![[Paige and Haley celebrate as Amazon.com delivers my book early.]](https://i0.wp.com/richardgilbert.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Paige-and-Haley-crazy-joyX.jpg)
[Paige and Haley celebrate as Amazon.com delivers my book early.]
Seven long years. Six complete versions. Yo: Shepherd: A Memoir.
Childhood dreams cast long shadows into a life. As if the strong feelings they stir prove their validity, dreams propel the dreamer through an indifferent world. Which explains how I, a guy who grew up in a Florida beach town, find myself crouched beside a suffering sheep in an Appalachian pasture.
—Shepherd’s opening lines.
Otterbein University, in Westerville, Ohio, is chock-full of the nicest kids I’ve ever known. And Paige Schortgen and Haley Young, former writing students of mine, are two of the nicest. Which makes them, in fact, two of the nicest girls in the entire world. (Good writers, too.) Their geeked-out celebration selfie above is the best reaction my book has provoked so far. (Other readers, your mileage may vary.) My little world is so much larger and warmer with such folks in it. Girls, you are funny, kind, and definitely keepers.
Though Amazon began selling the book on or about April 15, the official publication date of Shepherd: A Memoir is today, May 1, 2014.
I’m not sure I can send the treasured photo of my student friends to booksellers as proof they should stock my book. So Shepherd’s review in Kirkus carries a tad more weight in the book world.
Kirkus calls Shepherd: A Memoir a ‘sagacious elegy.’
Here’s a chunk of what Kirkus said:
[2005: Starting book.]
Gilbert ruminates warmly on his artisanal flock, seeing the hidden beauty of his sheep. He also recalls his collection of farm implements: an old post pounder, a used cultivator, a small tractor—accompaniments to the never-ending work that was especially backbreaking for someone with a day job in town. Gilbert is especially astute in his portrayals of his Appalachian neighbors, who were mostly good folk. His farm logs are studies in animal husbandry, proper fencing, house building, birth and decay. His prose is pungent: In a sheep barn, he notes, the air was humid with an amalgam of “mellow musk, tangy manure, bitter urine, sweet hay.” He writes of digging out aged offal, of tenant rats, and of the hundreds of natural shocks that man and beast may encounter. . . . In a sometimes-earthy, sometimes-prolix and ultimately sagacious elegy, Gilbert speaks of descent into pain and fear as well as of the beauty of bucolic nature and the diverse traits of agrarian man.
A thoughtful memoir of rams and ewes, farmers and family, life and death.
What a wise and gracious review. Dad used to say of such outcomes, “That’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.”
Indeed. And as such matters go, it’s almost a rave. So “sometimes-prolix” didn’t make me wince. A writer friend remarked, “Most people won’t know what ‘prolix’ means and will think it’s a compliment.” Prolix: “Extended to great, unnecessary, or tedious length.” That’s me all over. As any reader of this blog can confirm. One of my writing defaults seems to be that storytelling is like selling ears of sweet corn by the dozen at a farm stand: you throw in extra!
I’m grateful to and rather in awe of the anonymous reviewer. S/he managed generously to overlook topics s/he might have harped on—what I might be fairly said to harp on—and instead pulled way back to see the story entire and to summarize it without undue distortion. That’s hard. Especially in a review that’s anything but prolix.
On the heels of this favorable notice, comes an excerpt in Utne Review. They ran my book’s Prologue in its entirety. As an excerpt, it would seem to leave readers hanging—the Prologue is designed to send readers deeper into the book—but maybe they’ll click on over to Amazon and order it, just to relieve their unbearable narrative tension. Or to satisfy their morbid curiosity.
[2006: With Freckles’s lambs.]
Shepherd: A Memoir called ’emotionally harrowing.’
Over at Sunny Room Studio, Daisy Hickman has run a wide-ranging interview with me about Shepherd, farming, writing, teaching, and spirituality. She titled it “Emotionally Harrowing,” which I love because of the pun. To harrow, in farming, is to break up rough clods left on the surface from deep plowing, making the land ready to grow a new crop. But for better and worse, farming is now exotic, despite great interest in it, and I fear Daisy’s wit scares the heck out of people—my book’s not that dark.
With Shepherd’s dribs and drabs of attention, maybe independent bookstores and even Barnes & Noble will stock it. If so, look for it in the gardening or nature section. Although it’s a literary memoir and not how-to (more like how-don’t), it is categorized on the back cover Nature and Animals / Horticulture / Memoir. Those are the labels that influence booksellers regarding where to shelve it. I asked my publisher to use such codes because I’ve noticed that memoirs come and go rather quickly in stores, and I believe it may sell if back-to-the-land types come across it.
[1978: Rural leanings, at 22.]
Later this month my book and I participate in one of Ohio’s greatest cultural assets, the Ohioana Book Festival. I’ve always envied the way the South gets behind southern authors’ books—while in Ohio, Cleveland is apt to ignore a book by a Cincinnati author—but the Ohioana book fest and The Ohoiana Quarterly, which solely reviews books by Buckeye-inflected authors, are glaring exceptions.
Meantime, I’ve mailed some early author copies to family and friends. And been made aware that about half the time, busy filling out envelopes or jotting the recipient a note, I forgot to inscribe the enclosed book! What’s happening to me?
