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Self-Published Kindling: Memoirs of a Homeless Bookstore Owner
A young family opens a unique bookstore to help independently-published authors tell their story. But as the traditional publishing industry begins to fall, e-books dominate the book market, and the economy slows, the family winds up homeless-- a big secret to keep, as business owners. While some authors struggle with addiction and others struggle to tell their story, a young family struggles simply to survive.
180 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2013
58 people are currently reading
1093 people want to read
About the author
Mik Everett
3 books85 followersMik Everett is an American Regionalist novelist born in 1991 in Wichita, Kansas. She studied philosophy and English at Wichita State University, where she also worked as a logic clinician before moving to Boulder, Colorado to open a bookstore. She is the author of Turtle: The American Contrition of Franz Ferdinand, Self-Published Kindling: Memoirs of a Homeless Bookstore Owner, (If a Writer Falls in Love With You) You Can Never Die, and A Two-Member Universe (upcoming).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
July 27, 2013
This was the best book I've read in 2013. Seriously. This isn't hyperbole. I've read a few excellent ones, like Ann Leary's A Good House and Christine Nolfi's Treasure Me. Kindling was special. Unique.
I am a picky, grouchy author of literary fiction myself. I read tons of other books, and most of them disappoint me so bad, I don't even bother reviewing them. This second novel by Mik Everett, however, did not disappoint me. In fact, it enthralled me from the very first to the very last lyrical sentence.
The main characters in Everett's book felt like pairs of old Levis, patched and worn, frayed and perfectly imperfect, much like the jeans worn by a couple of the homeless "travelers" in Kindling. Everett takes the reader directly into the characters' world, without warning, initiation, or explanation. You start reading and it feels not so much like jumping into a freezing pool, but more like wandering into a fascinating ghost town that doesn't scare you in the least. As you wade into this homeless family’s world, you find yourself inside a broken-down RV that’s illegally parked on the outskirts of an evil Wal-Mart.
Everett speaks much of Kerouac’s On the Road, and for good reason. Like that idiosyncratic, most thoroughly American of novels, Kindling is also a book about people living on the edge of acceptable societal norms. There’s a semi-tragic aspect to Kindling, but Everett draws attention to the socio-economic issues with great nuance and with a comic undertone following the homeless family around. The comic undertone attaches to the family much like the thick dust in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and it keeps the sadness you would otherwise feel a little easier to take.
As far as what I took away from Kindling, it wasn’t anger or outrage or sadness. It was nostalgia for something I’ve never had, but want more of: the next book Everett writes. If I could award more than five stars, I would.
By E.L. Farris, #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
I am a picky, grouchy author of literary fiction myself. I read tons of other books, and most of them disappoint me so bad, I don't even bother reviewing them. This second novel by Mik Everett, however, did not disappoint me. In fact, it enthralled me from the very first to the very last lyrical sentence.
The main characters in Everett's book felt like pairs of old Levis, patched and worn, frayed and perfectly imperfect, much like the jeans worn by a couple of the homeless "travelers" in Kindling. Everett takes the reader directly into the characters' world, without warning, initiation, or explanation. You start reading and it feels not so much like jumping into a freezing pool, but more like wandering into a fascinating ghost town that doesn't scare you in the least. As you wade into this homeless family’s world, you find yourself inside a broken-down RV that’s illegally parked on the outskirts of an evil Wal-Mart.
Everett speaks much of Kerouac’s On the Road, and for good reason. Like that idiosyncratic, most thoroughly American of novels, Kindling is also a book about people living on the edge of acceptable societal norms. There’s a semi-tragic aspect to Kindling, but Everett draws attention to the socio-economic issues with great nuance and with a comic undertone following the homeless family around. The comic undertone attaches to the family much like the thick dust in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and it keeps the sadness you would otherwise feel a little easier to take.
As far as what I took away from Kindling, it wasn’t anger or outrage or sadness. It was nostalgia for something I’ve never had, but want more of: the next book Everett writes. If I could award more than five stars, I would.
By E.L. Farris, #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
December 16, 2020
Disclosure – I know the author and am represented in the text, as well as quoted. But, big but, I had no idea that (= notes being taken and a book being written) was going on, nor was I aware of any of the author’s back story. All I was aware of was that this person owned and operated a bookstore in Longmont, Colorado, in the Spring of 2013. That said, I’m going to be brief.
