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founding

Chris, you know how much I get this — and I so appreciate your willingness to make the labor of this work so *visible.* So happy you got to spend time with a G.O.A.T. like Hanif, who I've always grouped with you alongside writers I'll always read, no matter the forum, no matter the format, because no one tells the truth with such poetry.

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❤️

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founding

Thank you for this post, Chris -- since you shredded when you were in Portland, I know you have continued to shred on your book tour around the country. I'm really glad that you are writing with candor about the challenges of book tour/supporting yourself as a writer, even while you're on the tour itself. I think that most folks assume a writer is kind of all set once they've got a book in the world, and your story (and Fariha's) is such important perspective. Anyway, thank you for this! (I'm going to close with a public service message: I just discovered in my substack Privacy settings something called: "Allow AI training," which means your substack content can be used to train AI. I'm guessing you were too swift for them and turned it off right away, but in case you didn't spot it, better disable it, (I recently discovered mine was still on, which means I was helping stupid ChatGPT and Google Bard get smarter). They try to dissuade you from turning it off with this sentence: "Disabling may limit your discoverability on these platorms." But I say the machines can suck it. Long live writers!

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It was so great getting to see you in Portland, Laura. Will you be at the book festival?

Also, I did verify I had that AI setting turned OFF. But damn, it sure seems like there are more on/off settings in Substack than I remember! What a hassle.

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The writing life is not an easy one, if it ever was. I'm not sure tours "pay off" in the traditional sense, but when I paid for my own tour it showed in sales, vs trying to do it all virtually with "blog tours" and social media. Meeting people and making connections that way can't be taken away by a billionaire who buys the platform and decides you need to pay to reach the people who followed you, for example. I think we talked about this after your event in DC. I recommend you regularly export your subscriber list. Our substack "content" isn't what they care about it, it's our lists of readers. Right now they only recommend other substacks, but they have lists of thousands of people and our interests, and that's invaluable.

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We did talk about that and as it's been a while, I'm grabbing that file right now!

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Oct 9Liked by Chris La Tray

Chris, I'm reading this and do not hear complaining at all. You are not whining, you're defining...letting us know what we don't know about a writer's life. These steps lead to the next ones in your path. Very grateful you are taking us on your journey.

I purchased your BLS to a friend for his birthday. He will share with me when he is finished. Be blessed my friend.

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I hope you both like it!

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Oct 9Liked by Chris La Tray

I love Birchbark Books in Minneapolis! I finally got to go last September. I was talking to the woman checking me out, and told her about the time I got to see Louise Erdrich read her work in 1984 and how amazing that was. The woman told me that Louise Erdrich was her mom. When I went to relate all that to my daughter, she said, "So, you just fan girled to her about her own mom?" Yes. Yes I did. I am telling everyone I know about your reading at Prairie Lights. I'll try not to fan girl too hard.

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I go there whenever I can and I'm really stoked to visit it again! Sadly Louise will be in NYC for her own book tour when I'm there.

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Oct 9Liked by Chris La Tray

Gaah! WTF! The arts are fringe??? That is probably the most dumbass thing I’ve heard this year. The arts are what keep our souls from shriveling, our minds finding new appreciation and connection to our selves and our world. Boo Clearwater Credit Union.

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Boo, indeed. 🤬

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Oct 9Liked by Chris La Tray

I’m in this for more than the t-shirt, sir. But damn, that thing is sweet. Stoked to see it.

I hear you. I admire the work you do in and around writing. It’s a privilege to be a part of this in a tiny way. (Although, I ordered a pretty big shirt!)

I appreciate you speaking to this. I’m tempted to say that’s the way of passion work, but that’s not right at all, is it? I mean it’s not wrong, but writing is unlike any other work I’ve ever done. Promoting writing - that’s uncommon work, too.

Peace in a time of upheaval I wish for you. That and some bonus energy. Like 15% boost. Something along the lines of a Columbus gas station encounter.

Cheers,

-Nigel

P.S. that Conan soundtrack was on while I was giving feedback to grad students who wrote literacy narratives for a class I teach in their reading endorsement (for reading teachers) program. These reading teachers… they are warriors of uncommon valor and virtue. Conan would have dug them.

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The Conan soundtrack is never not perfect.

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Oct 9Liked by Chris La Tray

Thank you for continuing to share your experience. You're reading at some kick-ass bookstores in the coming weeks. It's a reflection of the quality and meaning in your work that so many places want to sponsor you so others can hear from you. I wish the world valued art differently than it does. The upcoming election you refer to is a reflection of our values, which are not the values I would choose for us. I wish you rest, peace, and joy in the midst of the madness. You have created something wonderful, and you are sharing it.

