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A
monthly diary of current postings and quick train of thought entries
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August
2022
And…
hello…
August has been
a crazy month. Trying to get things settled and moving again.
New book release. The annual festivities. And, because that
wasn’t enough, added in an essay per day average challenge.
Well… we made it.
Three new essays today brings our total to thirty-two for the
month.
Going to post these
and pause. A few bits of news and such coming soon.
“Don’t
judge me”
“What
do you want?”'
“Perspectives
from the mirror”
I want to start
out by saying thank you everyone that took part in some way
with the National Buy Bob’s Book Day celebrations yesterday.
You folks have always
been amazing. Can’t express enough gratitude for your interest,
time and support.
The crazy thing
to me is, every year you all get it. You understand what I’m
attempting to do with such a declaration and the festivities
around it. And you respond to it by picking up some takeout,
making a few drinks, settling in and visiting my web site, checking
out my books and reaching out to say hello. Many of you have
said it’s become a reminder of sorts to check in with me and
catch up if it’s been a while.
I like that. Makes
me smile.
So, thank you. Thank
you to all the folks that have been visiting the web site. Thank
you to everyone that picked up a copy of the new book. Thank
you to everyone that texted and emailed and more. THANK
YOU! Love you guys.
Keep in mind, the
festivities continue throughout the weekend. You can still find
free Kindle editions of four books…
NATIONAL
BUY BOB’S BOOK DAY
It all started back
in 2012. I had released Time
Just Drifts Away that summer, and was
looking at any and all ways I could think of to publicize the
book.
While moving around
the internet, I would occasionally see postings for national
day of this and national day of that. Didn’t really think much
about any of them, but would chuckle from time to time.
On August 1st, I
saw that it was national raspberry cream pie day. As you can
understand, that connected as a very big deal. While I say that
as a joke, with a whisp of sarcasm and a wink, the reality is
that I did begin wondering about how these national days were
decided and what they meant. The next day, August 2nd, I learned
it was national ice cream sandwich day and everything crashed
together.
The result? If raspberry
cream pie and ice cream sandwiches could have national days
of recognition, then my writing deserved a day of its own as
well.
When telling the
story, it’s here that I usually pause to stress the humor involved.
I do take the awareness of my work very seriously, and I also
try to point a light in its direction when I can. But I do not
for a second celebrate National Buy Bob’s Book Day without understanding
it’s a bit silly and declared in fun. Remove the support of
absurdity and a smile, and it just doesn’t work.
I would love it
if you bought a book or two. Thank you very much if you do.
I would be thrilled
if you visited the web site. Welcome to Backpackville, enjoy
your stay and come back again soon.
And if, by chance,
you told some of your friends about my work, well, that would
be awesome.
I’m grateful for
any and all support you incredible people offer. Thank you for
it.
That said, sincerely,
in many ways I just hope it connects with you, perhaps is a
bit memorable, and somewhere down the line encourages you to
look around at my writing. I truly hope it makes you smile.
Sappy, sure. But it’s all about having a bit of fun.
Today we’re ramping
up the celebration with a few special items of note. To begin…
A
Parkside View: Volumes 5 & 6
It’s a new book
release. Out in print and Kindle, more than five dozen essays
have been assembled for this collection. Check it out here:
A
Parkside View: Volumes 5 & 6 at Amazon
Also, heading into
the weekend, the Kindle editions of four titles will be available
for free:
LOTS
of ground to cover…
Friday, August 26th,
is National Buy Bob’s Book Day, and there are going to be some
great opportunities and offers to go along with the applause
and fireworks…
* A
Parkside View: Volumes 5 & 6 is being
released
* The Kindle editions
of four Books will be available for FREE over a few days around
the 26th…
The In My Backpack
website was started as a way to share my writing. It was also
started as an experiment.
I have always wanted
to produce material of decent quality. However, the main idea
to try new things, push myself, develop content and share it.
Toward that end…
When I try to do
an essay-per-day-average for a month, that increased production
brings along good and bad. I do generate some work I really,
really like. I do find myself a bit more on top of things, coming
up with new ideas that I am almost forced to explore immediately.
And I think my writing can be stronger overall as a result…
kind of a result to the needs of “don’t think, write”. But,
in the quest for quantity, there are several pieces that I see
as being done right now though they might need some additional
work to be truly edited, explored and complete.
