Emerging from my cave

I know what you’re thinking: “John, how come you stopped blogging? Sure, you’ve put up some amazing posts here in the last year or so. Seriously life-changing stuff. Brilliant. You must have to wear sunglasses when you look in the mirror. God, I wish I were you. But the point is that you haven’t written that much new stuff in a long time now. What gives, handsome?”

Handsome. I love it when you call me that.

But let’s recap, shall we? In December 2015 I ran a Kickstarter campaign for the blog-eclipsing novel I’d spent 2014 writing. (For a full ketchup on all this, see my homepage.)

Three years later, I’m in the final stages of the physical production of that same novel—which is now entitled Everywhere She’s Not.

Here’s the interesting thing about this novel that for over four years now has been on my mind, my heart, and definitely my nervous system since I’ve been so appallingly late fulfilling my public obligation to people who believed in me enough to generously pre-pay for something—during the Christmas season—that I said I’d deliver to them by June of 2016: A few people had to die before I could write it.

I mean, I didn’t off anyone so I could write the book. It’s just that since I was a kid I’ve known that this is the novel I would someday write, that I’d never write any novel before I wrote this one, and that a few people would have to die before I’d write it.

The next thing I know I’m 60 years old, going, “Okay! My first novel is in the final stages of its production!”

But . . . my first novel is in the final stages of its production! Which makes me feel very

So here’s where I’m at with Everywhere She’s Not. I’m publishing Kindle and paperback editions with Amazon, and hardback and paperback editions with IngramSpark. (If you’re wondering why both are necessary, lemme know in the comments below, and I’ll clues ya in.) The book will also be available wherever e-books are sold (being primarily Amazon/Kindle, Barnes and Noble/Nook, Kobo, and someday, if the stars ever align just right, i TooCoolToFunctionNormally  Books).

If you supported my Kickstarter campaign, you already know (via my recent Backer Update) that this past weekend we received the review/proof copies of both the Amazon paperback and the IngramSpark hardback.

Here are some pics o’ those proofs. As you’ll see, they’ve got problems, but . . . that’s why you order proofs! And none of the problems are at all difficult to fix .

So, there it is. In six weeks or so, Everywhere She’s Not will be available everywhere, as they say, where books are sold. (I’ll also make available for sale copies of the book autographed and inscribed however the purchaser would like.) And, of course, the minute I get back my order of them from the printer, I’ll start shipping them out to my Kickstarter buds.

I’ve got at least five more novels I’m dying to begin working on, all of which I’m going to write and bring to market pretty darn quickly.

I’ve been in the starting blocks of this race for a long, long time. I am ready to finally start running.

In addition to those next works of fiction, I’ll be writing both here on my blog, and in my monthly newsletter (which I’m thrilled about starting to write again). Besides sharing in those two spaces about whatever it is I’m working on or have coming out, what I most want to write about is, basically, writing. Not so much about the craft itself, but more about what writing, or doing any sort of art, really is, emotionally, at its core.

I have always been obsessed by the entire phenomenon of a person taking the rawest material available to them—being the very warp and woof of their actual, daily lives—and from that rather infinite range of realities creating something that, to whatever degree, captures or reflects some significant part of it.

So I’m very eager to engage in conversations about that. I want to hear what you’re doing, or thinking, relative to any of that sort of concern. I want to introduce you to people I’ve met whom I think are doing really top-notch, inspirational work. I want you and I to work together (and have some ideas about making that happen).

Anyway . . . right on. That’s the path I’m taking now. I’m hoping you’ll come along with me.

You can sign up for my newsletter below (the next one of which I’ll write and send out today! A whoo to the hoo!) [Update: make that tomorrow for the newsletter, the 21st. It was one of those days!]

Talk to you soon. All of my love—and thank you for yours.

(Oh! As you may know, I write an “advice” column (the quotes because . . . it’s so not like a normal advice column), called Ask John, for The Citizen-Times, the daily newspaper here in Asheville, NC, where I live. Write me a question for the column! Your anonymity assured. Send your question to john@johnshore.com. Awesome. Thanks!)

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My novel, Everywhere She's Not, is now available wherever books are sold.

It’s not easy to tell a story that is filled with hilarious humor, the pangs of love lost, excruciatingly sad family life and deep, deep inner circumspection that ultimately uplifts your soul, but John has done just that. I highly recommend you read this book; you will thank me later. — Jon Mayes, Advance Reading Copy.

Deeply engrossing . . . a hightly satisfying reading experience . . . Shore's writing is so stylistically on target that the language itself falls away, allowing the reader to enter into the subtleties of the story completely. . . . Shore’s protagonist is authentically funny and rawly sympathetic . . . This novel stands apart for its originality. It is a testament to the notion that the strongest works are often those with simple storylines, exceptionally told. 10 out of 10. — Publisher's Weekly BookLife Prize 2019

A powerfully compelling introspective look at life. . . This is a harrowing and fascinating novel. — K.C. Finn, for Readers' Favorite

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