TBDNE, ORIGINAL UNEDITED
The flexibility of digital publishing provides opportunities for artists to reevaluate their work. I’ve been writing screenplays for the past two-plus years, and I’m reaching the end of that project phase. As I think through what to focus on in 2016, my brain has returned to fiction. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with other artists for this stretch but perhaps everyone needs bursts of autonomy. I’m not sure. It’s something I’m thinking about.
Nevertheless, I’ve also been considering whether I made a mistake in revising and updating the original manuscript for my novel This Book Does Not Exist. That first edit was messy, and in some ways, as a writer, embarrassing. However, it was also so incredibly true to that moment in my life that polishing it took away whatever power it had. I wrote to survive that breakup. Art is about truth and authenticity, now more so than ever since we are all capable of capturing and sharing our actual lives with others. It only makes sense then that the novel that poured out of my soul would be a better piece of art, if not a better piece of writing.
Therefore, I have gone back in to the Amazon store and republished the original raw and uncut version of TBDNE in ebook form. The revised and updated second edition will remain available, but only in paperback. It feels right.
If you missed TBDNE the first time around, you can find it here. Please forgive the fact that my stand-in has a Blackberry. It is set in 2010. Nostalgia though...