I’m asking you to
keep this in mind, because the experiment and production approach
has more or less always been the idea behind this site. As we
move through August, I hope you’ll give some of the essays a
bit of room to breath. Not because they’re bad or difficult.
But because they’re being written and presented as friends having
a conversation in a casual setting.
And with that… enjoy…
“I
don’t believe you… or, more accurately… I don’t care”
“Hands-free
what?”
“Always
order the floor mat in August”
“The
high cost of lunch”
“It
might be the technology (and not me)”
Today I want to
begin nodding in the direction of some upcoming projects. And
for this post, we’re going to discuss a release that should
happen in late September or early October.
Suspiciously
Picturesque
This is actually
an effort I had announced under a different name. To be fair,
it had been moving along under several names. It’s the latest
anniversary effort for the In My Backpack website.
In March of 2022,
In My Backpack celebrated nineteen years. And, as you
may be aware, around here we’ve always had a slightly twisted,
off-kilter, organized approach to our chaos. We celebrate out
five-year-marks on what many would consider an unusual pace.
The work began with
more than six hundred and seventy essays making the initial
move into consideration. Yes, six hundred plus. That was quickly
cut down, but over one hundred… over ten dozen… specifically,
one hundred and twenty-six, made it in some form to the work
putting together the first true draft. We deeply considered
just about every piece of material created for the site over
the years, including some efforts that were being developed
for the site even before the site was truly running. The final
collection should be a lot of fun.
With A Parkside
View: Volumes 5 & 6 in the immediate future, this is
setting up to be a very busy run to close out 2022. And Suspiciously
Picturesque is going to be an important part of that run.
We’ll be back on
Tuesday!
“Glad
I didn’t start that”
Let’s recap the
week…
A
Parkside View
The latest edition
of the monthly newsletter will be out tomorrow. Four essays
will be on its pages, with two of them being published for the
first time.
Every issue of A
Parkside View is free, but you have to sign up to receive
it. How do you sign up? Well, that’s easy… (1) Send us an e-mail
– Bob@inmybackpack.com
– and tell us you’re looking to receive it. (2) Or, send us
a message with the request using any of our social media pages
on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
A
Parkside View: Volumes 5 & 6
Bob’s thirteenth
title is nearing release.
A collection of
sixty-seven essays, it covers the ground of newsletter releases
in 2020 and 2021.
The
Eleventh Annual National Buy Bob’s Book Day
The celebrations
are being held on August 26th.
We’re going to have
more details on all of these (and more… much more) as August
continues.
Now, for today’s
additions…
“Well,
that’s an awful lot”
“The
journey of a thousand steps”
“Look,
up in the sky”
A
Parkside View: Volumes 5 & 6
This month, Bob
is releasing his thirteenth book, and it’s a fun one.
Assembled from the
monthly newsletter editions released in 2020 and 2021 (volumes
five and six, as the title would suggest), it contains sixty-seven
essays. Three of those appear only on the pages of this book,
and for twenty-nine others the only previous publication was
their run in the newsletter.
The book will be
available in print and Kindle editions. As of right now, the
expected release date is August 26th, as a special part of National
Buy Bob’s Book Day festivities. Confirmation of the release
date along with ordering options will be shared soon.
The August issue
of A
Parkside View will be out this weekend.
So, get yourself signed up for by sending an email, or use our
social media pages to send a message.
The
Eleventh Annual National Buy Bob’s Book Day
On August 26, 2022,
we are going to celebrate National Buy Bob’s Book Day. This
annual event has always featured a few special surprises, and
this year will be no different.
It started as a
way to promote my first book release. Basically, while looking
for ways to raise a bit of awareness, I noticed that everything
from olives to crab stuffed flounder seemed to have recognized
national days of celebration. Eventually, I decided that if
egg rolls, microwave ovens, deep fried clams, playing Monopoly,
denim and gingersnaps could all earn such recognition, then
my published writing deserved a day as well.
So, August 26, 2012,
we set off some fireworks. And we’ve done it every year since.
Over the next couple
of weeks, I’ll have a few more details to share. Special offers
and events will be a part of things. For now, one big announcement
arrives tomorrow… when we’ll show off the cover of the next
book.
Release date for
it?
I’ll give you one
guess.
Lady
Gaga in the shoes of Harley Quinn? I could
see that. In fact, I definitely WOULD see that. News building
that Gaga will be taking on that role, as reports of her joining
Joaquin Phoenix in the Joker: Folie à deux production
have been confirmed.
