Category: Books

This is a big day for me, and a moment of truth: was I foolish to think that at least 300 people would want signed, numbered, limited edition hardbacks of The Happiest Days of Our Lives? I’m about to find out.

I feel the same way I do before a big poker tournament or extremely important audition: my stomach is queasy with excitement and apprehension, my hands are a little shaky, and though I’m hoping for the best, I have to be prepared — at least a little bit — for something less than the best.

Because this is an event for me, (and because I have to watch the server to make sure nothing goes wonky)  I’m going to live blog it for a little bit. I’m also going to do this thing Warren Ellis calls an Open Mic, since I’m going to be here anyway: In comments, feel free to ask me anything, and we’ll have one of those time-shifted discussions we sometimes have on blogs and message boards.

Live Blog!

11:56pm: Whoops. We threw the switch a little early. Someone must have been F5ing, because about a dozen orders went through in the first minute.

12:00pm: Okay, we’re on sale for real now! Orders are coming in as fast as I can count them. I see some familiar names in there, and that makes me really happy.

12:06pm: The first count has 65 to the US, 7 to the Canada, 3 to the the UK, 2 to the the Europe (it’s the final countdownnn . . .) and one to the Australia.

12:10pm: 80 sold so far. Anne says, "I honestly don’t know why you were worried so much." You’d think she’d know me better after 12 years.

12:15pm: I can hear a train whistle from the train yards about 20 miles away. It’s one of my favorite sounds, because it conjures up romantic images of a time when people traveled by rail.

12:17pm: I’m looking through the Romper Room magic mirror: I see Angie, I see Starshine, I see Clay, I see Alice, I see Bill, I see Chuck . . .

12:26pm: 100!

12:30pm: Secret Agent from SomaFM is the perfect soundtrack for this moment. It’s okay to feel happy and relieved and excited now, right? That’s not tacky, is it? I feel like we’re all sharing in something that’s incredibly special to me. Is that corny?

12:33pm: OH HAI APRIL! YOU CAN HAS BOOK!

12:37pm: This is a good time to thank Roughy, who did all the design work on Monolith Press dot Com, makes sure the server doesn’t barf all over itself, and keeps me sane in my moments of panic and doubt.

12:42pm: Nothing to add. I just liked that it was "42" on the clock.

12:51pm: From gabrielwalker:

12:56pm: This is going better than I ever dreamed.

1:03pm: My count may be off a little bit, but just about half of the hardbacks have sold in the first hour. I’m trading nervousness and apprehension for pure, unadulterated excitement and joy.

1:13pm: We’re having an awful lot of fun in the open mic. Well, I am, anyway.

1:19pm: Updated scoreboard, not counting eChecks and the few times PayPal doesn’t include an item number in the e-mail header: US – 111, Canada – 11, UK – 5, EU – 9, Australia – 3, Asia – 0.

1:24pm: From Clay:

1:28pm: Nolan just made himself a Dennis The Menace style slingshot, from a "Y"-shaped stick and some surgical tubing. It’s pretty awesome.

1:48pm: Looks like orders are slowing down a little bit, so readers who were worried about it selling out real fast should still have a chance to get copies in the next few hours. That’s pretty cool.

1:57pm: This is probably as good a time as any to share this review of The Happiest Days of Our Lives from Firefox News:

The nostalgic photos on the cover and the title might lead someone to
think he’s calling his childhood the happiest days, but if anything,
his book serves to show that the happiest days of his life are right
now.  As I said earlier, he’s madly in love with his wife and adores
his kids.  He’s discovered a love of writing and an enjoyment of
poker.  He’s run to raise money for breast cancer, he’s put the spirit
of Wesley Crusher to rest, and he’s found a purpose in life.  (Okay, he
also listens to "Mr. Roboto" in his car.  Nobody’s perfect.)

This
is a great book for anyone who was a kid in the 80s.  Trek fans might
get a kick out of the backstage looks at the Next Gen cast.  Me, I like
it for the reminder that things really have gotten better since I was a
kid, and it’s just a matter of knowing where to find the sunshine.

2:06pm: Well, it looks like things are winding down for today. I didn’t intend for this to be an "event" when I planned it, but it’s kind of turned out that way, which is awesome. This has been an incredible rush for me, and I get the sense that it’s been an awful lot of fun for everyone who wanted to get a signed hardback.

I think there will be a few people who check in a few hours from now, who will be pleasantly surprised to find that there are still some copies left. It was always my hope that I could balance the business realities of this limited edition with my desire to make as many people as happy as possible; I’m thrilled that everything seems to be working out for all of us.

2:08pm: The Firefox News review was Propelled by Starshine. Go vote, so we can Front Page that sucker!

2:21pm: Hey, you know what would be fun? A celebratory SNG at PokerStars:

Tourney number:67601545
Time: 18:35 EST
Game: NLHE
Buy-in: $20
Password: monkey
Bonus: $5 bounty on Wil.

2:31pm: This whole experience has reminded me how important the WWdN community is to me. I don’t quite know how to put it into words, so I’m not going to try.

