Everything is the Same but Exactly Different

You think, after so many best-sellers, I’d give up. And of course by best-sellers, I mean worst-sellers.

I’m at in again. Another book has fallen out of my consciousness. Made its way though my large intestines. Into my small intestines? I’m not much for anatomy, so there’s no way to know.

Everything is the Same but Exactly Different will be out on June 4th, 2024. It’s with the same publisher as my last book, The Person on the Other Side of This Book. I appreciate Quoir Publishing sharing my work. I’m told that, if you purchase the book on the 4th, leave a review on Amazon, and share a link on your socials, the algorithm smiles on me. So go ahead and do that if you want. Or don’t if you don’t want. I’ll love you all the same.

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The most surprising thing about this book? It’s my first stab theology. Jesus Christ.

Well, it’s mostly theology. It’s also a little memoir-y because I can’t seem to write anything without it veering towards memoir. I swear I’m not a narcissist. The book is also a work of improv. And about improv. Because I can’t seem to escape improv. I swear I am an improviser. I’m surprised I wrote this book. The writing goes here, there, and everywhere. I’m happy with the work, though admittedly anxious about putting it out into the world.

I tend to avoid being open about my faith, even as it is crucial to the way I live. Lots of reasons for that, I’m sure. Not the least of which is how much I abhor the polarizing ways religious traditions are at work in our public and digital discourse right now. And the fraught history of how Christianity has been used to do great harm.

This book is probably a long time coming. I’m radically honest about some things that are important to me. I suspect this book will irritate Christians and Improvisers alike. But I’m an improviser and can’t worry about whether the things I make are good or bad. Non-evaluative practice. That’s with me as I make stuff. And this is a theological book that, much to my surprise, I made.

I hope you’ll pick it up. I hope you’ll read it. I hope it’ll give you something good. That’s all I can hope for this book, I guess. With any book. Or any sentence. Even this one.

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I think this is my seventh book, but who is counting?

I’m including my academic books in that number. I have two monographs about anti-racism and a co-edited book about anti-racism. Add the memoirs and the science fiction. That gets you to seven. Talk about an insane amalgam of genres.

I remain unsuccessful finding a publisher or agent for the satirical (and horrifyingly obscene) novel about academia my friend Ben and I wrote. And I’ve got what might be a sequel to my science fiction novel in the works. I just keep throwing words at the page, I guess. Like these ones.

I’m not strategic about any of my writing. Seven books later and you’d think I’d have found a genre or an audience. Nope. I just keep following the spirit which, I suppose, is part of what my latest book is about. Writing, for me, has always been part of moving forward in an enormously complicated universe. I let it happens as it happens. And I’ll keep doing so. I hope there are more books to come, best-seller lists be damned.

So I hope you’ll buy 2,000 copies of Everything is the Same but Exactly Different. I’m but a humble educator struggling to pay my bills. Every cent helps. Have you been to the grocery store lately? Yikes.