The Riff

Hey, CNFer,

The Front Runner is out there, plodding along the streets and trails.

It’s been nice … so far ... I’m proud I haven’t checked Amazon or Goodreads for reviews. If I have the strength I will never look. (You should still totally rate and review it, though.)

The Wall Street Journal was our biggest, and really only, review of note. It was a good one. Of course I remember the negative parts. Check it out. If you dare. (And if it appears in print, or appeared in print, and anyone subscribes to the WSJ, can someone send me a physical clip? Email me if you can. It might be online only. I don’t know.).

I was met with a nightmare the day after publication ahead of my “launch” event with Run Hub and ColdFire Brewing. Read and/or listen to the parting shot about it. I about threw up. For realz.

Since then, things have settled. I’ve gotten nice notes from listeners and readers and some randos. One guy emailed me, who hadn’t read the book yet, but only read the review from the WSJ, and was already wondering why there wasn’t mention of this, that, and the other. I wanted to say … read the book, maybe? It’s like when people judge a story by the headline and don’t read the story.

I haven’t been flooded with media, or media appearances [for an aggregation of all Front-Runner-related media, go to this blog post]. I thought the local media would pick me up and feature me, but none of the publications in Eugene have, which seems oddly personal.

As luck would have it, a producer (the super cool Gemma) from OPB googled Steve Prefontaine’s death and stumbled on me and, on short notice, invited me to be on the radio, Think Out Loud with Dave Miller. I happened to be in the Portland area for a Powell’s event in Beaverton. What a world!

I also did a TV spot to open up Afternoon Live with Hannah Olsen (missed selfie op) on KATU TV in Portland. Portland wanted something to do with me!

The Powell’s event went well. Maybe 20 people showed up? Which I think is pretty low, all things considered. Maybe that’s normal now, especially for a normie like me. Now, I’m not complaining. I’ve been to book events with three people before and it’s … awkward, but also charming. I just thought with the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton coupled with the book’s subject, we’d get a big pull from that community. I thought the few friends I have in Portland would show up at the event, and they didn’t … or couldn’t. Getting people out of the house is a big ask.

I’m naturally exhausted from the past couple of days. My battery was low by the end. I’m happy there will be a bit of a lull before I do anything else.

It all goes by so fast. I’ve spent three years on The Front Runner, from book proposal to now. And, by and large, it’s over. You get your week or so in the sun, you hope it finds the right people, you hope you get a chance to do it again. And really, that’s the reward: to be able to keep playing the game.

I’m hard at work drumming up sourcing for the next biography, which has some legs, some buzz, some speed down the runway, and I don’t have to draw up another major book proposal. The gift of The Front Runner is that it’s proof of delivery, that I stuck the landing, that I’m a proven biographer. So maybe by the end of 2025, I’ll have good news to share.

As you know, this newsletter starts here and goes up to 11!

The Books

1. Queen of All Mayhem: The Blood-Soaked Life and Mysterious Death of Belle Starr, the Most Dangerous Woman in the West by Dane Huckelbridge, a CNF Pod alum.

2. Flagrant Fouls by Richard O’Connor and Glenn Stout, a fun novel about a former NBA player turned private detective.

3. The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing’s Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living by the Nearings.

4. Skip to the Fun Parts: Cartoons and Complaints about the Creative Process by Dana Jeri Maier. What a fun, enlightening riff on creativity. Pod in the can.

The Other Stuff

5. Welcome to Pitch Club. This is the thing I wish I had in 2011.

6. In case you wanted to hear my Power of Narrative talk on unauthorized biography, the intrepid people from the Boston University Communications Department put together most of the entire speaker roster. Here’s mine, friend.

7. A Sunday blog about pub week.

8. I got this Cotopaxi travel bag for Christmas in 2024 and it’s amazing.

9. Always cool to hear how John McPhee impacts people. Here’s another, more recent one.

10. People really seem to dig the “Stop Pre” (IYKYK) stamp I use for signing books. You can customize your own stamps with Simply Stamps.

11. I love Derek Sarno’s YouTube channel. He’s a vegan chef, but aside from the meals he makes, and the way he talks about food and life, I love how meticulous he is about keeping a clean station, of cleaning as he goes, his organization of mis en place. I find it inspiring and kinda soothing.

That should just about wrap it up. Keep it tight, as they say. If you want other ways to support me or the podcast you can consider leaving ratings and reviews for The Front Runner and/or the podcast, or you can browse the Patreon page to throw in a few bucks. Mo’ money means mo’ face time with me to talk some things through. That’s at patreon.com/cnfpod.

As always, keep writing, keep reporting, keep researching, and stay wild, friend,

b.r.o.