2:49pm: We’re closing in on 200. This is probably a good time for me to get really sentimental and mushy, and thank you all for your support. I sincerely hope you enjoy this book, and you should all know that without people like the 300 (heh. I love that) there wouldn’t even be a Happiest Days of Our Lives, or anything else in the future, for that matter.

2:56pm: Dr. Pauly, Change100, Penner42 . . . holy shit, this poker tourney is a shark tank!

3:23pm: Book review only needs five more votes to Propel it to the front page.

3:30pm: I walk away for a few minutes to give Ferris a Kong in the backyard, and when I come back, I see that five more people have bought books. Awesome!

4:06pm: Yes! The book review hit the front page at Propeller! Thanks, everyone!

4:36pm: Somehow, I forgot to share this from Starshine, featuring 300 copies of The Happiest Days.

5:07pm: The poker tourney was a lot of fun. 11 players, and I made it to heads up with Dr. Pauly. I would have won, too, if it wasn’t for his damn runner/runner flush powers.

5:18pm: So I’m adding things up, and here’s how it looks right now: 177 orders from the US. 16 orders from the Canada. 11 orders from the the UK. 13 orders from the the Europe. 5 orders from the Australia/New Zealand. That works out to 217. There are also about twenty or so orders that I can’t easily search for in Thunderbird, because they’re eChecks, or because PayPal didn’t include the item number in the e-mail subject. I think it’s safe to assume that I’ve sold about 240 signed, numbered, limited edition hardback copies of The Happiest Days of Our Lives. If things continue the way they have, the remaining copies will probably sell out with the next 24 hours, if they don’t sell out over night.

This is a very big deal, and an important affirmation for me. The paperbacks haven’t sold on the same pace as Barefoot or Geek, and I was worried that for reasons I didn’t understand, a lot of people like to read my blog, but didn’t want to — or weren’t able to — support my writing efforts by buying my books. Today, however, tells me that a lot of you were waiting for something special, and all of you who are part of the 300, and that subset of you who participated in the open mic are part of something that was and is very special to me.

Maybe it’s corny to feel good about this, but I love the sense of community I feel here, and spending some time today with so many of you turned a cool day into an awesome day.

Self-publishing is hard. Making it through the media filter is hard. Just getting the damn hardbacks available for sale has been maddening. But today made it all worthwhile.

I’ve felt discouraged and frustrated lately, and I’ve been doubting whether or not I can make a living doing this. Today, you all showed me that, while it’s not going to be lavish, and it’s certainly not going to be easy, at least it’s possible.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years, and to everyone who supported me today. I sincerely believe you’re getting something special and wonderful, and it’s very close to my heart. It’s not a stretch to say that you’re all getting a big part of me when you get one of my books, an even bigger part of me than the average audience gets when they watch or listen to me act.

Thank you all, most sincerely, for being a part of this, one of the happiest days of my life.

In 24 hours, the signed, numbered, limited edition hardbacks of The Happiest Days of Our Lives will finally go on sale, and I’ve been signing and numbering books so we can process and ship orders as quickly and efficiently as possible.

There are only 300 in this limited edition, (which sounds like a lot to me until I look at my traffic stats and see over 30,000 RSS subscribers and an average of about 6000 different people actually hitting my site every day) and I’ve been signing them 50 books at a time, to ensure that my signature looks good — it turns out that a standard Sharpie pen is good for about 20 signatures from me before the tip breaks down, for those of you scoring at home.

The last few weeks have been frustrating and discouraging, but the last few days have been a hell of a lot more fun while we get ready to sell these books tomorrow. Signing them has been fun, too, mostly because I’ve been keeping myself entertained by singing little songs when I sign different numbers:

"17/300 – She’s only seventeen . . ." (Kip Winger, why hast thou forsaken me?)
"19/300 – Ninteen! Ninteen! Nuh-nuh-nuhnuh-ninteen!" (Paul Hardcastle FTW!)
"25/300 – Twenty-five, twenty-five, does whatever a twenty-five does." (I didn’t pick up the book and make it walk on the ceiling . . . or did I?)
"42/300 – Don’t ask me, for number 42, don’t have to tell you, I signed your precious book." (To the tune of INXS’s ‘Never Tear Us Apart.’)
"87/300 – Star Trek: The Next Generation . . . started in niii-eye-yiii-teen eighty-seven" (Sung to the tune of our theme song, of course.)

I think I need to move to a more well-ventilated area.

The Compulsive Reader reviewed The Happiest Days of Our Lives, and says:

Frequently, I found myself smiling at memories of my own that reading
this book evoked. Ah, yes, I remember the weekend-long Dungeons and
Dragons marathons with my fellow geeks. I, too, grin like an idiot at
the thought of my fictional relationship with the cute girl in 10th
Grade that didn’t even know my name. There are few geeks our age that
don’t flinch in terror recalling the institutionalized bullying that is
dodgeball, with the flying, red-rubber spheres of shame.

