STILL coming: I plan to add purchase-direct links for my catalog of books on this website so you can buy them directly from the author, yours truly, signed and beautifully embossed on the inside cover. It’s taking a bit longer than expected. Technical difficulties. If this interests you, stay tuned!
Check out the image above of my beautiful bride at a local bookselling/signing event. Ain’t she pretty?
My Debut Memoir
In this new book I share with you a curated collection of turning points in my life, from a 76-year life (so far) I consider well-lived. Folks who know a bit of my background kept saying, “You oughta publish a memoir!”
I’d typically respond, “Really? Well, alright, then!” And this book is the result, which has taken a few decades to see the light of day. Yeah, it’s taken a while. I wanted to get it right. I think we’re there, y’all.
Some early readers, however, have suggested this book is too… irreverent. Or controversial. Maybe because of several bare-naked confessions not appropriate for publication. Screw that!
As I’ve matured, and am now well beyond caring what most folks think of my living what I consider a life that’s finally authentic as hell, I just have to follow my own heart, and say what I please. I’ve found that frightens some folks, or at least concerns them. I do not mean to disrespect anyone, or dismiss the beliefs or passions of anyone. That’s not what this is about. At all. This is just me being me after a long period of my life where I could or would not, for a bunch of questionable reasons. That took its toll. Those days are behind me. Finally.
For this book’s upcoming audiobook edition (still in production), might you wanna give a quick listen to a sound clip? Just click on the pointy arrow below to eavesdrop on this 6-minute excerpt, and let me know what you think! Thanks for being here.
Pre-order the Kindle version HERE. Or wait until 3/1 for the paperback edition, or 3/9 for the full-color hardback I’m anxious to share these stories with you! I’m convinced you’ll find most, if not all, entertaining.
Settling In
If you’ve read my previous posts, you know that we sold our motorhome and bought a townhouse in Rochester, MN USA last summer (2025). We not only wished to be part of our hometown community once more, after being largely absent for a couple of decades, we’re catching up on a bunch of medical procedures at the Mayo Medical Center here.
As I write this, my dear bride of 57 years (in April) is somewhere between Mayo’s St. Mary’s Hospital and a rehab facility for a week or two to deal with a complication from a couple of complex back surgeries last week. But we’re looking forward to a better summer, now! She’s already planning a couple of cross-country trips in the Jeep! And we’re likely to spend a few months in one of our favorite landing places in Tucson next winter. But full-time living on the road? Rear view mirror.
“Settling In”, however, does not mean I’m giving up my writing career. And the memoir above is not meant to be a capstone project, merely a waypoint on my literary journey. I’ve never written a memoir before. It was fun! Actual NON-fiction. Not bad for someone who tells lies for a living.
One other aspect of this memoir might interest you. My voice is changing, as we “speak.” Apparently, I’ve developed a lung condition, a form of COPD. Mayo’s pulmonologists think it might be a subtle form of asthma that results in a chronic cough. For that I’m reluctantly using a steroid/albuterol inhaler twice a day, which is now affecting my voice, and not in a small way. So, not only will you witness a progression through some of my life’s key moments in this memoir’s words, you’ll also hear my voice changing during the course of my narrating and producing the book’s 66 short chapters. Particularly poignant for a memoir, don’t you think? I could be upset about this, but why not just enjoy hell outa the ride?
We also settled in Rochester to spend more time with family and old friends, once the majority of this medical stuff gets resolved. We’re intent on making this dream come true after our lengthy absence as itinerant vagabonds (I love that phrase).
So until next time,
Gene
