hands”).
And about three weeks ago, for the first time, I wrote a blog post specifically designed to lead into the rest of the essays I’m collecting for the book. “What I Came to Say” summarizes the themes I’ve been writing about especially during the last three years. I have gathered about 150 or so reflections about each of these themes and am in the process of organizing them into sections. The Streak is in there — this today is #2,196 if you’re keeping track — as well as my retirement from the day job, adjusting to life without Red and my renaissance with Mary, ruminations about solstices, what my golden retrievers keep teaching me, my efforts to encourage you by trying to encourage myself, the ongoing struggle to avoid being sucked into the constant political warfare that tempts us daily, and, of course, the main thing I have come to say: Love God, love your neighbors, and we are all neighbors.
This book will be a little different in that I am not choosing the contents all by myself. A small handful of readers have begun, on their own, looking back into my archives to add a “Like” to things I wrote some time ago, and I’ve been paying special attention to what they’ve found. It feels like a friend combing through my files and saying, “How about this one, Warren? There’s some good thought here.”
And the decision to pick 150 posts is a new record for me. Most of my blog collections have fewer than a hundred entries. I love How to Play a Blue Guitar, but it has only 24 stories, poems or reflections. My last book, See the World!, has 72 essays inside. So this puppy will add a bit of quantity to the quality.
It’s still my intention to publish at least one more book this year in addition to this one, but this one is the one that’s rounding the last turn and heading down the home stretch, so it is the first I am calling to your attention. This is the book I am most confident will be ready for you to put under the tree for that loved one who says, “Please, dear, I want a new Warren Bluhm book for Christmas.”
I will give you a heads up when it comes available for pre-order. And here is a handy place to go for anyone you know who would like more than one of my books.
