It’s 5:01 p.m. Monday and it’s still light out — sunset is 10 minutes from now — and so the promise of springtime continues to grow.
Dean Wesley Smith wrote today about authors’ reluctance to toot their own horns. It seems we want to appear humble, and so we don’t use “power words,” like “captivating” or “compelling,” to describe the work we love enough to send out into the world alongside those millions of other books.
I have used the tag “shameless self-promotion” when I write a post that’s mostly about one of my books or songs or albums, but maybe there is a little shame in there after all. Maybe I’m a little ashamed to describe myself as an author when my book sales are barely in triple digits most years, or as a singer-songwriter when my royalties over 16 years total 90 cents from the various streaming services.
But you know, my stuff IS compelling, darn it. I read bits from A Declaration of Peace or See the World! and I realize this guy has something to say. Maybe I only sold $200 worth of books last year because I didn’t tell enough people.
And then there are the songs that have been popping into my head of late. When I released New Dog, Old Tricks last year, I decided to send the songs out into the world with just my voice and my guitar, no overdubs, no harmonies.
For this work in progress, I’m playing with as many bells and whistles as I can coax out of my GarageBand recording software. This will be the 22nd album I have produced since 1972. Most of them exist only on tapes and hard drives in my basement, but the last two are available on Spotify and Apple Music and wherever else music is streamed and sold. This next album is shaping up to be pretty amazing.
The songs are heartfelt, some songs are funny, some are reverent, two or three are irreverent, but I think when you hear them, you just might be, well, captivated.
The album will arrive in the spring, which you may have noticed is just six weeks away — the Milwaukee Brewers pitchers and catchers report tomorrow. When the album gets here, if I may be shameless for a moment, you will owe it to yourself to check it out.
And hey — think about buying a book, will ya?
