It's pub day

DOGLAND, the book I worked on for four years, is officially in stores today. Starting now, you can walk right into your favorite bookstore and walk out with a copy. You can click on it in your online portal of choice and they’ll pop it in the mail to you right away. There are no more preorders. They’re just orders.

I am thrilled and overwhelmed and exhausted. These last few weeks have felt like one of those Ninja Warriors obstacle courses. I signed 380 books for my dear friends at Park Road Books, who collaborated with me on a preorder deal. (Those of you who had me write that your football team is better than my football team: I did it. But I had my fingers crossed.)

I was exposed to someone who got COVID (thankfully, I seem to have dodged that bullet). A drywall screw flattened one of my tires. Yesterday morning I woke up to find our cat cheerfully chasing a mouse around the living room. Instead of just killing it, he toyed with it so long that it finally got away from him. (Those of you who ask why I didn’t write about cats? That’s why.)

And, as you know if you’ve been following along, we went down to Georgia over the weekend for the funeral of my brother-in-law, Ed Williams. His kids asked me to read the piece I wrote for The Writing Shed at the service. It was one of those bittersweet days—part mourning, part family reunion.

Just last night I finally felt like I had caught my breath. Starting this morning, we mash the gas again.

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I want to share a few DOGLAND-related things that have come out over the last few days … some of these are paywalled and some aren’t.

The Atlantic published my book excerpt this morning about how sometimes we cry harder for our pets than for the humans we love.

I wrote an essay for the Washington Post on how humans and dogs basically created each other.

Jane Stern (of the famous Jane and Michael Stern, authors of the ROADFOOD books) reviewed DOGLAND for the Air Mail newsletter (free, but requires an email to sign in).

The great sportswriter Jeff Pearlman interviewed me for his podcast TWO WRITERS SLINGING YANG. We talked about DOGLAND, my writing process, and why I do this newsletter. It happened to be the day OJ Simpson died and so the conversation drifted that way as well.

My piece about the dog show for Garden & Gun arrived online.

Alexandria Sands interviewed me for Axios Charlotte.

Tim Boyum interviewed me for his podcast TYING IT TOGETHER.

There will be quite a few more of these in the days and weeks to come … I don’t expect even my own family to read and listen to them all. But I enjoyed doing every one.

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This morning I’ve already done a TV interview with CBS News New York. At 1 p.m., I’m the guest on WNYC radio’s “All Of It with Alison Stewart.”

But the main event is tonight, where we do the official book launch at the beautiful ImaginOn Library in uptown Charlotte. I can’t wait to bask in the hometown crowd.

A quick reminder of current tour dates—more coming soon:

As I said, all this has run me a little ragged. But as Alix and I often say to each other, that’s a good problem to have. I am incredibly lucky to have a great team at Avid Reader Press that has been working hard to get the book out there in the world. I’m lucky to be in the city where Sally Brewster and the folks at Park Road Books go the extra mile for authors and customers. I am lucky to have friends like Julie Ritterskamp, who spent part of her vacation in Palm Springs wandering up to random strangers with dogs and asking if they would have their pictures taken with a photo of my book cover. We are lucky to have friends like D Evans and Jackie Freeze, who came by last night with enough food for an NFL team. They knew this week would be hectic and we could use one less thing to worry about.

Luckiest man in town.

As those of you who buy the book get a chance to read it, I’d love to hear what you think. I hope it’ll make you laugh a little, cry a little and think a little, too. It’s available as an ebook and audiobook, but I love thinking about people reading the hardback at a park somewhere, or an airport, or in their favorite chair. It’s a bit of a miracle that, in this age of pixels, so many people still cherish a bound stack of paper with words made of ink inside.

I have no idea if this book will be a hit. The main thing, for me, was working on this idea I loved, finishing it, and giving it a space out there in the world. Whatever else happens is gravy. I like gravy! I hope there’s lots of gravy! But the best reward is hearing from all of you via email and social media, and especially meeting you at an event when you could have easily stayed at home.

Writing a book is like making a record. Now comes the fun part: the concerts. Why does Springsteen keep touring? He’s got all the money he could ever want. But he knows the secret: The best part about creating something is not the work itself. It’s getting to share it. Once you put it out into the world, it’s not just yours anymore. It’s everybody’s.

—TT