This book is raw, shocking, disturbing, heart-wrenching, and unambiguous. Insurgent and emergent. You SHOULD read it (buy it); if you’re interested in the current state of writing, publishing, small business, homelessness, and/or family poverty in America. To be clear – I don’t condone all the behaviors’ acted out, positions’ taken, or choices’ made by the author, but it is a remarkable book. This “memoir” is audacious and honest; and the author, all of twenty-two years old when she wrote it, has something to say and says it well. She has a point. The fact that she wrote this book literally on the fly (see pages 88 and 89 – the best writing in the book!) is a statement in itself, and speaks to the author’s talent.
Buy this book (from Amazon) and read it. It is a quick read (=150 pages & <60,000words & costs < $12.00. $3. on Kindle.) Self-Published Kindling might just be the spark that ignites the fire that burns down the old and worn out, out-dated, book and publishing industry — a wildfire that roars through a dilapidated neighborhood. Well … at the least a harbinger – insurgent and emergent.
Wednesday, November 14, 2013
This book is raw, shocking, disturbing, heart-wrenching, and unambiguous. Insurgent and emergent. You SHOULD read it (buy it); if you’re interested in the current state of writing, publishing, small business, homelessness, and/or family poverty in America. To be clear – I don’t condone all the behaviors’ acted out, positions’ taken, or choices’ made by the author, but it is a remarkable book. This “memoir” is audacious and honest; and the author, all of twenty-two years old when she wrote it, has something to say and says it well. She has a point. The fact that she wrote this book literally on the fly (see pages 88 and 89 – the best writing in the book!) is a statement in itself, and speaks to the author’s talent.
Buy this book (from Amazon) and read it. It is a quick read (=150 pages & <60,000words & costs < $12.00. $3. on Kindle.) Self-Published Kindling might just be the spark that ignites the fire that burns down the old and worn out, out-dated, book and publishing industry — a wildfire that roars through a dilapidated neighborhood. Well … at the least a harbinger – insurgent and emergent.
Wednesday, November 14, 2013
July 31, 2013
I have been following Mik Everett's burgeoning writing career with heavily piqued interest for a little while now. At first, I was just aware of her as a writer on Tumblr with a seriously shitty (and long) run of misfortune; then I realized that through the entire struggle, she was writing, editing, formatting, and working to publish a goddamned book.
It seemed impossible to me that someone could bang out a memoir in a few weeks while being homeless, on the road, and raising a young child. It was even harder to imagine that the book would be this gripping and simply well-written. Which it is. Mik is an accomplished and professional-grade writer already at 22.
But I didn't go into this book expecting that. I jumped in because I was intrigued by Mik's ongoing troubles. At 22, Everett has been through a shit-ton. She's suffered from lupus and cancer, she's been raising a little girl for years, she's run (and lost) a bookstore, she's lived in a motor home in the rear of a Wal-Mart parking lot, scrounging for food, and she's escaped a seriously poisonous abusive relationship and been forced to drive across the country with her child in-tow. And then the car got hit by lightening.
Mik's book follows some (but not all) of these events, and mainly focuses on the period when she and her (now) ex-partner were running the bookstore and trying to keep it afloat while spending their nights in a broken-down mobile home in the Wal-Mart lot with no electricity and no water.
In Self-Published Kindling, the reader is given an entirely unfamiliar portrait of homelessness; we follow Mik and her family to the food pantries, where they meet fellow poets and patrons of the bookstore. Mik, her children, and her partner befriend other homeless people in the parking lot, who lend food, help tow their car, and share weed and deep conversations about the state of the country and the future of art.
This is suburban homelessness, straight out of Longmont Colorado. The family steals tools from Wal-Mart and grills dinner on an electric Foreman plugged into a camping structure. Everett and her children ride the bus from work to the Wal-Mart daily, prompting well-natured curiosity from the driver. Because Everett has two kids in tow and a laptop on which she is writing her book, no one suspects she's homeless.
And I should reiterate: Everett wrote the book during that stint of homelessness and finished editing it in a women's shelter and on the road. How in the fuck?
Despite its subject matter, this is not a voyeuristic or self-pitying memoir of suffering and dreams deferred. Mik gives the reader an even-handed, reasonable description of her circumstances, how she came to be in them, and how she navigates them. There is never an inkling of bitterness or a single rumination. In fact, there is nothing depressing about this book; Everett's strength and matter-of-fact tenacity is a marvel and a joy to follow.
