Kickstarter

Hello Supporters,

I am writing you to give another update on the book. Once again, progress is being made, just a little slower than anticipated. If things move smoothly, I should be getting a physical proof of the book in a week and a half or so. I will have the chance to look at it and make more changes. Then they will send me a final copy and that will be it. The good news is that with all of this downtime, I have decided to add another story to the manuscript, detailing what I consider to be one of the most absurd jobs in the entire book. I hope you like it.

Finally, a month ago I was interviewed by the Chicago Sun Times (the 2nd largest newspaper in Chicago) and an article about this Kickstarter project and the book came out today! It will be in the actual paper tomorrow (saturday). Check it out:

http://www.suntimes.com/technology/guy/17123199-452/west-town-mans-relentless-approach-to-getting-by-garners-4097-on-kickstarter.html

Thanks again. Look for a final update in early January and hopefully I will have information about the imminent release of the book...

12 more days... Once again, thanks to everyone who has donated so far.  I continue to edit and can see the finish line.  Here is another excerpt from the very first story I wrote, almost three years ago.

I walk out into the frigid January air, warm up my car, and hit the road. I arrive just before my shift starts and as I walk up to the building, the guy that works with me on my line finishes his cigarette and grumbles sarcastically like he does every night, “We having fun yet?”

“Always,” I say.

The night crew assembles in the break room. Some people are eating last minute snacks and others are cramming in a few minutes of shut-eye before the shift begins. Most of us are drinking either coffee or soda. At 11:00 sharp, we head to the “lines.”

It is another day—or is it night?—at the mail sorting facility on the outskirts of town. The place runs 24/7, with its bright interior lights and lack of windows sealing out the real world. This will be our world for the next eight hours. I go to my line and as usual, the Vietnamese and Laotian women from second shift are working furiously with an unexplained zeal. They will be here for another thirty minutes. Then we will take over until our replacements arrive at 7:30 a.m.

Since I had woken up at 4:00 pm today, I am full of energy and dart left and right to grab pieces of mail from different slots of the machine, putting them into the corresponding boxes. I was trained in two minutes for this job. There were no explanations given on my first day or at any time afterwards. Walk around, take mail out of the machine, and put it in a box. That is it. Don't ask what the numbers mean, where the mail is going, how much needs to be done, why they need temp employees, or anything else. Just sort.