It’s been a long journey with this one. Last year’s book, LAWNDALE was a huge hit and I’m grateful to everyone who bought the book and wrote a review on Amazon. That goes a long way and really helped with continued sales. Thank you!
If you don’t want to read through my long-winded post, you can click the link below, and order DOWN THE SHORE on Amazon.
A lot of people have asked me why I didn’t call the new book, WILDWOOD.
I was going to, but there are a few books out there that document the island’s history with that title, so I gave it a little more thought. I looked at several ways to approach this, but started to think about a conversation you’d have with someone once school had let out for the summer.
“What are you doing this summer?”
“We’re going down the shore.”
“What shore?”
“Wildwood.”
Wildwood is the answer to the SECOND question. I went with the answer to the first question. Because going down the shore is a state of mind.
Reality stops at the bridge.
Maybe that’s what I should have called this book.
While doing the final edit and review of this book, I found that there were times in certain chapters that I was able to tap into my younger self. When writing about certain subjects I was connected to how I was feeling and what I was thinking when I was 14 or 16 years old. I could have changed this and kept the tone as the present me. But I liked the passion I had as a teenager and decided to leave it the way it was.
I tried to write a book that had a historical sense to it and provide certain facts and figures to give the reader an idea of what Wildwood was like back then. But more important than any of that, I tried to convey the feeling. Anybody can go and collect a bunch of data and compile it into something. That sounds too much like school to me. I wanted to reach back and tell my personal stories of how I saw the world and how the events around me made me feel. I think that’s what any creator tries to give to his or her audience.
There are brilliant guitarists that can play a million notes at a high rate of speed. But when I hear that, it doesn’t make me feel anything. It’s just fast and clean. As Eddie Van Halen once said, “It just sounds like a bunch of typing.” Just cramming as many notes into a bar to get the desired effect of urgency. But there are solos played by certain musicians that only have a few notes. Sometimes just three notes can touch your heart. Listen to the solo by Ulrich Roth in the Scorpions’ song, Far Away. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. You can feel the emotion in the melody of his solos in that song. It’s his voice, and it’s beautiful.
I admit I’m not a great writer. I’ve read great authors and when I read their work it’s like a melody. Just beautiful words strung together to make their words read like a melody in a song. Brilliant. I can’t do that. I write the way I play guitar. I come up with an idea, bang out some chords and there it is. Done.
But happily, I possess the memory and the ability to recall the finer details and moments from the past and bring them back to life. It still sounds like a basic three-chord rock n roll song, but it works.
The odd thing is, I suffered from anxiety and depression growing up. I’ve made that abundantly clear in most of my books. It always felt like a disability to me growing up. Not a “woe as me I can’t do anything” attitude. I just felt weak. I felt like a weak scaredy cat as a kid. The things that most people got excited about and celebrated, I was afraid of. It really made life hard to get through when I was a child.
But I believe all of the things that make us who we are are important. Maybe they aren’t weaknesses or disabilities at all. I have found that having anxiety I was always on high alert. I’m fearful I’m going to be injured or attacked. I don’t like heights or deep water. You’d think a person with this weakness would never amount to anything. But that constant alert behavior kept my brain active at all times. I was being affected by the events around me in my environment harder and deeper than most people. They simply sailed through things with ease while I struggled to fit into their world. But the whole time I was recording everything around me. The darkness of depression works the same way in the opposite direction. That sadness and sinking feeling. Everything that’s happening around me is hitting me so much harder than those around me.
It turns out what I thought was a weakness and failure about myself, was actually my superpowers operating at their peak performance. It was a self-preservation tool to keep this precious vessel alive. And during my life, I’ve been able to record and store everything that I’ve ever experienced in a deep and meaningful way.
It’s like a flower. Most open to face the sun and enjoy it. My petals open and bend back so far that I’m nearly blinded by the light and elements of the world. I feel more than most and the world really hurts sometimes. People would say, “You’re being too sensitive.”
What’s wrong with being sensitive? To see and feel the world more than those around you is a gift.
That’s why I have to create. My anxiety and depression gave me the gifts to be able to make things out of thin air. I like making things appear that weren’t there before. I’ve always made things even as a kid. Building my own toys and games, sculpting things out of clay, building plastic model cars, drawing pictures, writing songs, and now writing stories.
This “weakness” caused me to have to overcome the things that slowed me down in your world. I had to overcompensate for my lack of athletic abilities and willingness to endure your school system. I had to develop my personality and my ability to swim through your world. I became charming and witty as a result of my fear and sadness. This translated well in the world of business. I was promoted quickly and moved up the ranks to become a top producer in most of my jobs. All of that success was due to trying to overcome my low self-esteem and fear. I just kept getting up and walking toward the things I was afraid of over and over again. I never liked authority because they couldn’t do what I could do. Why should I have to listen to them? They don’t know anything about me.
Here I am today on the first day of summer with a new book out. It’s bigger than the Lawndale book and I’ve been able to build it over the last 9 months since my last release. Sure, some of the stories I wrote were created 5 years ago, but I had to put them together and write tons of new stories for this book. I already had most of the stories for LAWNDALE, I only added a few new ones. But for DOWN THE SHORE, I had to generate new content to connect all of those stories that take place over a decade. It seemed like a monumental task that I’d never be able to complete. But I kept walking toward it and now here it is.
I love my daughter Kathryn. She’s awesome. But one kid is enough for me. Creating this book felt like I was adding a new member to my family. I could have waited until July to put this book out, but I figured it was ready to come out, so I induced labor to get this baby out for the first day of summer.
Come on… The Wildwood book HAD to come out on the first day of summer.
I’ve loved writing this book, even though at times I told people I hated doing it. I loved creating it, but like I’ve said about all of my other books, I hate editing them. It just feels too much like work. I have to think of it as a musician putting out a double album. There are a lot of songs on this album. 57 chapters to be exact. There are some good songs on this album. There are some great songs, but there are also some #1 hits. That’s all I can ask, putting out something this big.
I have had some challenges with the construction of this book. What looked perfect and ready to go in Kindle Create, can come out differently when it’s sent to the KDP website to be built. Because there are so many photos in this book, kindle isn’t really able to handle that sort of volume. There can be gaps on pages as the system tries to fit it all together. All of the photos are there and all of the content is fine, but sometimes it just doesn’t look the same in the finished product. So I’m hoping the content carries this book forward. Because in the end, that’s really all I’m trying to do.
I just hope I did Wildwood justice and people like it. If I can convey how it felt to spend the summer in Wildwood growing up in the 70s then I’ve done my job as an artist. If through my words I can make a few people long for the days of their youth on that sandy stage, then I’ve made a hit record.
I’m grateful to everyone who gave me love and support through this process. My sisters have been grand and I appreciate that they’re in my life. I’m also grateful to my friends who have had to listen to me complain about how difficult this has been. They’ve all been patient and supportive. I’m thankful for that too!
I could go on and on here, but you get the idea.
There will be kite flying, sand castles, fishing, and crabbing. But there will also be those other precious memories. Hunt’s and Morey’s pier, the boardwalk at night. The clubs on Pacific Avenue. That first date… first kiss. The salty sweetness of being in Wildwood for the whole summer.
I’ve looked extensively on the internet, and there isn’t another book like this one. I was kind of surprised. I guess everybody was having too much fun back then to write a book about the magic of Wildwood in its heyday.
But now there’s one. It was mine, but I’m giving it to you. I have this gift and the right thing to do with it is to share it with the world.
I hope you like Down The Shore.
Go over to Amazon and let’s take a ride on the rollercoaster just one more time.
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