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Miigwech! And I'll say the bookstores and libraries and all the dedicated folks who make such institutions run with little fanfare have been the most uplifting part of this entire undertaking.

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Oct 9Liked by Chris La Tray

Ah, damn, this hits so hard, in so many ways. So many ways. I’m glad you’re doing what you’re doing, and glad my path crossed yours when it did. 🙏

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I'm glad they crossed too! And here's to crossing them again sooner than later!

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I do love this Substack and but I don’t think it’s just writers and artists who find themselves feeling like this. Commit yourself to any project with a social value that swims against the tide even a little bit and, sooner or later, you’re going to look in the mirror and say the same thing. Believe me, I see this in my day job and work as a trustee a lot.

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I think you are exactly right. And it seems the more essential it is to human existence the more upstream it seems.

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(The Fariha Róisín quote, that is)

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I don’t hear complaining either. I hear a HUMAN. As when a parent vents about parenting. So glad you’re willing to share with us.

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I appreciate you, Victoria.

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I so needed a new t-shirt! Won't be able to wear it without a jacket until next July, but that's ok.

Capital does not know what to do with the arts: it can only commodify a tiny slice of them--and does that quite well--while the rest, which almost always resist commodification by their very nature, it cannot liquidate, cannot turn them into cash flow. But as long as artists are working under capitalism, it might try to starve us, but it cannot shake us off or neutralize us entirely.

That credit union needs an artist or two on its board of directors. Bankers are going to have a hard time understanding art that doesn't turn a profit. Where the hell else is lasting change going to come from but sites of imagination and practice?

rantrantrant.

May the tour give you a noticeable bump in sales. Or several.

May you meet more awesome people{1} while you're out there, in any case.

May you find enough rest and solitude to get you through.

[1] of whatever species or configuration

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Oct 9Liked by Chris La Tray

The T Shirt looks fun.

I can't imagine you'll lose any friendships worth having over this. What a journey it's all been, and the part of the adventure you're on now is still an essential part of the whole thing. How can someone like you and not get that?

Best of luck with the coming dates!

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I appreciate it, Charley!

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I vote for all who are weary and need some inner rest to simply take a lay-down, somewhere-anywhere, preferably on a forest floor, preferably with a beloved close by, preferably a loyal dog up against the back or chest, and stay in such manner until all the frenetic ceases---forced rest, as it may be.

Good to read you again, Chris. Good insight to what it's like inside the world of a writer. 🩵

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💚

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Thank you for your honesty. Our society is quite backwards right now, and so many are running hard to barely get by - so, at least you're not alone? Haha....must we take solice in not suffering alone? I'm sending good thoughts and energy your way and giving you some grandma advice - get some rest! After decades of running I'm getting a little ornery with anyone who tries to make me go faster. What's the rush I say? I have more life behind me than in front of me - I'm taking it slower. I'll wave as others rush by. I'll also be broke but have few needs and, with my blessed life, no wants other than an indoor potty, nearby. And I can evern get by without that! Good luck on your tour - be safe and keep truth at the forefront like you do!

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Miigwech! I appreciate you, Lita. Hope you are feeling better.

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Oct 15Liked by Chris La Tray

I’m so glad you’re writing about this & fwiw I think you’re having an enormous impact. I remember one of my first library stacks jobs I had the “bad cart” for shelving & it was piled high with books up to my eyebrows. I was trying to steer it around a corner & it felt like I was using all my energy to go nowhere. A senior librarian came along, looked at me, and said, “you’re *wrastlin’* with that bear!” Anyway sometimes when I’m wrastlin’ with something bigger than me so that I can’t see what I’m doing I think, “I’m wrastlin’ with that bear!”

An example of something you might not see while you wrastle: the moment I opened this post I recognized that particular river. I didn’t even know that was possible before now, to recognize a river just from its river-y personality. It’s a tiny impact in a flurry in much bigger ones but it means something to me and maybe to you too.

Also, along with everything else you list, I also think maybe some of what you’re dealing with is something a friend calls “when did this become my job?” Well, like the invoices — as businesses have been taking jobs away, we’ve each become responsible for building our own furniture, checking out our own groceries, and often filling out forms that just a few years ago might have been handled by a specific category of accountant or office administrator. And since we don’t usually spend our days working on exactly this stuff, it can be really hard to learn the right forms/accounting to make a book tour work or just enough mechanics to make sense of an ikea diagram, etc. etc. I’m all for Beginner’s Mind but this is ridiculous.

Anyway good luck with the bear. I think you’re doing amazing even if you can’t see around all the corners.

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I've actually been doing expenses and invoices for years, particularly expenses. So it's nothing new. It's just a different kind of volume.

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