The book works so well, in part, due to Mik's simple, declarative language. The author is plainly interested in telling her story while also providing useful, enlightening information about the bureaucracy of being homeless and the economics of the publishing industry. As such, her tome is both informative and engrossing. I tore through the book in an evening.
This brings me to the book's only shortcomings: it ends too quickly, and too abruptly for my tastes. This makes sense, considering the circumstances under which it was written. Rather than attaining any resolution or promising any future continuation, Mik's book ends with an undermining quote from her ex-partner. "Where is [the book] going?" he asks. Is Everett asking us this? I'd rather have her tell us.
While I was disappointed when the book ended, I can answer that question. This book is going places. I was so engrossed in her story and enchanted by her spare, clean writing style that I immediately went out and bought her previous novel, Turtle.
You should pick up Self-Published Kindling if you're at all interested in memoir, social justice, artisanal publishing, writing, or human nature. Shit, you should pick it up if you like solid writing from an up-and-coming author. You'll want to be aboard this train when it takes off. Mik Everett is a writer to watch.
It seemed impossible to me that someone could bang out a memoir in a few weeks while being homeless, on the road, and raising a young child. It was even harder to imagine that the book would be this gripping and simply well-written. Which it is. Mik is an accomplished and professional-grade writer already at 22.
But I didn't go into this book expecting that. I jumped in because I was intrigued by Mik's ongoing troubles. At 22, Everett has been through a shit-ton. She's suffered from lupus and cancer, she's been raising a little girl for years, she's run (and lost) a bookstore, she's lived in a motor home in the rear of a Wal-Mart parking lot, scrounging for food, and she's escaped a seriously poisonous abusive relationship and been forced to drive across the country with her child in-tow. And then the car got hit by lightening.
Mik's book follows some (but not all) of these events, and mainly focuses on the period when she and her (now) ex-partner were running the bookstore and trying to keep it afloat while spending their nights in a broken-down mobile home in the Wal-Mart lot with no electricity and no water.
In Self-Published Kindling, the reader is given an entirely unfamiliar portrait of homelessness; we follow Mik and her family to the food pantries, where they meet fellow poets and patrons of the bookstore. Mik, her children, and her partner befriend other homeless people in the parking lot, who lend food, help tow their car, and share weed and deep conversations about the state of the country and the future of art.
This is suburban homelessness, straight out of Longmont Colorado. The family steals tools from Wal-Mart and grills dinner on an electric Foreman plugged into a camping structure. Everett and her children ride the bus from work to the Wal-Mart daily, prompting well-natured curiosity from the driver. Because Everett has two kids in tow and a laptop on which she is writing her book, no one suspects she's homeless.
And I should reiterate: Everett wrote the book during that stint of homelessness and finished editing it in a women's shelter and on the road. How in the fuck?
Despite its subject matter, this is not a voyeuristic or self-pitying memoir of suffering and dreams deferred. Mik gives the reader an even-handed, reasonable description of her circumstances, how she came to be in them, and how she navigates them. There is never an inkling of bitterness or a single rumination. In fact, there is nothing depressing about this book; Everett's strength and matter-of-fact tenacity is a marvel and a joy to follow.
The book works so well, in part, due to Mik's simple, declarative language. The author is plainly interested in telling her story while also providing useful, enlightening information about the bureaucracy of being homeless and the economics of the publishing industry. As such, her tome is both informative and engrossing. I tore through the book in an evening.
This brings me to the book's only shortcomings: it ends too quickly, and too abruptly for my tastes. This makes sense, considering the circumstances under which it was written. Rather than attaining any resolution or promising any future continuation, Mik's book ends with an undermining quote from her ex-partner. "Where is [the book] going?" he asks. Is Everett asking us this? I'd rather have her tell us.
While I was disappointed when the book ended, I can answer that question. This book is going places. I was so engrossed in her story and enchanted by her spare, clean writing style that I immediately went out and bought her previous novel, Turtle.
You should pick up Self-Published Kindling if you're at all interested in memoir, social justice, artisanal publishing, writing, or human nature. Shit, you should pick it up if you like solid writing from an up-and-coming author. You'll want to be aboard this train when it takes off. Mik Everett is a writer to watch.
