Kindness

Ole’ friend Ben Tanzer has some lovely things to say about Sunbeams over on his blog. He put up a picture of the book cover, crafted a fine little blurb, really gave us the star treatment. The book has been out for, well, this year will be three years since the release. I have to say there are things in it I’m not proud of, moments that I wish I could go back and rewrite, and passages that reek of someone just starting out and unsure of themselves. Many passages, in fact, many pages. The best part though is that there are a few passages, not many, but a few (you could count them with three fingers), that do make me proud. A few that I think still hold up even though I’ve moved beyond the book. This is one hell of a glorified post I know, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about lately: the evolution of a writer. I’ve watched many of my friends evolve as writers and many of them devolve too, and it’s interesting to watch who these people turn into–who they will become. Friends who’ve tried to improve their writing and hone their craft through grad school and other who try to slug it out in their apartments with late nights. A friend of mine recently told me that he is close to finding a publisher for his new book, and I thought how interesting it is that I’ve watched him go through this whole process: of writing the book, sending it out, getting rejected, and rewriting and doing it all over again. It’s nice to know that someone out there goes through the same shit you do day after day and keeps coming back to it and with that tenacity find success.

So thanks, Ben, for this little nostailgic trip to amnesia lane. We much appreciate it.