Headed to NYC

The book is still in editing -- but almost out. I've met with the printer, have an indexer set up, and have a cover designed. It is time to begin publicity so Linda and I leave Monday for a week in NYC to meet with media. Here's another excerpt:

It was 3 a.m. I was wide awake and, oddly, serene for the first time in years. Then, on the edge of losing everything, and in this bizarre defiant/relaxed state of mind, questions arose. Without coaxing and for no apparent reason, two simple, pragmatic questions came charging out of the blackness, questions that had nothing to do with the specifics of the immediate crisis. These were questions I had never asked before:

“What one thing have I been doing wrong all these years?”

And this: “Since the end is coming, what have I got to lose if I completely toss what I believe to be true and look at things from another angle?”

The “what have I got to lose” position was a catalyst. The certain end of my business not only opened my perception gates but gave me the freedom to consider anything — any new idea was an option because there was no further possible downside. I had a few days to stretch into unknown territory; to experiment, because … what was the difference?

Then, answers came.

Physically and mentally drained dry and knowing that I had everything to gain and nothing more to lose, I underwent an enlightenment of sorts. It sounds corny, but a veil lifted from in front of my eyes. As I lay in bed a physical and mental train wreck, I suddenly saw the business and my life from a bird’s-eye perspective. Extricated from the details, stepping out and up, I looked down to see that this world is mechanical; an assemblage of components that are separate yet linked together — a vast, intermingled array of logical systems and sub-systems. My previous vision that the world was a chaotic jumble of events, people, and things was simply … wrong.