July 22, 2019
The topic — failing at running an independent bookstore while grappling with homelessness — is potentially of both professional and human interest to many people. If you're reading it to learn about their bookstore business, however, be aware that the subject doesn't begin in earnest until about 20% into the text. The text also ends rather abruptly without a resolution. There are formatting errors for Kindle (indentations, spacing, line breaks).
The bookstore owners seemed to genuinely care about the authors they sold (or tried to sell). They reached out to local self-published authors and stocked their books when no one else would. They hosted readings. They didn't manage to move any product, though, and sometimes they couldn't even get a single customer to attend an author reading, and they don't have much of an answer about what happened except that it's hard to sell books these days. Maybe that's the final answer; maybe it really is impossible to sell books. But I don't have any way to evaluate that. I presume they were doing some things really well and some things rather poorly, but the writer doesn't reflect outside advice or analysis, so, as a reader, just going by what the writer wants to tell me about their personal joys and frustrations of bookstore operation, I have a hard time understanding why this business failed.
The bookstore owners seemed to genuinely care about the authors they sold (or tried to sell). They reached out to local self-published authors and stocked their books when no one else would. They hosted readings. They didn't manage to move any product, though, and sometimes they couldn't even get a single customer to attend an author reading, and they don't have much of an answer about what happened except that it's hard to sell books these days. Maybe that's the final answer; maybe it really is impossible to sell books. But I don't have any way to evaluate that. I presume they were doing some things really well and some things rather poorly, but the writer doesn't reflect outside advice or analysis, so, as a reader, just going by what the writer wants to tell me about their personal joys and frustrations of bookstore operation, I have a hard time understanding why this business failed.
October 26, 2013
An excellent book. Desires a wide audience. Between its heart, humor and message, this was a compelling book with some heavy duty writing in it. Consider it an instruction manual.
August 6, 2013
I love indie literary works, and this book won me over when I read: “At night when I can’t sleep, I string verses together, memorizing them a line at a time. (I say it craftily like that. People appreciate the metaphor.”
Living out of an RV in a Wal-mart parking lot with her husband and two children, Mik offers an intimate view of the working poor. Through all the bullshit dealings with social services, running her bookshop and keeping her children fed, she still found the time to watch movies with her husband, take her kids to the park and share food and joints with her parking lot neighbors.
Affliction memoirs are hit or miss, and this was a hit. There was no self-pity here—frustration, need, and even bursts of humor, but no wallowing, resentment or alienation. Even down and out, she held on to her compassion and kindness.
For someone so young, Mik has had one hell of a life dealing with cancer, destitution, and homelessness. But her life is also beautiful and richly filled with family, adventure, art, and quirky characters.
Having just finished A Movable Feast, I was reminded of Hadley and Zelda. The Zeldas like the novelty of risk so they choose the path of comfortable discomfort and call it adventure. The Hadleys follow their hearts and learn to use slop buckets in Paris.
Keeping with the Hemingway comparison, the writing was frank and unadorned. A reader will be hard pressed to find a superfluous of or that. This intrepid, artsy and interesting woman can write and most importantly–she knows how to live. Mik is a strong woman. She may not know where she’ll be tomorrow, but she knows where she is today. I look forward to reading more of her work.
Living out of an RV in a Wal-mart parking lot with her husband and two children, Mik offers an intimate view of the working poor. Through all the bullshit dealings with social services, running her bookshop and keeping her children fed, she still found the time to watch movies with her husband, take her kids to the park and share food and joints with her parking lot neighbors.
Affliction memoirs are hit or miss, and this was a hit. There was no self-pity here—frustration, need, and even bursts of humor, but no wallowing, resentment or alienation. Even down and out, she held on to her compassion and kindness.
For someone so young, Mik has had one hell of a life dealing with cancer, destitution, and homelessness. But her life is also beautiful and richly filled with family, adventure, art, and quirky characters.
Having just finished A Movable Feast, I was reminded of Hadley and Zelda. The Zeldas like the novelty of risk so they choose the path of comfortable discomfort and call it adventure. The Hadleys follow their hearts and learn to use slop buckets in Paris.
Keeping with the Hemingway comparison, the writing was frank and unadorned. A reader will be hard pressed to find a superfluous of or that. This intrepid, artsy and interesting woman can write and most importantly–she knows how to live. Mik is a strong woman. She may not know where she’ll be tomorrow, but she knows where she is today. I look forward to reading more of her work.
