While it took 9 whole days to get my author copies I ordered from Amazon, and it felt like forever, they finally showed up at my house. Somehow they got beat up in the mail, but having seemingly traveled by horseback across the vasty fields of France to get to me, I shouldn't be surprised.

I had to go back and completely rework the Paperback version I released just last month. I was unhappy with the original and felt the layout did not do the material justice. I made a few improvements to the cover for readability and adjusted the spine, but I think this is the best version to be had at this point. I'm still perplexed by the "Fuzzy Cover Feel" these new paperbacks all seem to have, but they do have an electrical charge effect when holding them. They feel quality, whatever that might mean. Even when I order paperbacks from other Publishers, they have that same velvety or felt-like feel. Newer digital printers must've made this happen with uber saturating the card stock, but whatever, I'm okay with it.

When I decided to have Waiting for Andre to come out like this, I knew that it would never be a book that would become a bestseller, or make waves in the writing world. It's a niche story, for a niche audience, which is ever shrinking and more of a novelty now more than anything serious. People may mention it in passing years from now, but that's about it. That said, it's better released like this rather than not released at all. Getting someone to agent and publish Literary Fiction that is Period Speculative-Biography is too much to handle anymore.

Most of the time I worked on the book as a side project while writing my other novels, and while I was underwater with the research behind this book, I loved working on it every moment. The story I imagined ended up in the book and the story in the book is likely one that would've been in Beckett's biography had there been a bit more honesty about his very cluttered life. I say that not because what I wrote actually happened, but because it very likely did happen just as I wrote it. Sounds absurd, but that's probably the point. I'm also not saying that his biographers weren't honest either. I just don't think anyone cared to color in the details of his already well-known reputation. Back then, they gave you a pass on the details of your behaviour.

I had once imagined being interviewed by NPR and Terry Gross about the book, but I think the allure of the story has passed. When I first wrote this in 2005, it was a strong, original idea. As the years clicked away and it sat in my desk drawer, my feelings changed and so did the world. Especially where it counted regarding what was considered marketable or just mildly interesting enough to publish and publicize.

Theatre has changed a lot since Beckett's age when his biggest fear was seeing his owrk being dumbed-down and turned into pap for monied mouthbreathers. Post-Mortem ... queue up Edward Albee. He spent years monitoring Beckett's works and every play that would make the stage. If it wasn't to liking, they would sue the production company or send a 'cease-and-desist'. School kids got the same heavy-handed treatment larger production companies got. No mercy. Shouts of 'Sweep the leg!' ring out through the crowd. I would be lying if my fears regarding Albee also weren't a part of why I didn't move forward with this book until after his death. Everything I've read about Beckett tells me that he would've liked it. Albee ... not so much. Beckett was definitely the kind of person you would find in this story.

Now the theatre is a very different monster. Projects like Hair, Hamilton and even Spongebob have changed Broadway in ways Beckett would've never imagined. Absurdism? Yeah, the world's absurd, but not in the 'classic' sense I'm guessing. The theatre has been overtaken it seems by an era of romantic nostalgism, like with Jersey Boys, Grease, Momma Mia, Wicked and a litany of Baby Boomer Trope Du Jour.

Since 2005 when I wrote most of this, and even 2012, when I finished it the first time, there's been a BBC TV episode which was originally meant to be a film. Also, someone did a two-man theatre production about this idea two years ago. So, in my opinion, the wide appeal interest of it -- has been spent.

Earlier this year I spent a couple of months doing a complete and final rewrite of the material. One of the main things the reader can take away is that Samuel Beckett is the protagonist of this story and it's told in the first person. The book is just as much about him as it is of Andre. Why did I do that? Well, because I believed that Beckett was so far removed from modern culture, that most readers wouldn't grasp the kind of person he was by going in with the usual third person, he-said-she-said. Then, after I made that decision, I then double-downed and wrote the book in the voice and style of Beckett. This wasn't easy and honestly made the book a little heavy in places and maybe a bit unreadable in others, especially for the modern reader. I understand why my old publisher passed on the material, even though it was a difficult pill to swallow.

Has Beckett become out of touch? Is that what this author is suggesting? No. Not at all. I'm saying that books today are written very differently than they used to be. Some say that's a good thing. The syntax, grammar and punctuation have changed dramatically in almost 90 years. Yes, that's how much time has passed. His novel Murphy was originally published in 1938. If I had gone with the original draft version, my audience for this material would've been even smaller than it already is. Waiting for Andre would've been Relegated to academics and theatre lovers. The goal was to tell a convincing story about the positive relationship between these two people, set in the cultural zeitgeist of the time and have a clear point. Andre had as much to share and give to Sam as is true in the opposite. Perhaps more, being who, or how, Beckett was.

The lesson for me to take away, as well the reader, is simple. If you have a good idea, you're probably best advised to strike while the iron is hot. There's a lot of truth in old sayings. This one's no different.

I have 5 signed copies I'm going to give away. If you've read down this far, and would like a signed copy, comment below and I'll arrange it to be sent your way.