A big thanks again to all of you for making this happen -- the book arrived with several others of its exact kind in boxes on a pallet unloaded from a large yellow/red highway tractor-trailer that, in a testament to the proliferation of stolen cable in the neighborhood, took down one of the nonregulation, too-low cable lines that snake their way through screens and screen doors into lonely upper rooms down our street a ways. A minor hiccup, really, to a truly awesome delivery. 

A large amount of mailing now done, the book will have arrived on the large majority of your doorsteps by now -- if it hasn't, you probably haven't sent your address to me and I will likely bug you directly soon enough. In the meantime, feel free to send any updates direct to me at todd@the2ndhand.com. 

And please share this news with any and everyone who may be interested in the collection. The central order page on THE2NDHAND.com is here: http://the2ndhand.com/THE2NDHANDTXT/books/. Credit card payments are easy there through Paypal, and details about mailorder are likewise available. 

AHO is real. You are responsible. Again, thank you. Stay tuned to http://the2ndhand.com/THE2NDHANDTXT for release event info -- we'll be reading/performing and otherwise partying for it in the coming weeks/months in Nashville and Chicago, in Birmingham and Philadelphia, in NYC and Amherst. Hope to see and/or meet you at one of them. 

A note about those who chose the reward with a bar of The Left Hand's T2H bergamot soap: the bars went out separate from the book, and should be arriving shortly if they haven't already.

We're within days of sending All Hands On to the printer, folks, so if you haven't sent in your address via the request I sent out some time ago -- please email it direct to me at todd@the2ndhand.com. And: another sneak peak at new work in the book in our latest broadsheet -- a mini featuring "In the Avenues of Airplanes and paper, by Joe Meno. It's been 20 broadsheets and six years since Meno, once a THE2NDHAND regular, has appeared in the broadsheet. No surprise for the hiatus, really, given since then the prolific writer has put out two shorts collections and at least as many novels, in addition to becoming a father. Check out the lastest sheet via this link -- front-side image is below, too. 

As for the new Meno joint, it’s called “In the Avenues of Airplanes and Paper,” captures the struggles of a young woman attempting to deal with a compulsive habit she has of putting “air quotes” around near everything she says — to the point, for instance, that she wears mittens on a date.

Within the peculiarity of it all Meno finds — and the protagonist locates as well, inside and outside of her self —  the very essence of what it is to be human.

I wanted to let everyone here in Nashville know THE2NDHAND is launching with music maker Mike Willis a "new sort of Music City listening room" here tomorrow night, coincidentally 10 years to the date after the first reading/release party we held at Quimby's in Chicago (I remember: it was Fool's Day). You tell somebody in Nashville that you write, the assumption is near-automatic that you're talking about songs/music. Well, here's the antidote to that dynamic, perhaps, or more so just a night for some fun with music and readings. More here, but basic details forthwith. Stop in, enjoy a hot brew or a beer from the cafe and listen... But before we get there... 

For those among you who haven't responded to requests for mailing info that should have gone out, if you selected a reward for your pledge here, please do respond. If you can't find the original request in your email, feel free to send mailing details directly to me at todd@the2ndhand.com. OK, here's the event info: 

Friday, April 1, 6:30 p.m. on...

Story/song @ Casablanca Coffee, 602 12th Avenue South, Nashville (615) 942-7666

FEATURING prose work by: Nashville writer/Keyhole magazine editor Gabe Durham and THE2NDHAND editor Todd Dills;  sketch theater by the burgeoning Nashville No Shame Theater crew, featuring among others Lynn Edwards, Dean Shortland, and Marin Miller; and music by Mike Willis, Noah Collins, Clay Evans, and others.

Stop in, enjoy a hot brew or a beer and listen.  

Though it will be a couple months yet before the entire "All Hands On" production is finished and ready to be shipped along with other rewards, I'll be sending along information to you via email about how you can most efficiently send along your mailing addresses. 

Essentially, in the email from Kickstarter will be a link to an online form to fill out. Let me know directly if you're having problems with it. And fyi, there have been problems with a couple folks' pledges. If you've gotten emails from Kickstarter / Amazon Payments about this in the past week that you may have overlooked/forgotten, there's still time to address them, I believe. Let me know if there are problems, again. My direct email's todd@the2ndhand.com. 

All in all, things are coming together well. I'll keep everyone in the loop on how progress is coming on the book via this page. As of now, I'm waiting on a couple things to fill the pages out, but am about two-thirds of way through on text layout. Good progress. . . 

If you're in Chicago, too, hurry over to the Hungry Brain in the next half-hour for our monthly Nerves of Steel event. Here are the deets: http://the2ndhand.com/events/events.html. 

Yrs, -Todd  

Just a quick note -- we're approaching the beginning of the pledging's end. It cuts off tomorrow early afternoon for those of you in Central and Eastern U.S., late morning on the West Coast. Any word you can get out to folks who may have been intending to pledge, do it now. And a big thanks to all here who've pledged to make this project happen. The book is in process and should be out and available, with your various rewards arriving at the same time, within the next few months. I'll be in touch gathering everyone's mailing addresses quite soon and will keep in touch via project updates here. More on that later.

That's all for now. And thanks again...
-Todd