Last week was a sweet week for a couple of reasons. I just released two new books on the creative process — Hey, Writer. And Hey, Songwriter. They're creative guides for anyone (experienced or inexperienced) who has a story, a song, or an idea living inside them that hasn't been birthed into the world yet. Who doesn't? Not because the talent or the idea wasn't there — but because nobody told you it can be done. It can be done. Or maybe life got in the way, as it does. Or

I’ve never self-marketed a book before, or anything else. I’ve never launched a book in 2026 before, either. I’m more adept at watching the world with concern, second-guessing myself, and throwing ideas to the wind. But amid all the weird sales graphs, ads, algorithm noise, and small mysteries of a book launch, something lovely and unexpected happened. As sales for My Last Friends on Earth picked up, readers have been finding my earlier novel Understanding Ken again—and picki