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Dear Friends and Readers:
As you may know, we send out weekly essays—On the Plus Side—but only to the smaller mailing list of paid subscribers. Every once in a while we use this larger list for announcements and the occasional newsletter.
Peter Sarno and I put together and sent out the newsletter without charge every month for ten years, and, in the process, gave away over a thousand books. We were happy to do that. But after ten years we decided to charge a modest subscription fee, $50 per year, for three monthly essays and the regular newsletter. The response was wonderful, and I've enjoyed writing in what has always been my favorite genre—the personal essay.
If you're reading this and not among those paid subscribers, you are still on my list, and I hope I'm still on yours.
The final Plus Side essay will appear at the end of June, 2023, after which we'll send out the newsletter on an irregular schedule. We're not accepting new subscribers for On the Plus Side because the pro-rated billing is too complicated, but we continue to welcome people to this larger list.
As always, I am grateful for your interest in my work, and I am particularly grateful to my friend, Peter, who does everything from updating my website (which he built), to handling backlist sales, to helping me with computer issues, to publishing new work like Driving Jesus to Little Rock.
Peter has just completed his own novel, a fine and original love story called Visions of Johanna, which has garnered some great pre-publication reviews and will be out later this fall.
As you also may know, I have made a shift in the past few years to writing historical World War Two novels for Lake Union. That shift reflects a shift in the world of publishing, which has been focusing on the work of people from previously under-represented groups. The best example to illustrate that shift is the fact that Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, which has sold somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 of my novels (for every dollar I earn from those books, they earn six dollars) declined to make an offer for Dessert with Buddha, saying that "it is not in tune with the national conversation about social justice, equity, and reparations."
That's a little strange, because Dessert—nearly finished—has everything to do with social justice . . . if, by 'social justice,' one means generosity, kindness, opening minds and hearts, and sharing good fortune.
So, as was the case with Lunch with Buddha, Peter's company, PFP Publishing, will put out the book in hardcover, paperback, and eBook. We've already spoken to the designer of Lunch, Hans Teensma (who does all the design work for Orion Magazine) and he's ready to work with us on an attractive cover. And I've engaged another friend, Bob Braile, who has taught with me both times at the Orvieto conference and is a fine writer himself, to do the editing.
I actually prefer making books this way now, working with people I know personally and trust explicitly, rather than with anonymous editors in New York or Chapel Hill. Those larger houses offer healthy advances, which is nice, but the wheels turn very, very slowly, and I often have no say in the cover design or marketing. Once Dessert is out, Peter and I will set up some personal appearances at favorite New England bookstores, and we'll announce those in this format, on RolandMerullo.com, as well as on social media.
That's a long introduction to saying that A Harvest of Secrets, the latest book from Lake Union, was published on September 1. They do a giveaway program a month in advance, and, because of that, the book already has some 3,500 reviews. Like the two earlier novels, Once Night Falls and From These Broken Streets, A Harvest of Secrets is set in Italy in 1943, part love story, part war story. As most of you know, I've long been in love with Italy and long been fascinated by the difficult war years there. My books focus much less on the military operations and much more on the way the war affected the lives of ordinary Italians. I hope you'll take a look.
Lastly, we wanted to put in a word here for the fine work of my older daughter, Zanny (Alexandra) Steffgen. Zan put in long hours in restaurant work for five years, in Cambodia and in Colorado where she now lives, and then, almost two years ago, made the brave decision to leave a high-level restaurant job in Telluride and start her own freelance writing business. She's had great success. A talented writer since first grade, she's mastered the art of dealing with editors and pitching articles to magazines and online sites, and has made excellent use of her amazing—and sometimes harrowing—life experiences. She spent many months putting together a course to help others who have a dream of making money from freelance work, and we're enclosing a brief explanation of that course and a link for those interested.
I'm sad, as always, to see summer end, but Amanda and I—more or less empty nesters—have some travel ideas for the cold months and, now that A Harvest of Secrets is out, and Dessert with Buddha is close to being finished, I'm pondering what to write next. I'm running a small conference in Northampton in early October (it's full), thinking about maybe doing another one in Italy next year (not sure), following the incredible and often disturbing developments on the American political landscape (a longtime passion of mine), working on the mini-house I built in the yard (almost finished, maybe), playing a little golf (only fairly well), getting a lot of treatments for an old back (reinjured in last September's crash), and otherwise eating and sleeping.
If it sounds like a busy life, it is. Maybe too busy. I keep trying, without success, to simplify. But I'm grateful for every minute of it, and for those of you who have enabled it by buying and talking about my books. As an expression of that gratitude, Peter and I will be giving away twenty autographed copies of A Harvest of Secrets. If you're interested, please drop him a note at:
publisher@pfppublishing.com.
As always, I wish every one of you peace and good health.
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