This week, one year ago, I sent my heart out into the ether. I ripped it from my chest and tossed it to the digital sea as if I couldn’t bear to have it be mine alone any longer. And I couldn’t. To stay cooped up in my own head with all my wants and fears and loose ambitions was no longer an option. What are you holding yourself back for? I inquired on the page. I looked up and saw the strands of time waiting for me with open arms. I took a step forward.
The distance between now and then is difficult to reconcile. The first chapter of my very first novel, Mars in Retrograde, went out to 166 people. Already at that point MiR was over a year old. I was a different writer publishing it than I was writing it. And again I am a different writer now than I was first sharing this book as a pdf download. I have almost five times the audience now than I did then. This book has brought me a not insignificant portion of that audience. This thing that I just needed to get out of my head and into the world has managed to connect me with the world more than I thought possible. What a fucking feeling, man.
I had such simple aspirations for this book. If it was out, that was enough for me. If I no longer held it so hard to my chest that it left a permanent bruise then I’d be satisfied. But after the support it received here on the stack, I understood it was bigger than I’d planned. It deserved more than a reluctant but necessary shove into this digital literary world. I wanted this thing in physical form, I wanted to hold it in my hands and have others dog ear its pages and let it bounce around in a tote bag for a while getting bent and bruised. I had no idea what I was doing. I pooled knowledge from around this great wellspring of writerly resources but I was adamant that I must execute it all myself. From the writing to the editing to formatting to selling—and, yes, to designing the book’s cover. It’s funny; I wrote the four central characters of this novel to portray the strange ways in which people who have had their agency taken from them will try to convince themselves they never wanted it in the first place. I refused to give up even an ounce of my own agency for the creation of this novel. I just had to have it all.
It’s strange to look back at the time of producing this paperback, just a handful of months ago, and try to remember why I was in such a rush. It was like if I didn’t push it out immediately then I never would have made it happen. Which no longer feels true but I know how urgent it must have been to James of the past, how sharing something important can be a matter of life or death.
Time is one of the most prevalent themes of this story. How it stretches and bends and makes nonsensical shapes. I can’t get into my head at the time of putting together this book cover and understand why I made the decisions that I made. One thing I knew almost instantly: I didn’t care much for the cover I’d made. I wanted something simple and ended up with something lackluster and homemade in a way that I’m still a little embarrassed by. It’s not terrible, don’t get me wrong, and I will always be proud of myself for making it work. But I don’t think I ever trusted myself to make something Great for this cover and so I settled for something unsatisfactory. A lot has changed since then. I’ve invested a lot more time in my artistic practice, pushed the boundaries of what collaging means to me. Designing the cover for
’s To the moon, darkly, showed me that I was much more capable than I gave myself credit for.Since then, I’ve been investing much more time in exploring book cover design and what I can bring to it with my frustratingly analog style. It’s a different language to me, something I am still learning; but, lord, I have wanted to redesign the Mars cover for months now, basically since I first put it up and shared a link. Still, I was hesitant to actually do it. To make a new cover was to admit defeat, to admit that I’d done something I was not proud of and was attempting to atone for it. It was also wrong—this is not how books are published, you can’t just change the cover because you are a regretful creature. A second edition is not published mere months after the first. But if I’ve learned anything from my time sharing writing on Substack it is that there are no rules here, it’s what makes this place so enticing and so freeing for us writers and all our ideas. You can do whatever you want. You can self-publish your book all alone. You can unpublish it. You can have one pseudonym yesterday and a different one today. You can change the cover of your book. And so I did. Back to the drawing board, with some newfound skills and an intention not to rush. I took my time. I would not produce something unsatisfactory again. I move with pride.
And so I am proud to present: Mars in Retrograde, 2nd edition with a totally revamped cover, a new foreword by me and, most tantalizingly, a bonus epilogue chapter never before shared.
Making this cover was challenging in a thousand tiny ways. I wanted to pay homage to the original cover I made for Substack with my hand-cut Mars but I wanted to crack it open as well. The first draft of this book was titled All of the stuff that’s going on right now. I was feeling overwhelmed by the onslaught of Everything that seemed to be coming from all angles at all times. Though this ended up not being a fitting title for this book, it is still at the core of the story that Marshall is a sensitive, sensory being who sees and internalizes all he comes across. I wanted to capture that feeling here, the boy and all the loud nonsense he holds inside. The whole world lives in the set of his shoulders. When he opens his arms, it all spills out. Everything here was sourced, cut and collaged by me. The cover was designed and labored over by me with some invaluable feedback from
.I’m also thrilled to announce that this edition will be distributed through
’s Nascent Night Press. Dylan has been doing really incredible work here providing publishing services for writers round the stack. He’s a professional through and through and I’m deeply grateful for the knowledge and personal touch he brought to this. My main goal in re-publishing this book was to jack the quality up to 10—not good, but Great—and Dylan is making sure this final product is quality. In addition to the paperback, Dylan helped put together this cool limited bundle offer with two bookmarks and this sick enamel pin, all designed by me. Mars in Retrograde, 2nd edition is available to pre-order through Nascent Night now. Shipping in the next week.
For those that are newer around here, this might be the very first you’re hearing about this book o’ mine. You can read more about its origins and a meatier synopsis here. The new foreword I wrote for the 2nd edition breaks down the birth of this novel a little bit further, and the new epilogue is intended only to put a bow on an important arc. To those who have already read this novel, either through this publication or that first edition, thank you, endlessly. The acknowledgments section in this new addition also got a refresher to reflect the sheer number of people who have supported me and this book since its first release into the ether. I am endlessly appreciative of the trust you all put in me and I hope it shows.
Happy birthday, MiR. Here’s to many more.
Finally, for any of you that are New Yorkers, I’ll be doing a live reading of some passages from the novel and talking shop with
this Sunday in Queens. You can buy tickets here. I’ve got some limited edition merch to peddle and I’d love to see some of y’all show up with questions, etc.All the love in the whole terrible world.
jw
This is so cool, James. Love the new cover, absolutely gorgeous.
CONGRATULATIONS! So excited for this.