I have a novel coming out in November. It feels nice to say this. It’s a book I began writing in 2018 and had to put aside when pandemic happened because I had a vision of the near future before—when its set—and I stopped believing in it. Things that seemed stable before were upside down. How could I write about something like the housing crisis in Boston, when rents in Allston and Cambridge that summer were slashed in half because virtually no students were coming to town?
That obviously was temporary (the same apartments are now probably twice what they were in the before times). But I’d fallen out of practice and kept putting off the revisions I knew I had to do to finish the book. When Claire Evans reached out in the beginning of 2021, inviting me to contribute a short story to the forthcoming Terraform anthology, it was a catalyst. I used the opportunity to take some of the novel’s themes and apply them to an entirely different premise and setting with different characters. (Here’s that story by the way). And then finally I could write again and here I am.
The funny thing is, a similar situation happened when I was working on Lurking. I set aside six months to work on the manuscript. In the first of those six months, Trump was elected. I couldn’t write and part of the reason I couldn’t write was because the world in that moment felt so uncertain. I got my act together in August of 2017 and in that month, thanks to a residency, I cobbled together a messy-to-anyone-else but coherent-to-me draft. I think if I had tried to press on, in fall of 2016, the book would have been too reactive to Trump’s election, not as broad as it needed to be. Because that event came out of the culture and politics and circumstances that I already had been responding to in 2015.
Wrong Way is a novel about workplace precarity and careers. It's about a lot of other things like what it's like to lose a job (many, many times) and how even illusionary AI and "optimization" applications fill in the cracks and accelerate the pain. How the patriarchy determines a woman's potential, how elitism is anti-intellectualism in a tweed jacket, who bears the consequences of middle-class striving, and what’s under the hood of the American dream. And it’s a novel set in Boston that neither revolves around campus life or gritty red-haired criminals.
It comes out on November 14th and I could use your help.
If you're reading this newsletter, you probably enjoy my writing at least somewhat. Wrong Way is the best thing I've written in my career so far, and even modest success could give me enough wiggle room to go even further in books I hope to write in the future. Yes, it's a novel and it's long and it takes a long time to read, compared to a newsletter, but it's a page-turner (I hope) and not that long (you can read it in one sitting or two).
Please consider pre-ordering the book, especially from Massive Bookshop, a wonderful “anti-profit, abolitionist” online bookstore based in Western Mass.
For pre-orders of my book, Massive Bookshop is generously donating 40% off the cover price to MAAP (Material Aid and Advocacy Program). MAAP does incredible and much needed work in Greater Boston. They distribute things like winter coats and tents and sleeping bags to people sleeping outside and provide harm reduction and safe consumption services. I know how hard MAAP works — especially before severe weather—and even donating a few multiples of $7 can really go a long way.
As it happens, I was laid off from my day job on Monday and tomorrow is my birthday. So it's been a week. If either factors would inspire you to buy me a drink, if we were hanging out in person, well, I'd much much prefer a pre-order tbh.
Other things that could help:
—Invite me to do any events, podcasts, whatever....I'm up for anything.
—If you’re an editor, consider assigning the book for review. There’s more than enough in it for one of those expansive review-essays about the way the world works now that everyone loves to write (and sometimes love to read too). Wrong Way is extremely topical with the moment. I welcome any commentary, even the pans (all the praise I've received so far always begins, "well, it's not for everyone ...but!!!”)
—Request your library order the book. It's a paperback original with a relatively tiny print run and libraries sometimes miss these ones for their collections. This really helps.
—Share on social media, add to Goodreads, review on Evil Store once applicable, whatever. We are non-optimized humans that none the less need to survive capitalism and its metrics of success. All the serendipities and chance and passions that art provides easily wilt without resources, and those resources are right now gatekept by this kind of bullshit.
And here’s the pre-order link again. By the way, if you send me a screenshot of your pre-order receipt, I’m happy to mail a personalized/signed copy of Lurking to you while supplies last (and I’ve got a ton in supplies, so that could be a while. Please take me up on this. I over-ordered copies when the hardback got remaindered, have no idea what to do with them all, and hate looking at my stupid name on my bookshelves).
(I’m sorry shipping costs make pre-ordering from a US-based store less ideal internationally, but I do know it’s currently available to pre-order at Foyles and Blackwell’s in the UK and Indigo and McNally Robinson in Canada. Let me know if you are aware of other places—especially independent bookstores!)
And, as always: if you cannot afford books — for whatever reason —and want a copy of your own, just drop me a line. No questions asked, I will get you a copy. I want you to have one.
This novel is one of those gambles that every once in a blue moon a big five publisher takes, which means every copy that moves off shelves will really count. Not only for me, but other writers who don’t adhere to the …*mutters something inaudible*
If you’ve ever said some variation of “why don’t they publish books like X anymore?” well, this one’s for you…
Thanks for reading, as ever.