Holdfast

The book has gone to the printer and the 2026 Ruins Open Call has a name.

Thank you to my brilliant readers.

Today’s essay is full of thank yous.

Ruins State of Mind has officially gone to the printer.

After months of writing, editing, drawing, redesigning, second-guessing, and one hundred tiny decisions that no reader will ever see, it is finally out of my hands. Its pages, cover art, chapters, original drawings and all the many months of writing are now on their way to becoming a book for your bookshelf.

Writing a book is so different than what I do here in these weekly essays to you. I let myself think out loud in short bursts of expression and often deep thinking, usually keeping it to around 1000 words. The work of a very early morning.

When I decided to gather my essays last winter and stitch them together, I figured I almost had a book. Oh, how wrong I was. Like Maribel and her Wild Turkey, the puzzle pieces that begin a composition took so much more sewing than I could have realized.

But now that I am on the other side of this first book, I understand what it takes to pull a structure together with a beginning, middle, and end. I still cry, every time, when I read the last chapter. And sometimes I cry reading any chapter. Everything in between them feels like mortar and interstices.

Like a Ruins artist, all of you who bought books last week did exactly what I had hoped. You funded the first edition print run of the book. You helped me hire the editor, the designer, the illustrator, and some special hidden suprises inside the finished book. Your early investment is bringing the book into existence.

• Half of the signed print run sold in the launch week.

• There are THREE SEATS left for the September 13th BBBB event. This special evening is where I will read excerpts aloud for the first time, in The Ruins, with Blue Ice to take home. Only twenty people will be there for the first public reading.

• The numbered copies from The Printer’s Circle are selling fast. Numbers 60 through 100 are still available. You understand that this is more than buying one book. You have invested in the possibility of The Ruins origin story.

Enjoy another little peek inside. This one shows you the incredible talent that is Lenore Soles Harris. Most fellow artists understand the challenges of drawing the human hand so will appreciate that Lenore has included, not one, but three hands doing mosaic-like things for the book.

---

And now, a very special first reveal for the just-around-the-corner 2026 Ruins Open Call.

Open calls are just that...open to all who want to participate. They sell out within days, sometimes hours, so being ready when the call opens is crucial to not missing out.

The FOMO for these rare events is real.

If you are hungry for more writing, you can check out my latest essay over at The Appalachian Alchemist. Nachklang: A Clock and the Sound After the Sound.

Thank you for being here, as I keep digging for optimism.

Some days with a hammer, some days with a shovel. And some days with a pen.