October 15, 2013
This is more than just a book about homelessness. Our society compartmentalizes homelessness; we put it aside. It is "us" and it is "them". Mik Everett's Self-Published Kindling breaks down the wall between "us" and "them". Even beyond that, it is the story of a young mother attempting to do the best she can for her children while running a business. The secrecy surrounding the family's situation forces us to think: how many people do I know that may be secretly homeless?
The book also serves as a critique of our modern publishing industry, and it brings issues to the forefront that I had never before considered. John's rant regarding jobs and the economy explains how just about every Millenial feels about our situation in this economy. All in all, the book serves as both a social critique as well as an economic one.
More than that, though, it is impossible to detach oneself from the family by the time you've finished reading. You root for them. You want the best for them, even if you probably would have ignored their eyes on the street if they asked you for your help, and that's the part of the book that really allows for some serious introspection.
Mik Everett's stunning honesty and lyrically gritty style once again come together into one of the best books I have ever read, and certainly one of the best books I've read this year.
The book also serves as a critique of our modern publishing industry, and it brings issues to the forefront that I had never before considered. John's rant regarding jobs and the economy explains how just about every Millenial feels about our situation in this economy. All in all, the book serves as both a social critique as well as an economic one.
More than that, though, it is impossible to detach oneself from the family by the time you've finished reading. You root for them. You want the best for them, even if you probably would have ignored their eyes on the street if they asked you for your help, and that's the part of the book that really allows for some serious introspection.
Mik Everett's stunning honesty and lyrically gritty style once again come together into one of the best books I have ever read, and certainly one of the best books I've read this year.
May 17, 2020
Gives a fascinating perspective rare in literature: the state of homelessness. Really eye-opening to see the tragedies of a homeless family and the ways they have to stay reasonably happy.
"The property managers had the nerve to kick us out with so little notice, on a weekend when they knew no resources would be available. They hadn't returned my email. They hadn't even faced us to give us the notice. They posted it on our door, while we were at work, when they knew we wouldn't see it until after their office was shut for the weekend. They had wiped their hands of us. I wanted to make them feel ashamed. I climbed up on the couch and I scrawled a message in Sharpie on the wall: '3.5 million homeless Americans. 1.6 million are children. Today, my children are 2 more. Thanks.'"
"Partly I was crying because we were homeless and I was afraid we would never stop being homeless; that it wouldn't be just a two-month blip on the radar of my children's childhood memories, but an ongoing way of life, something they would be forced to live with until they could break out of it, like hamsters from a cage."
"That was another thing that having children protected us from. Everyone assumed we weren't homeless. We were a family camping. We were a family dity after playing in the mud or going on a hike. We were a family showering at the Rec Center after a game of basketball or before we swam. Everyone assumes that if you're a family, you must not be homeless, because no one likes to think that families can be homeless. No one likes to think that their family could have been homeless. Everyone's much more comfortable with family-less people being homeless."
"You never publish the letters of any homeless people. You never quote them. Would you write an article about teachers in Longmont without interviewing a single teacher? Would you write an article about a Republican candidate wihile only quoting Democrats?"
"I guess the difference isn't so much how long you're on the road for but whether or not you have anywhere to go when you're done."
"The property managers had the nerve to kick us out with so little notice, on a weekend when they knew no resources would be available. They hadn't returned my email. They hadn't even faced us to give us the notice. They posted it on our door, while we were at work, when they knew we wouldn't see it until after their office was shut for the weekend. They had wiped their hands of us. I wanted to make them feel ashamed. I climbed up on the couch and I scrawled a message in Sharpie on the wall: '3.5 million homeless Americans. 1.6 million are children. Today, my children are 2 more. Thanks.'"
"Partly I was crying because we were homeless and I was afraid we would never stop being homeless; that it wouldn't be just a two-month blip on the radar of my children's childhood memories, but an ongoing way of life, something they would be forced to live with until they could break out of it, like hamsters from a cage."
"That was another thing that having children protected us from. Everyone assumed we weren't homeless. We were a family camping. We were a family dity after playing in the mud or going on a hike. We were a family showering at the Rec Center after a game of basketball or before we swam. Everyone assumes that if you're a family, you must not be homeless, because no one likes to think that families can be homeless. No one likes to think that their family could have been homeless. Everyone's much more comfortable with family-less people being homeless."
