It’s officially April and just one week away from my book being published on April 7th! I am feeling a weird mixture of elation and nervous aprehension. It feels a lot like the afternoon before you host a party at your house: you have snacks and drinks in the kitchen, party hats and some dance records all lined up to go . . . and you keep glancing at the clock.

It’s 6 p.m. shouldn’t people be showing up by now? Oh yeah, you told them arrive at 7 p.m. that means people won’t start showing up until 8 pm. Hmm, might as well have another drink while you wait . . . oh, was that the door bell? Quick, act busy doing something besides standing here staring wistfully at the front door!

So yeah, that’s where I am—waiting for the ball to drop. That said you can pre-order DIY Magic already, it’s up on Amazon.com. (And people have been ordering it already, which is great.) Folks ask me: so is it better for you if we get your book off Amazon or in a real bookstore, or what have you. The truth is I have no idea. (Personally I like to go to actual bookstores and save Amazon for ordering stuff that’s hard to track down—but I don’t know how sales at real vs. virtual stores affect authors, I think basically a sale is a sale.)

Oh, and then there is the whole “how hard do I try to sell people this thing I made” question. Like, these days when doing self-promotion with blogs, twitter, etc. it is easy to feel like you are turning into a salesman instead of an artist. And let’s face it that’s exactly what this blog and basically every blog is—it is trying to promote something, whether that is an idea, a piece of art or a book. I want to find the balance between getting the word out there to people and turning into someone who worries about “self-promotion” more than the message, ya know? I mean, it is a pretty classic, basic struggle, the ol’ whats a creative person to do in a capitalist culture—the old conundrum of how do I express something meaningful and soulful, and maybe even make a living doing it . . . without selling my soul? So yeah, these questions have been wrestled many times before, but in doing a bit of publicity-pushing for this book it is the first time they have ever felt real to me.

But, enough with the soul searching, here are some plugs for upcoming events! Haha!

I’ve added a couple dates to upcoming readings, most of them on the West Coast which I’ll be doing by car, but I also plan to hit up a few East Coast cities this June. So far I am doing readings in Portland OR, Seattle, San Francisco, Napa, Corvallis and New York.  If you know of any place that might be interested in setting up a reading in a city I’m not already booked in please drop me a line at r.anthonyalvarado (at) gmail.

I’m also really, really excited to be an upcoming guest on Coast to Coast a.m. the night my book comes out, on April 7th (So April 6th at midnight). I will be talking to George Noory at midnight! This show is kinda a big deal! I used to listen to it a bunch while working graveyard shifts in a mental health facility, in Chinatown Portland, back in the day when Art Bell was the host. What a weird, wonderful, fascinating show! And it is very exciting to be doing such a long form interview (2 hours!). Woweezowee.

Some other cool stuff is in the works too (including a short film). As they say in the radio business, stay tuned.