If you’re looking
forward to Clerks III, the
trailer is out for the gang’s next shift.
Today’s new essay…
“Always
have a backup”
A
Parkside View
This month is going
to be a pretty special one for the newsletter.
First off, the new
issue will be out this weekend. It has been a rough run for
the monthly effort for some time, as a variety of personal reasons
demanded attention. This edition meant a lot to work on. Really
happy to be finishing it up and looking forward to sharing it.
Next, the book assembling
all of the essays from volumes 5 and 6 is heading toward a release
later this month. We’ll have some information, including a preview
of the cover, in the next few days.
The newsletter began
about six years ago. July of 2016. I wanted to develop something
a bit different from the online segments, something more direct-to-audience
in nature, where I could also explore some things that might
not work on a web site and expand the way I could interact with
readers.
For the base format,
I make sure that every issue contains at least two essays. Of
those, one is completely new and debuts on its pages exclusively.
The other is drawn out of my archives, something of a From the
Backpack concept. That in place, every month could contain as
many essays of either style as I assemble.
In recent issues,
I’ve expanded the content. One effort—Streaming in The ‘ville—offers
up without specific reviews or explanations, some of the recently
viewed streaming content that for whatever reason we enjoyed.
Another feature—Parkside Takes Five—is an interview-based effort.
More corners and side streets are going to be explored in the
near future as the newsletter continues to be developed.
The first two years—2016
and 2017—came together in a collection, A
Parkside View: Volumes 1 & 2. It
contained every essay published in the newsletter over that
time, with the addition of a handful of brand new essays exclusive
to the title. The third and fourth years—2018 and 2019—followed
the same format and were assembled as A
Parkside View: Volumes 3 & 4. On Friday,
we’re going to lift the curtain on the next gathering of newsletter
essays, which will include a cover reveal.
For today, that’s
it. New essays and more tomorrow.
Now go sign up for
the newsletter, and we’ll see you soon!
Basic rundown today…
setting up the next few days.
Tomorrow we’ve got
a set up for A
Parkside View. We’re going to dive
into the return of the newsletter in August. We’ve also got
some details to share about the release of A Parkside View:
Volumes 5 & 6.
On Thursday, we’re
going to turn the spotlight in the direction of National Buy
Bob’s Book Day. The annual event is slated to release the balloons
and fireworks on August 26th.
On Friday, we’re
going to cover some of the ground about upcoming releases. There’s
been a title change for one project, and a few other items that
we want to share.
Beyond that, we’ll
see where the month takes us. But the goal is to make August
a month where we average a new essay each day, meaning a minimum
of thirty-one brand new efforts making their way to Backpackville.
Today, let’s wrap up this entry with the first batch of material…
“The
incredible shrinking expectation”
“Removed
or stolen or missing, I don’t know”
“How
fast to go”
A lot has been going
on… and when it comes to you, amazing folks that I’m thrilled
have taken some of your valuable time to visit Backpackville,
I apologize for the delays around here. Thanks for sticking
with me.
Some of you know
this has been a particularly strange and difficult time for
me, and I’m grateful for all of your support and attention.
Over the past few weeks, life decided that strange and difficult
wasn’t enough, and that a bit of chaos and travel and more should
get tossed into the mix. So… delays and such.
That ends today.
This month, we get
rolling with a ton of work and announcements. A new issue of
A
Parkside View is on the way, some details
about the upcoming annual National Buy Bob’s Book Day festivities
are ready to announce, information is coming together about
new book releases… and the list just keeps going.
We’re also going
to work on making August an essay-per-day-average month.
Those ideas will
start tomorrow. Today, a few links.
The Menu
is not a film I had heard about, but after watching the trailer
I
am paying attention now. Anya Taylor-Joy
leads a cast that includes Ralph Fiennes in what appears to
be a very interesting role.
Our Flag Means
Death is getting
a second season.
She-Hulk: Attorney
at Law is approaching
its release. I’ve been pleased with efforts
like Moon Knight, where the main MCU was essentially
ignored. This appears to be along somewhat the same lines… a
few main connections do exist, but a bit lighter in tone, some
winking comedy, and unexpected guests getting decent play.
Our first look at
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever gives off a
brilliant and astonishing sense. This movie
has all the appearances of being epic.
See you very
soon!
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