MAY 2023

The Best Thing

The best thing about publishing a novel is not the acclaim or the brisk book sales (good thing, too, because I have very little of either), it's experiences like this:

Recently, Caroline and I ran into a friend we hadn't seen in a while. During our brief conversation in the Los Altos parking plaza, she shared that she and her partner were off to Scotland for a vacation, and that the only non-ebook book they were taking with them was a copy of The Cyclone Release. Month of May...made! (And, of course, she could have taken along an ebook, or even an audiobook, version. It's available in both!)

Also recently, at a family celebration (more on that below), one of my way-cool nephews (I have 14 of those, by the way) asked me, "How are things going with your book?" He followed up with more questions showing genuine interest in reading it. It was a great conversation, and I made damn sure to deliver an autographed copy to him a few days later.

In all honesty, I'm not thrilled with the book's sales or the responses I've gotten (or, in most cases, non-responses) from industry reviewers and influencers. (Actual reader responses, on the other hand, have been incredible!) But it seems that whenever I'm feeling down about those non-responses, I get hit with little kindnesses like these, and seriously, it is absolutely the best thing.

The Other Best Thing

The best thing about life is the people who surround you: family, friends, colleagues, and communities. And on that first one, family, I lay claim to an embarrassment of riches: 4 brothers, 4 sisters, 26 nieces and nephews, 21 spouses and partners who have had the courage to join our sprawling brood, and 25 great-nieces and nephews. My dad, Duane Overby, looks out on all this with astonishment and pride that he expresses out loud surprisingly often for a man of his generation.

My Aunt Monessa, his older sister, is a Catholic nun, so this is her entire family outside the church, and there's plenty of it. My mother passed in 2019 at 85, but 5 of her 7 siblings live on, all with devoted spouses and large families of their own. Some of you have seen me jokingly post birth announcements on social media under the heading "Total Overby World Domination," and it seems to become less and less of a joke with each passing year.

Dad turned 88 on May 14th, and all nine of his children, many of his grandchildren, and the newest of his great-grandchildren all came together to celebrate on May 7th. A simple thing, a birthday party, became remarkable when he took the floor at the behest of our stepmom and shared stories of his life. The people in our lives can enrich our lives, but they can only live on through stories, through oral history that is shared. And sharing the way he did, with generations of progeny, give those stories a fighting chance to live on.

My family served as the inspiration for my story "Fruit Stands," published in last summer's issue of the Evening Street Review. In the story, set in the 1960s, Simon, a father of seven, contemplates separation from his wife, Lynn, even as he takes his children on an all-day outing.

“Fruit Stands” is a story born of my own memory. But those stories born of my father's memory, stories of a teen-ager of modest means sticking out his thumb each summer and taking to the roads of small-town Minnesota, stories he bravely shared with us on May 7th, are already working their way into my imagination. And someday they may become new stories I will write, and should those industry gatekeepers choose to respond, I might even be allowed to bring them to all of you.

Reminders…

• Reviews — If you’re one of my favorite people in the world (that is, if you’ve read The Cyclone Release), please consider dropping a rating and review on Amazon. If you’re so inclined, you can drop the same review on Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, or any other platform for book lovers you might use. As I’ve explained to some of you in a special newsletter, reviews are incredibly important in driving visibility and sales. So thank you in advance.

• Newsletter — If you know anyone who would enjoy quality literary fiction from the unique viewpoint of a Silicon Valley original, feel free to forward this e-mail along. New subscribers are welcome!

• Book clubs — Feel free to contact me about discounted copies and author appearances.

And in case you missed them, previous editions of the Bruce Overby | Author newsletter can be viewed online here.