"You never publish the letters of any homeless people. You never quote them. Would you write an article about teachers in Longmont without interviewing a single teacher? Would you write an article about a Republican candidate wihile only quoting Democrats?"
"I guess the difference isn't so much how long you're on the road for but whether or not you have anywhere to go when you're done."
September 12, 2013
The beauty of Mik Everett’s writing can be summed up in her own words:
“It’s a bit funny how we came to live in a motorhome in the first place. It’s not funny at all, but it’s a story I can tell like a joke.”
The beauty of her writing is how easy she makes it to relate to desperate situations. Her key tool in this aim is Humor. I use the capital, proper noun, form of the word because her jokes have far more in common with masters of Satire, like Twain, than they do with the peddlers of offense like Daniel Tosh.
Both have their audience, obviously, but unlike comedians that mock a situation for a quick double-shot of Schadenfreude (if you don’t know German, or haven’t seen Avenue Q, it’s a German word for the enjoyment of other people’s failure or pain), Everett’s humor has a clear ever present purpose to it. The points she makes, what ridicule she does present, is in the hope of things changing.
Self-Published Kindling: Memoirs of a Homeless Bookstore Owner is a book about as strange as its title. It’s fairly easy to get caught up in the day to day narrative of both ensuring basic needs are met for her family (things like applying for food-stamps, applying for shelters, and occasionally shop-lifting as needed to fill the gaps between) and doing everything in her power to ensure that her lack of permanent residence doesn’t become public knowledge, something that would be absolutely disastrous for the owner of a small business.
Everett deals with other business owners handing her petitions to eradicate the “homeless problem” or otherwise shut down invaluable humanitarian services, an application for a homeless shelter requiring a proof of residency, and the general demands of living as a homeless family with small children with bravado and courage that I have no idea if I could muster, so yes, it is very easy to get caught up in that narrative. It’s an absolutely fascinating one.
But strangely, this isn’t a book about homelessness. Yes, Mik Everett makes no effort to hide her views on services for the homeless or poverty stricken, and yes, she paints achingly beautiful portraits of the people around her, many of which turn up for what is probably the most frustratingly appropriate conclusion I’ve ever seen in a self-published project. To warn you, you won’t be satisfied with the ending, but it certainly feels right. I wish I could share the quote it ends with and its juxtaposition with the purpose of the novel, but I don’t want to ruin an amazing read. This, instead, is a book about writing, and the state of writing and publishing in the United States.
It’s broader than that, including wonderful discussions about the economy in general:
“I’ve never fucking worked in an economy that had ‘jobs.’ So people keep saying, oh, the jobs will come back, the economy will improve, and I just don’t fucking believe them. I’m not going to sit around on my ass waiting for jobs that I really don’t believe in. They’re [like] fucking unicorns, man. An economy with ‘jobs’ available, real jobs where you can make a living, it’s a fucking myth. It hasn’t existed since our parents were our age. And they want us to sit around and work our asses off in unpaid internships, waiting for these mythological jobs to come back. It’s like waiting for the Second Coming. I’m not going to work for nothing while I wait for Jesus to come back with his jobs, and reward all of us who have been faithful and worked for nothing while we waited. Fuck that. I’m a fucking atheist. I’m going to make my own job.”
It includes anecdotes about parenting that anyone with small children can probably relate to, and underneath it all is an undercurrent of “Millennial”ness that anyone of my generation can probably relate to, drug use and distrust of the society she was born into are no exception, but, remarkably, these are just pieces of her life. Like any other element, the book transcends these too. In other words, this is a book with drugs in it, but it is by no means a book about drugs.
Again, this is a book about writing, about writing the book you’re reading, actually.
This is a book about why we choose to write, and that is the most fascinating part about it. In an age when self-publishing is becoming to be more accepted as, to borrow a phrase, Artisanal Publishing rather than the derogatory Vanity Publishing it was maybe a decade ago, it’s easy to accept that some people write just to write, but that isn’t quite true. Certainly some people write just to write, but self-publishing is more than just saying “hey, I made something”, even though that’s the tone many young authors (myself included) occasionally take. The choice to share your work this way, to face a publishing field that will probably never make you any sort of money, to face a world "more full of writers than readers […] Real readers”, to quote the book again, it demands a drive.
