This is what I look like when I’m trying to relax while attempting to unclench my forehead, while trying not to look like I’m trying to relax while trying to unclench my forehead (because I’m so relaxed), when posing for a newspaper photographer on our patio.
This week, a slightly tweaked edition of the newsletter because my new nonfiction book Everything Now is being released on Tuesday and I need to go even deeper into sales mode. Forgive me. Next week, we’ll be back to normal, but in the meantime, here are a couple asks:
It's a book about real people in a surreal city. It’s a page-turner that will (hopefully) keep you glued to your beach chair. It's a labor of love that required several years to report and research, in which I interview and shadow countless people – vampires to veterans, activists to astronauts – and discover a nation both upended and reborn. Basically, if you dig narrative nonfiction, if you love (or hate) Los Angeles, if you simply need something in your bag that is very green, pick up a copy from Amazon, Bookshop, or your local store.
If you’re willing to help get the word out (thank you), as of Tuesday you can leave a rating and/or review on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, or wherever feels right. This makes a big difference, especially in the early days.
Join me and this year's National Book Award winner (and Angeleno) Charles Yu talking about the book on Tuesday night, 6:30pm PT, sponsored by Skylight Books and The Los Angeles Public Library. Here’s event info. It’s the first of several virtual (and some in-person) events I’m doing this summer; here’s a full list.
Some other stuff:
If you pre-ordered the book and would like a bookplate for your personal library, email me a receipt or proof of purchase – or simply: “Dude, I bought the stupid book” – and include your name, mailing address, and the name of who you’d like it inscribed to. I sent out about 60 of these yesterday, but I’ve still got some left.
Starting Tuesday, my book publisher is partnering with The Morning News to give away an Everything Now skateboard deck! It features lovely photos from Mike Slack, who shot the pictures on the book jacket, and it’s very green, and as a lifelong skating enthusiast (admittedly one who can’t even kickflip anymore), it’s a dream come true. Keep an eye on social media, I’ll post when the contest goes live – Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
Most of all, thank you for your support. And as a gesture of appreciation, I will now deliberately anger my mother by showing you a picture of my dad in their local bookstore wearing a bright pink shirt with coral pink shorts – a combination that suggests my father is losing his eyesight, my mom thinks, and perhaps his mind, which is why I was instructed that I could not share it on social media without Photoshopping the colors, but she didn’t say anything about newsletters.
What the what? A (mostly) weekly newsletter by novelist Rosecrans Baldwin of (very) short essays about things he finds beautiful.
Rosecrans’s new nonfiction book, Everything Now, forthcoming June 15, 2021, is available from Amazon, Bookshop, or your local store. Any books mentioned in this newsletter are on a list at Bookshop.