I forgot to tell you that my book came out last week. On shelves now, The Future Was Color could be yours for $26 – a fair price, I think. (Not to compare myself to a diva, but the Barbra Streisand memoir was $47.) You could also read it for free if you get it from a library. And in a few weeks you’ll be able to listen to it – the audiobook comes out July 2, read by the fabulous Oscar Reyes.
Book Events
First, I want to talk about this beautiful LA book making its way to New York. I’m getting on a plane tomorrow for two readings and book signings. Hope to see you there!
Manhattan: On Tuesday, June 11, I’m in conversation with total genius Joseph Osmundson at Book Culture (112th), starting at 7:00
Brooklyn: On Wednesday, June 12, I’ll be at Lofty Pigeon with the incredible Isle McElroy, starting at 6:30 – please RSVP for this one so they know how many chairs to put out <3
TFWC in the News
Today, there’s a short excerpt of the book up at LitHub, which you can read here. It’s a nice sample platter of the books energies and obsessions:
On the balcony, he smoked and watched the production teams build and rearrange their flimsy worlds. Wispy ropes of clouds lassoed and whipped the sun westward. Whatever ends us, he thought, will come from the sky. California had meant itself to be the end, the paradise, the refuge. But it wasn’t enough. It wouldn’t be safe. We were a planet now, no way off or out.
You could also read this amazing profile of the book (and of me, I guess) that the LA Times was kind enough to publish a week ago. We get into the book’s origin story, a bit of its style, and its love of life.
The same week, I spoke with the incredible Stephen Bell for Foglifter, where we got deeper into the book’s origins and the process of writing it. We also spent some time talking about the novel’s libido – which is admittedly high:
Being horny is a sort of attitude, a way of facing the world—a geilsein, I guess. It’s one of the rawest and, like you said, most banal ways of being interested in what’s around you, of wanting to be part of it or belong to it. It’s a way of wanting to enjoy the world. I didn’t really realize it while I was writing, but it’s very much a novel about wanting to enjoy the world.
Incredibly – shockingly, luckily, miraculously – the Los Angeles Review of Books has chosen The Future Was Color as its summer book club pick for 2024. Sign up now and read along, join the conversation, and listen for an interview (coming soon) on the LARB Radio Hour Podcast.
That’s all for now. If you’ve read the book, I hope you enjoyed it a lot. If you haven’t yet, there’s still time <3
Congrats!
Savoring it as we speak. It one of those books you enjoy lingering over every sentence.