I’m pleased to announce that as of today, I have finally published Itchy’s Diner!

It’s 2023.

I wrote the first 50,000 words in 2007!

I’d love to say I’ve spent the past 16 years refining the book and making it as near to perfect as I could…but I must confess, I spent nearly the entire time not working on my book. In fact, I didn’t even write the final words of my first draft until 2019!

You might wonder, did I not like the book? As it happens, I love Itchy’s Diner! Even as I was writing it, I liked it better than my first book, The Dream Weaver, and I was very pleased with The Dream Weaver.

I’m not a psychologist, but I can’t help but think that’s actually a big part of why I dragged my feet for so long. While it remained a work in progress, it was mine and mine alone. It was my cherished little world where Itchy interacted with the many different characters that walked through the doors of his diner, my own private little retreat I could always visit where everything felt old and familiar.

A homecoming of sorts.

And in those times that I felt aimless or hopeless, questioning if I was doing anything with my life, I always had Itchy’s Diner to continue working on. Whenever I feared I wasn’t accomplishing anything, I could put in an hour or two of writing and editing Itchy’s Diner, and my thirst for achievement would be sated once again. Indeed, it was in the moments that I most feared I was wasting my life that I was most likely to work on my book with renewed vigor — but a vigor that all too often burned out after a few days or a week.

Since it took me 16 years to complete the book working in that manner, I guess I’m happy to tell you that yes, such moments of existential dread have been rather infrequent in my life. But through good times and bad, one thing remained constant: I have long held to the conviction that if I were to die before officially releasing Itchy’s Diner, it would be my saddest failure.

So today, Itchy’s Diner is no longer mine alone. It is ours, and I’m happy to share it with you. It has helped me find meaning, purpose, and joy in my relatively small and insignificant life for 16 years. I sincerely hope it will do the same for you.

As for me, I have a giant stack of ideas for new creative projects that’s been building up for 16 years. I often said to myself “that’s a cool project, but I really should finish Itchy’s Diner first.” So I guess you could say I have a lot of promises I’ve made to myself that have just come due.

I wish you all the best, until we meet again.