Scott Sparling

The Song of the Wheels

Posted on Jul 15th, 2012

A book can take you far. In the past 14 months, Wire to Wire has taken me to Michigan three times, New York twice, and to California, Minnesota, and Washington once each. Michael Slater and I have crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, the Mackinac Bridge, and the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to readings and events.

In Michigan alone I logged more than 3,000 miles. I got my rental car stuck in the sand of Lake Michigan, got lost looking for Canada, re-met friends I hadn’t seen in 20 years, helped a desperate man contact his parole officer, and talked with a prosecutor who claimed he’s put all my characters in jail.

Since W2W was published in May 2011, I’ve done 37 readings or events, easily earning the title of The Hardest Working Man in Train-Hopping, Glue-Sniffing, Quasi-Crime-Novel Indie Lit. What else may hap, they’ll never take that away from me.

Thirty-seven stops in 14 months: Wire to Wire Book Tour

After all that, last week’s reading at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers seems like the perfect ending. I’d been a student at Squaw Valley in 1986 and 1992, workshopping early versions of W2W. I went back last week to read with six other Squaw Valley alumni and was overwhelmed by the amazing line-up of talent and the generosity of everyone there.

I owe a lot of thanks to everyone along the way, and to the wonderful people at Tin House. For now, it’s good to be back in the treehouse. The book I'm working on these days is about a guitar player with a missing finger, a banker with a missing kidney, and a woman with a missing friend. It's called AUX IN. If you see me on the streets, ask me why I'm not home working on it. 

W2W: From the treehouse to Michigan and back in couple of short decades. 

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The song of the wheels is ride: Jimi Hendrix, "Hear My Train A' Comin."