An update on developments...

Dirtbag Book Launch. Photo credit Tim "Ironhusk" Macauley.

When you’re a big time blogger like myself, sometimes you craft a well thought out post and say exactly what you want, and sometimes you just need to download your emotions on the internet. This is the latter. I just need to tell you all about life these days!

March 2019 has been a consequential month in the life of Boldly Went. We went on our most extensive tour yet - with 9 events happening between Mammoth Springs, CA, and Calgary, Canada next week, book sales events at an American Long Distance Hiker Association (ALDHA) gathering, our first public storytelling workshop and the Mountain Venture Summit in Mammoth, and our official book launch in Seattle, which happened this Monday, March 18th at NW Peaks Brewery.

It’s not over yet, because tomorrow Angel is headed up to another ALDHA event in Bellingham while I’m at work, and next week we fly up to the Canadian Rockies for two more Boldly Went events - in Canmore on Wednesday, March 27 at Canmore Brewing (note if you click that link - the event location is incorrect on the Eventbrite site at time of posting! That will be updated asap! Canmore Brewing is the correct location) and in Calgary on Thursday, March 28 at the Village Brewery. That’s a lot, and it’s all on top of usual life stuff, a day or two of “real” work a week, and a spur of the moment move.

The launch itself was such a great experience for me. It was really amazing to have a room full of people who’ve been such a support throughout this process, and we organized a lineup of presenters that were all huge inspirations for the book:

• Angel, who has managed to organize our financial lives strategically for years so we’ve been able to fit in big adventures from the time we were broke college students up through now, when we’re trying to bootstrap a business from the ground up.
  
• Noa Nadeem, who’s traveled to 95 countries and all 50 states across the last decade while holding down a 9-5. 
  
• Tom and Jess Kelley, who’ve managed to support each other and raise a kid while Tom’s developed a successful distillery (Four Leaf Spirits) as a side hustle and Jess has built a coaching business and a life of adventure, including a 1300 mile bike and packraft trek through the Alaskan wilderness in 2018.
  
• Troy Nebeker, who founded The 24 and Monster and Sea after a family brush with cancer, and has sparked a grassroots movement in the paddling community that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to give to families dealing with cancer. The 24 paddling relay is happening in mid-April in cities all over the US and Canada so look it up!
  
• And Heather "Anish" Anderson, who in 2018 became the first woman to complete a “Calendar Year Triple Crown” - hiking all 7000+ miles of the major American long trails in 8 months - the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide Trails. She's a friend and just happened to be touring the PNW to support her new book, Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home  - which is amazing, and you should also buy!

The event was so good, and was made even better by the fact that it was followed by a spike in sales for the book on Amazon - it sold 60+ in the three days following, owing largely to the fact, I’m sure, that Anish, social media influencer that she is, posted about it on Instagram on Tuesday. But also because lots of you have been reading, posting, and reviewing. We’re creeping up towards 300 total sales across platforms, and reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are ticking along, and it’s been a great start for this project. I’m getting the feeling that people are finding it to be a fun, valuable read! Thank you so much for your support!

Screenshot of book sales for the month - guess the day Anish told Instagram about it.

Ideally I would have been riding that wave of momentum and marketing the Amazon sales spike somehow (I guess - I don’t really know how to sell books on Amazon), but after the launch it’s been a week straight out of a bad sitcom. On Tuesday, what we thought would be a routine plumber call spiraled into the discovery of a water heater leak, which then led us to discover tons of hidden water damage in the walls and floor, which then led into an endless stream of contractor and insurance calls. Then, yesterday, I had a fender bender (my first real accident since high school!) to add even more calls to the insurance agency. Today I’m hiding in the woods where it’s safe. Next week they’re going to tear our cute little house apart. Then we have to figure out someone to put it back together.

Whatever though. Life right now feels like we’re hustling, but making progress. It’s been a month of hard work, but it’s been hard work that seems to be paying off in various ways. Tour was our most well-attended ever overall, we had our largest first-time event in Mammoth, our biggest Tacoma event ever, and both of our Seattle events sold out. The book’s been well received, and insurance is covering a fair bit of the house and car carnage (knock on wood…). So jeez, we’re going to keep pushing ahead.

We’ll see folks in Calgary and Canmore next week, and we have a Seattle storytelling workshop on the books for April 18th, and a Seattle Boldly Went on April 25th. And if you’re local to the PNW, stay tuned, because I also have an idea for a Tacoma book launch event that I’m excited about that I’m hoping to get set up in late April or early May. It will be a bit different than the Seattle one - still a lot more fun and interactive than a normal author reading, but a bit more Tacoma.

There are some other irons in the fire that you may hear about later as well, but I just needed to tell someone about all of this. It’s been an exhausting, fun, exciting month. Thank you all for being a part of it, and we’re really excited to see this thing growing and developing! Stay tuned!     

If you’re in Calgary or Canmore, you can buy tickets to the events here. Please come and share the event around with your friends!

Become a Patron!