Oh, I’m pleased, sure—yet somehow terrified by attention. No biggie, I tell myself. Just a blip in so many phases in this life. Mere moments, really. Chances to celebrate. Sometimes a tad much, though, for an introvert. Despite how willfully, carefully, and officially he’s dramatized himself.
Well, heck. What did I expect? Author Michael Perry likens writing to cleaning out calf pens on his father’s dairy farm: if you keep shoveling, eventually you’ll have a pile big enough that folks notice.
But it’s hard to believe. All those solitary years at a desk led to this? Upon consideration: Thank goodness they led to something.
Rock me mama like the wind and the rain
Rock me mama like a south-bound train
Hey mama, rock me . . .
Rock me mama like a wagon wheel
Rock me mama any way you feel
Hey mama, rock me.
—“Wagon Wheel,” written by Bob Dylan & Ketch Secor
[Listen: Old Crow Medicine Show plays its epic “Wagon Wheel”—there’s hardly anything more heartbreakingly lovely than these boys’ banjo-inflected harmonies and their old-timey fiddle. What a joyous, resonant tune. It makes me proud to be an American, a Dylan fanatic, and a once and future southern boy.]
Richard, I share Paige and Haley’s enthusiasm! I’m so thrilled for you – and for me, as your beautiful book is helping me figure out how to structure my own memoir. I’ve already marked much of your first hundred pages with underlining and post-it notes. I look forward to finishing it over the weekend and toasting you when I see you next. Congratulations!
Thanks so much, Jenny! Good to hear from you. Looking forward to reading yours one of these days soon.
Richard, you got all the mamas rockin’ you! And all the papas too.
Here’s another cheer from the southland.
What a wonderful end to one journey and the beginning of another.
You are a true artist. And a true farmer. Enjoy every minute.
Tip your hat to the Shenandoah for me, Shirley!
By the way, Ketch Secor, co-author with Dylan of the song featured above, “Wagon Wheel,” and lead performer in Old Crow Medicine Show, is from Harrisonburg.
Congratulations, Richard. Long time coming but here to stay. TL
Thanks, Tom. Prophetic words! I hope.
Congratulations, Richard, on your special day! (You have just 4 days to get together a big special “shepherd” Cinqo de Mayo celebration to mark the first May in which your book has been out). I’ll be rushing to Amazon to get a copy very soon! (And don’t worry about being “prolix”; you’re right about those extra ears of corn.)
Ah, shucks, Victoria! Thanks indeed on a special day—like the year’s high points rolled into one. And have no fear about Cinqo de Mayo: that’s my daughter’s and our dog’s birthdays! The dog’s is literally in April, but it is my custom to move household animals birthdays to the closest kid’s. So we’re all gonna par-tay!
Rock on Richard,
Rock on Richard,
You’ve rocked Me.
Stayed up all night,
Love how well you write.
Engrossed in your sheep
I didn’t get no sleep.
Rock on Richard
Rock on Richard,
You’ve rocked Me.
Thanks Richard, for the signed copy, for mentioning me, for the friendship and conversations we’ve had, and for the good sheep genetics. Tell Kathy I said hello.
John
John! I think you bought on of those lambs in my lap in the photo above. So nice a sheep world friend made his way here. Happy lambing. I wish for you gentle rains spaced 7 days apart all summer.
Congratulations, Richard! Just closed the book last night. It’s a wonderful read, rich in so many ways. I know it will find a goodly and appreciative audience. And welcome to the extroverted end of being a writer. Enjoy it. There are more secret farmers out there than you know and you will hear their stories as Shepherd ventures out in the world.
Great to hear from you, Jan. Glad you made it to the end and liked the read. I’m looking forward to seeing you at Ohioana later this month . . .
Yay! for pub day. I just finished your gorgeous memoir. As someone who lives on a horse farm, I enjoyed every word, and I felt ever ache and pain. So did my husband who is having cortizone injected into his neck and spine right now. I’m in the hospital’s waiting room. This is his third round of shots. They are the reason he’s still able to work on the farm. Or function for that matter. I’ve been meaning to write a review on Amazon, but it’s foaling season! Gotta run.
Ouch, Darrelyn. Both of you, hang in there! I’m a Poster Boy for back surgery after two of ’em. Well, you read the book so you know. For recovery, I recommend massage and acupuncture.
Hear! Hear! Huge congratulations, Richard. Allll your hard work is finally bearing fruit… Your book is waiting for me in Oregon (I’ll be there next week) and I can hardly wait to read it. Prolix, huh. Hahaha. Isn’t that any writer’s middle name? And I hear you about being an introvert and not relishing attention, but sometimes the most shy among us have the most insightful things to say.
Talk about prolix, just look at all those L’s that slipped in there. ;-)
Thanks, Sarah—I think it’s the bearing fruit that’s always a surprise to me. Maybe the only way I really do believe in process: losing track, caught up in whatever struggle, and eventually, boom, a bunch of lambs, a book.,
Oh boy, I am so excited! Can’t wait to read your book :) Congratulations, Richard!
Thanks, Deb! I hope you like it.