An Update -- 2/6/2025 10:13 AM CST

Adjusting to the Flow

Hey all,

I’m sure you are wondering where I have been… or maybe you haven’t. We seem to be swept up in our lives amidst the noise of the outside world. It can be easy to lose track of many things - friends, projects, bills - so I would forgive you for losing sight of little ol’ me.

But that brings us back to my absence.

For the last seven years, I have been taking medication for anxiety. It has had effects on my life that I only now have begun to unpack as the effects of this medication are peeling away from me. One such effect, I believe, is a low-grade numbness to my emotional spectrum. Like a glossy film, my true feelings have been hiding under, just slightly smothered, by a steady stream of pharmaceuticals.

What is being uncovered, in truth, is anger. I'm not angry at particular people but at what I’ve seen spreading like a toxin throughout our relationships. I’ve also been watching in horror as our society has slowly broken down and given up all semblance of self-determination to a group of people who—in fact—hate everyone, including the people who support them.

I will be unpacking more of that in the coming months, but - for now - let it be known how I feel on the matter. Know that I see posts that you make, like, and share. And forgive what you may think is an overreaction: it grieves me.

That brings me to an announcement I must make: I will no longer sell my books on Amazon and will cease doing business on that platform as time permits.

“Oh, your two book sales this year are really going to hurt them.”

It’s not about hurting Amazon, or any other of these major corporate platforms. It’s about how much I want to be a part of a system of ongoing oppression and cynical mass consumption. We may be the consumers, but we are the ones truly being consumed. Hollowed out—husks to the wind.

And as I watch as our nation’s institutions - our very souls - be hollowed out, I cannot continue. I feel like I’ve been moving through sludge, against the flow of a river I don’t remember falling into. I look at my previous novels, and I feel a sense of hypocrisy in waiting so long to voice these concerns.

“Wait, where are your books going?”

My books will be here. I will make them available in PDF format, and as soon as I can find a way to make them available in print, they will also be available in that format.

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I’m sorry that my first post back was so heavy, but I felt I needed to unburden myself to some extent. I appreciate everyone who reads what I write; I’m truly blessed that anyone would listen to the mad ravings of such a lunatic. 🤣

More to come. Promise.

Best,
Rob