It’s been more than a month since my previous post—and that was intended to be the first in a weeklong series, so … oops. In my defense: (1) While I certainly wanted to write more regularly, I never intended for this newsletter to be an obligation to you or to me. I’ve been busy. (2) Specifically, I’ve been busy preparing for a book launch, which is a daunting enough task but one made especially odd by the challenges of a pandemic. Believe me, I have a good perspective on this. My specific book-launch challenges are irritants, scarcely mentionable given all the truly devastating fallout from COVID-19. So I ain’t gonna mention them.
What I will mention are some upcoming events that I’m really looking forward to, and I hope you’ll join me for them:
Going international with Louise Beech
Louise is one of my favorite writers and human beings. Her books—and there are a lot of them, as she’s damned prolific—are just full of heart and humanity. Since she’s in England and I’m in Montana, we’re leaning hard into technology to make this one come off. It’ll be at 11 a.m. Mountain time and 6 p.m. England time, and sign-ups are required (see the link below the poster).
Also on June 8: In conversation with Scott McMillion
McMillion, the owner, editor and publisher of Montana Quarterly, and I will talk about my new novel, And It Will Be a Beautiful Life, and the probability that we’ll rip it up about other things is high. He’s been a great friend to me, and these past eight years (and, I hope, many more to come) of helping him publish his magazine have been a highlight of my career.
Our chat is being hosted by Elk River Books of Livingston, Montana, through Facebook live. Follow the bookstore so you get the link when this baby goes live at 7 p.m. Mountain time on June 8.
Live readings at This House of Books
We’ve all coped with staying at home and socially distancing in our own time and in our own ways. Last summer, I had a bit of a freakout: I was tired of tucking myself away (I’m usually happy to do so), and I badly wanted to be at a literary event again, listening to a poet fiercely read her work, or closing my eyes and slipping into the pages of some novelist’s fanciful world.
I think my friends at my hometown independent bookstore, This House of Books in Billings, have felt the same way. And I’m honored indeed to be taking part in their first live event since 2020. It’s happening at 1:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 19.
These will be limited-seating, masked, socially distanced affairs. Priority is being given to people who pre-buy a copy of the book (if you want it signed, please let them know in the comment field; I’ll be happy to oblige). If you’re in the Billings area or within driving distance and wish to attend, please contact the store.
This is going to be fun.
So … about the book
Here’s the book-flap description:
Max Wendt has a family … but it's sliding sideways, and he has been complicit in its faltering. His wife and his daughter have pulled away from him amid his frequent absences, leaving him to bridge the distance between what he remembers and the way things are now.
Max Wendt has a job … but it carries him away from home most of the time, and its dynamics are quickly changing. There's a surprising new hire on his pipeline crew, strife among coworkers, and a boss whose proclivities put everything in peril.
Max Wendt has a friend … but this odd man Max meets during his travels perplexes him, prods him, pushes him, and annoys him. He sees something in Max that Max can't see in himself, and he's holding tight to his own pain.
Max Wendt has a problem … More than one, in fact, and those problems are flying at him with increasing velocity. Can someone who has spent his life going with the flow arrest his own destructive inertia, rebuild his relationships, and find a better way?
And here are some endorsements from writers I esteem:
“An absorbing blue-collar meditation on marriage and meaning at midlife. A coming-of-age story, but that age just happens to be 55. We’ve all been there, or soon will be.”—Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
“It’s a generous, bighearted look at relationships—romantic and otherwise—laced with sly humor and keen insights, and one hell of a payoff at the end. Lancaster’s best yet.”—Gwen Florio, author of Best Laid Plans and the upcoming The Truth of it All
“Craig Lancaster’s latest novel, And It Will Be a Beautiful Life, is full of just that: life. Its tangles and complications, its ruts and wrecks, its lights and losses—and yes, its beauties.”—Joe Wilkins, author of Fall Back Down When I Die and When We Were Birds
“Among Craig Lancaster’s gifts, I’ve come to appreciate most his ability to take the mundane and elevate it to the level of art; how he can spin quotidian threads into such colorful, surprising patterns; and, in the case of And It Will Be a Beautiful Life, how he can chase a pig through an ordinary life and find, along the way, such extraordinary seams of beauty, friendship, love, regret, tragedy, and triumph. You’ve really got to read this book.”—Allen Morris Jones, author of Sweeney on the Rocks and A Bloom of Bones
“The adventures of Max Wendt, criss-crossing the country and his life, goaded on by a strange new friend, are heartbreaking, funny, well-written, and entirely human.”—Jamie Harrison, author of The Center of Everything and The Widow Nash
“Lancaster’s great achievement is to pull us into Max’s world and make us his ally, even when we want to take him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him. The key is in the title’s verb. Life, indeed, will be beautiful, but Max understands that only when he sees it in the lives of other people around him.”—Larry Baker, author of A Good Man
I’m grateful.
If you’re interested in some background on Max, consider checking out an earlier post here, The Pig Life, in the Dark. I’m not Max, and his life is not mine, but I know the dude.
Until next time, whenever that may be …