Hello friends!
It’s a special edition of The Windfall Dispatch, coming to you on a Saturday just so I can share a bargain! Today only, my publisher is dropping the price of the Windfall e-book to $3.99. You can buy it at the discounted price anywhere e-books are sold. Again, today only.
Apologies for sounding like your local NPR pledge drive. But if everyone who subscribes to this newsletter purchased the e-book today, Windfall would shoot to the top of the Amazon Kindle charts. And then more people would know about it—and I would like more people to know about it. I don’t make any money off this sale today, not that I can tell from perusing my book contract. But for about the price of an iced coffee, your $3.99 could help millions of potential readers discover Windfall! How cool would that be?!
Putting a book out into the word and getting any attention around it has been way harder than I ever imagined it would be. Thank you for all of your help!
Click here to support Windfall. And keep reading below for tons of hand-picked recommendations of things I’ve loved recently by other writers, filmmakers and musicians.
Yours,
Erika
THE NEWS
All the links…
Two terrific FOTWD links this week!
The first is a piece by neighbor (and high school classmate!) Hannah Wallace profiling Rukaiyah Adams, who is the driving force behind persuading Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny Knight, to donate $400 million toward rebuilding Portland’s historically black neighborhoods.
You can now stream “The Quiet Epidemic,” a film about Lyme disease by FOTWD Winslow Crane-Murdoch, a Portland filmmaker. Listen to Winslow talk about the film here.
Three books I’ve loved recently:
I listened to all three of these while driving to and from book tour events this winter and early spring. I’ve become a big fan of Libro.fm, which allows you to buy audiobooks from independent bookstores. As always, you can see all books I recommend in the newsletter on this Bookshop.org list. (I take a very tiny affiliate cut, which goes back into the book purchases that allow me to support other authors.)
Maybe We’ll Make It, a memoir by country singer Margo Price. It takes readers through the slow burn of building a life as a country star—what it takes to get there, and the songs and people that helped her do it. This is an excellent audiobook because it includes some of Price’s songs! (My full review on Goodreads.)
The Farewell Tour, a novel by journalist Stephanie Clifford, also about the rise of a female country singer. It’s set in the 1940s through the 1980s, and it pairs nicely with Price’s memoir. Price and Clifford have even done events together! (My full review on Goodreads.)
Confidence, by Rafael Frumkin. Yearning for a good yarn about queer grifters and a pyramid-like scheme involving a device that promises its wearers bliss? I was lucky enough to be on a Publisher's Marketplace panel with Rafael last spring. I couldn't wait for Confidence to come out. I listened to it earlier this month while driving around North Dakota on book tour, and I wanted to keep driving and driving so I could listen to more and more. (My full review on Goodreads.)
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. The film adaptation of Judy Blume’s book is a tender love note to young women.
Fog Chaser. This extraordinary monthly Substack newsletter comes with an original five-minute composition. Stream some of them here.
In praise of the solo adventure. They can lead to all sorts of discoveries, including connections with new trail buddies.
A satirical yoga pants link! The Onion weighs in with a slideshow of men explaining why women shouldn’t wear yoga pants. (For newcomers, links to yoga pants content is a standing feature of TWD.)
Purchased!
Done!