Wil’s writing style is very easy-going, almost conversational.  He is a master storyteller who takes the ordinary aspects of all our lives, wraps them
in nostalgia, and sets them on a dusty shelf in the sun to fill the
room with rainbows.

The nostalgia, however, is one of the small weaknesses of this book.
While not over the edge, the combination of nostalgia and optimism
could get overwhelming in a longer book. Even in the unhappiest of
memories, Wil finds elements of hope and beauty.

If you want to get a paperback, you should order now, because the signed, numbered, limited edition hardbacks go on sale at Noon PST, on Sunday November 18.

Because PayPal refuses to address their multiorder shipping problem, and because I know so many people are waiting for autographed books to give as holiday gifts, I’ve made an executive decision: I will halt paperback orders for one week, or until the limited edition hardback sells out, whichever comes first. This will make it possible for me to ship signed books everywhere, so they will arrive in time for the holidays. I’m still working on a more sustainable long-term solution.

If you have any questions about the hardcover, post them in comments. I’ll be chained to the computer for the next two hours or so, and I’ll answer as quickly as I can.

I asked my pal John Scalzi, author of The Ghost Brigade, The Android’s Dream, The Sagan Diary, and other awesome books, if he’d read The Happiest Days of Our Lives, and give me a pull quote if he liked it.

He says, “Wil gives lie to the idea that there are no second acts in American lives. He’s on his second act now — as a writer — and he’s doing it without a net, because he’s let us watch him start from zero. It’s been hellaciously impressive to witness. I can’t wait to see what he writes next.”

I guess he liked it!

I’ve been in the car a lot more than usual lately, so I’ve been listening to The Minority Report and other Stories by Phillip K. Dick, read by Keir Dullea (best known as Dave Bowman in 2001.) It’s a fantastic collection of unabridged stories, and Mr. Dullea does PKD’s stories more justice than any of their adapted film counterparts.[1]

It’s been captivating and entertaining to hear him bring stories like We Can Remember it for You Wholesale and Paycheck to life, but it’s also been terrifically inspiring to me. One night about three weeks ago, while driving home and listening, one phrase he spoke came out of my speakers, hit me in that part of my brain that makes me want to be a writer, and knocked out a story idea that has refused to let me do anything else until I bring it into the world and make it real.[2]

Stephen King advises writers to read a lot. If you’re not going to make time to read, he says, you’re never going to make time to write.[3] Harlan Ellison once said that writers shouldn’t write what they know as much as they should write what they love and wish there was more of in the world.[4] It’s good advice that’s kept me focused and given me a justification to read as much as I can without feeling as guilty about it as . . . well, as I do.[5]

Since I don’t have as much time as I’d like to actually read a book, I listen to them when I’m driving, when I’m on the train, and occasionally when I’m at home. There’s also something special about listening to a great actor — like Keir Dullea, for example — performing a great work of literature that speaks to me (ha. ha. ha.) on a different level than reading alone.

So now that I’m nearly done with this audiobook, I went looking for something else. I’ve enjoyed PKD so much, I thought I’d stick with the masters and maybe pick up something from Bradbury or Asimov that my friends would be horrified to learn I hadn’t already read.[6]

While I was browsing, I came across a couple of stories from Asimov that were dramatized on something called Dimension X. A bit of research revealed that Dimension X was a Sci-Fi radio program in the 50s. It was a collaboration between Astounding and NBC, featuring dramatized works from some of the greatest SF writers of the 20th century, like Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Kurt Vonnegut, and Jack Williamson.[7]

A bit of further research revealed that Dimension X is in the public domain, and nearly all of its episodes are available at Archive.org. I listened to The Outer Limit and Nightfall today, and plan to work my way through the remaining episodes over the next several weeks while I finish this SF story that desperately wants to enter our world, if I’d just stop talking about it, and actually hold open the goddamn door.

[1] Don’t buy it from Audible, though. The transfer sound quality is terrible and there are no tracks within each disc when you burn it to CD. Lame.
[2] Delusions of grandeur FTW!
[3] He says this and much more in On Writing . . ., which every writer should read at least once a year.
[4] He then ate a baby for breakfast. Allegedly. Score 100 points if you get this reference without using the Internet. Hell, score yourself 1000 points, actually.
[5]I have this "I should be working now" complex that’s taken over my life
lately, and it seriously cockblocks me a lot of the time.
[6] My best friend Darin, it turns out, still hasn’t seen The Godfather. See how horrified you are? It would so much worse if you knew that, for example, I haven’t read — Ha. Like I’m actually going to tell you. But trust me. You’d think so much less of me, it’s probably best that we pretend this note doesn’t exist beyond the point where I point out that Darin hasn’t seen The Godfather. I mean, WTF? He’s seen Lion King a hundred times, but not The Godfather?
[7] If you enjoy pulp science fiction like the stories from Astounding, you will love this collection called Retro Pulp Tales, from Subterranean Press. I sprung for the lettered edition, because I’m becoming that guy with all those books in my old age.