USA Book and Speaking: A Personal Appeal for Your Support
By Ethan Casey
US
Dear friends and supporters of my work,
As many of you know, I will be spending this entire autumn driving around the United States to research my next book of narrative nonfiction, Home Free: An American Road Trip. I leave Seattle for points east on September 4, and I expect to return home in mid-December by way of California. In between, I will be traveling entirely by road. The purpose of the book I’m planning is to do for this troubled country what I’ve previously tried to do for Pakistan and Haiti: humanizing the society in its full variety and confusion, depicting its people’s experiences and histories specifically and compassionately, amplifying their voices.
Many of you have purchased or sponsored my previous book, or have supported me in other ways. This message is to ask you to consider supporting me again now, in specific ways:
• Please pre-purchase Home Free. My goal is to pre-sell 1000 copies before the book is published a year from now, in fall 2013. I’d like one or more of those to be yours. Each copy is $19.95 plus $3.95 shipping, and you can use the button on this page.
• Sponsor one or more copies for me to give away to student, libraries, and others who might not be able to afford to purchase Home Free or my other books for themselves.
• Purchase or sponsor copies of my other books, Alive and Well in Pakistan, Overtaken By Events: A Pakistan Road Trip, and Bearing the Bruise: A Life Graced by Haiti.
• Invite me to speak about the things I’ll be learning about contemporary America, or about Pakistan or Haiti, to any group or institution you belong to.
Universities and schools often offer speaking fees, and these help sustain my work. I can sometimes speak to small groups for a small fee or no fee, so don’t be shy about inviting me. If you’re in a city I need or want to visit for other reasons, I’ll work with you to make it possible.
I have a pretty full schedule of interviews, meetings, and speaking engagements booked throughout my 3 1/2-month fall road trip, but I’m looking for more in and near certain cities, especially Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
I’m also seeking invitations for early 2013, anywhere in the US or Canada. If you’d like me to visit your city or town, please reply directly to this email or call my assistant, Brian Seredynski, at 847-636-9894.
You can also help by forwarding this message to your own friends and contacts, by joining my Facebook page, following me on Twitter, or joining my newsletter email list.
I’ll be posting interviews, reflections, and photographs regularly during my trip on www.ethancasey.com. You can follow my trip’s progress by visiting that website every week.
Thank you for your support past, present, and future. Please stay in touch. I’ll do my best to do the same, time allowing, both publicly and in personal correspondence. My books and articles are a veteran reporter’s personal memos, and I hope and believe that they help me and others to understand the times we’re all living through, so we might work together effectively and respectfully to make a better country and world for all of us.
With very best regards,
Ethan
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