Preparing for adventure
Hey email reader, thanks for reading – even just this far!
But if you keep reading I'll let you know what a stranger said to me at the park, tell you some impending holiday adventures, and share a link to listen to the TAKE IT EASY audiobook. The first part anyway.
Let's get started
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Some stranger thinks I'm a good dad
Last weekend we had unseasonably warm weather, so we spent an afternoon at the park. I'd spent a lot of time following Arya around while she showed me various rocks and sticks, and as we were packing up to leave she was "helping".
A guy who had been sitting nearby came up and very casually said "It's really nice to see you interact with your daughter". His own daughter was in her late teens, he told me wistfully. We chatted for a few minutes about the virtues of patience, and that was it.
I really appreciated the comment and chat, not because I need the validation, but still it felt good to be 'seen' like that. And also, it's cool that some random person took the trouble to approach a stranger and say something nice.
I guess what I'm saying is, go compliment a stranger this week – if you see that stranger doing something worthy of a compliment. If you don't, well you need to surround yourself with some new strangers).
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Yosemite!
There's a whole lot of holidays and travel coming up in the next couple months. First of all, we're getting an influx of Canadian Millars. My brother and his family are coming over, which is really exciting.
"My brother is coming over" is a thing I expect a lot of people can say fairly regularly, but considering that I live in Amsterdam and he lives in Sidney BC Canada, we don't pop by each other's houses that often.
So it's super cool that that family is making their way here. We're all excited.
And then, shortly after they depart for further European adventure,Chiara, Arya and I will be on a flight of our own, heading for Northern California.
We're undertaking a few weeks of Pacific West Coast adventure that will involve
- Grandparent time in San Francisco
- Camping in Yosemite
- An overnight train ride to Portland
- At least one sushi dinner
- A zoo or two
- Extended family hangouts
- Seeing friends
- Very few work emails
- Some jet lag
It should be amazing (except for the jet lag). In fact the flight in general seems like it could go any one of a number of ways.
Although Chiara and I are cautiously optimistic that a ten-hour flight with Arya should be pretty fun. She doesn't really like even watching age-appropriate cartoons on TV for more than 5 minutes at a time, so having her in a metal skytube with 300 or so strangers for ten hours should be an interesting experiment.
I hope the strangers all take turns telling me I'm a good dad!
However, regardless of how the flight goes, we're really looking forward to being in North America and spending some down time as a family unit and with some extended family too.
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TAKE IT EASY now available on Amazon!
After fighting the Amazon signup system, my book is now available for purchase.
Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Amazon.co.uk
If you've already bought/read it, please visit the page and post a (five-star) review (full of glowing praise). I'm aiming for 25 reviews before the end of the month, and it'd be great if you could help me with that.
If you haven't yet read it, get yourself to the world's largest retailer and order a copy! It couldn't be easier. Plus, it's really good; as I write this reviews are pouring in!
In all seriousness, I've gotten a lot of really positive feedback already, and all those kind words are very much appreciated.
Audio book
If you're interested in hearing a little bit of what TAKE IT EASY sounds like as an author-read audio book,you can check out the first couple chapters on Soundcloud.
Getting the ebook out to IndieGoGo backers, and finding a place for the rest of the audio book are my next tasks. If you've got any ideas about how to organize these things, get in touch.
While I've already learned a lot about writing and publishing a book throughout this lengthy process, there are still tons of things about this 'business of being an independent author' that I find inscrutable.
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Loyalty cards, what are they good for?
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I got stiffed out of some free coffees by my local cafe. I got upset, but then also got some perspective.
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