Going to the Opera

I've Been on the Road a Long Time

By 2017, I had been giving talks and presentations on my books for four years. It took a while to make the connections, learn who the programming coordinators and directors were, and to figure out how to price out what I did in order for me to make a living at it. But then things began to happen.

In 2017, I presented 62 times. In 2018, that number was 87. In 2019, I gave 106 talks. Libraries. Rotaries. Retirement Communities. Chambers. Clubs. Private Parties. VA Homes. I didn’t care. Put a mic in front of me, and I’d talk your ear off. Heck, most of the time I didn’t have a mic. I spoke in 10 different states, not to mention Canada and Nepal.

Reading to an empty room. Why? Because I have a mic and that’s enough.

I gave a talk in the ballroom of the Mount Washington Hotel to a massive group of mostly tipsy Municipal Planners. I spoke at a poetry club in Toronto. I spoke on cover band stages to empty clubs, in front of high school assemblies, in outdoor clothing retail stores in Rhode Island and one time, I was the Writer in Residence with the Cog Railway’s Old Peppersass as it traveled around Pennsylvania. (You can read about that, by the way, here: Old Peppersass in PA.)

Here’s the thing. I like people, like I genuinely like humanity, more or less. So many stories that I’ve told over the years have come from people in audiences coming up to me after a show to tell me about the time they helped build the Mount Washington Observatory, or that time they hiked across Europe eating only peanut butter and Snickers, or how they were baptized in Lakes of the Clouds. All true stories told to me.

But then two things happened nearly at once. Little Bean started getting old enough that I began feeling homesick; too many evenings where I was unable to tuck her in at night. I started feeling guilty that she had to go to bed and I wasn’t there.

The second thing, of course, was the pandemic. That sealed the deal for me. All my scheduled shows were canceled, effectively putting me out of work. Little Bean took up Kindergarten from home, she was with me all the time, every day. And I loved it. Our NH Rocks That Rock series began as a pandemic project and continues to this day. We hiked to all the state’s fire towers. We watched live videos about sharks. We learned to draw with Mo Williams. We studied art by cosplaying famous paintings.

Our favorite pandemic project, cosplaying and learning about famous paintings.

By 2022, as the world began to return to normal, I made the decision to be there for her as much as I could, that I would be there to shut the lights off in her room at night. The opportunity to take the helm of my library presented itself and I jumped at the chance. Yes, there are way more night meetings than there should be, but I’m nearly always home to wish her goodnight because I no longer have to drive two hours to get home.

I occasionally miss being on the road, but not that much. Now, she writes with me. We publish together. Slower, to be sure, much to the displeasure of readers like you all, but I’m happier with her close to me. There’s still a lot more to come, as you’ll hear about on Thursday, but it’s better for my family now to take things more slowly.

This is a very long way of saying that there are still exceptions to all of this. One of those exceptions will happen tomorrow, on Wednesday May 24 at the Little Opera House. I was approached by NH Humanities to give a presentation on Mount Washington, and that’s the lofty space of some Granite State luminaries as Rebecca Rule and Fred Marple. I couldn’t say no.

I hope you’ll all consider joining me. We’ll chat about our favorite mountain, writing on the road, rocks, parenting, whatever else we have time for. I’d love to see you. Here’s the link to the registration page, let’s have a great event: Stories of Place - Mount Washington

I’ll be back tomorrow with some thoughts on the road from up north. And then Thursday, if all goes well, I’ll have really big new book project news. Until then, live a life of yes and keep moving!

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Finally, as always, writing requires coffee. This is a scientifically proven fact and I’m not one to dispute science. So, if you enjoy these little scribblings and deem me worthy of a cup of coffee, you can buy me one right here: Buy Dan a Coffee and Keep Him Awake