Everett’s drive is a passion for writing and using writing to improve the world around her.
The beauty of her writing, and I know this is the third time I’m saying this, is that she somehow manages to weave her idealistic goals into a realistic narrative, for all she suffers, she never loses hope, and she never resorts to beating us over the head with her point. What makes her a masterful writer is that she takes all these seemingly unrelated threads of her life, and manages to present them to us with definite and understandable meaning. She has the great skill of making her personal life a sort of fable, without resorting to mythologizing herself, while presenting it in an almost diary format. I am jealous of this skill. Extremely jealous of it, and I have nothing but congratulations for her considering this was written over the course of two weeks, two weeks unwillingly spent without a permanent address.
Mik Everett doesn’t come off as better than you, and she certainly doesn’t come off as someone who knows everything, but the fact of the matter is, the structure and craft of this novel indicates someone who probably knows a thing or two, and knows how to share it without making you feel like you’re somehow lesser for not knowing them.
It’s a phenomenal book.
It’s a short read. I read the 150 pages in about three 2-3 hour sittings, and it was well worth the time investment.
“It’s a bit funny how we came to live in a motorhome in the first place. It’s not funny at all, but it’s a story I can tell like a joke.”
The beauty of her writing is how easy she makes it to relate to desperate situations. Her key tool in this aim is Humor. I use the capital, proper noun, form of the word because her jokes have far more in common with masters of Satire, like Twain, than they do with the peddlers of offense like Daniel Tosh.
Both have their audience, obviously, but unlike comedians that mock a situation for a quick double-shot of Schadenfreude (if you don’t know German, or haven’t seen Avenue Q, it’s a German word for the enjoyment of other people’s failure or pain), Everett’s humor has a clear ever present purpose to it. The points she makes, what ridicule she does present, is in the hope of things changing.
Self-Published Kindling: Memoirs of a Homeless Bookstore Owner is a book about as strange as its title. It’s fairly easy to get caught up in the day to day narrative of both ensuring basic needs are met for her family (things like applying for food-stamps, applying for shelters, and occasionally shop-lifting as needed to fill the gaps between) and doing everything in her power to ensure that her lack of permanent residence doesn’t become public knowledge, something that would be absolutely disastrous for the owner of a small business.
Everett deals with other business owners handing her petitions to eradicate the “homeless problem” or otherwise shut down invaluable humanitarian services, an application for a homeless shelter requiring a proof of residency, and the general demands of living as a homeless family with small children with bravado and courage that I have no idea if I could muster, so yes, it is very easy to get caught up in that narrative. It’s an absolutely fascinating one.
But strangely, this isn’t a book about homelessness. Yes, Mik Everett makes no effort to hide her views on services for the homeless or poverty stricken, and yes, she paints achingly beautiful portraits of the people around her, many of which turn up for what is probably the most frustratingly appropriate conclusion I’ve ever seen in a self-published project. To warn you, you won’t be satisfied with the ending, but it certainly feels right. I wish I could share the quote it ends with and its juxtaposition with the purpose of the novel, but I don’t want to ruin an amazing read. This, instead, is a book about writing, and the state of writing and publishing in the United States.
It’s broader than that, including wonderful discussions about the economy in general:
“I’ve never fucking worked in an economy that had ‘jobs.’ So people keep saying, oh, the jobs will come back, the economy will improve, and I just don’t fucking believe them. I’m not going to sit around on my ass waiting for jobs that I really don’t believe in. They’re [like] fucking unicorns, man. An economy with ‘jobs’ available, real jobs where you can make a living, it’s a fucking myth. It hasn’t existed since our parents were our age. And they want us to sit around and work our asses off in unpaid internships, waiting for these mythological jobs to come back. It’s like waiting for the Second Coming. I’m not going to work for nothing while I wait for Jesus to come back with his jobs, and reward all of us who have been faithful and worked for nothing while we waited. Fuck that. I’m a fucking atheist. I’m going to make my own job.”
It includes anecdotes about parenting that anyone with small children can probably relate to, and underneath it all is an undercurrent of “Millennial”ness that anyone of my generation can probably relate to, drug use and distrust of the society she was born into are no exception, but, remarkably, these are just pieces of her life. Like any other element, the book transcends these too. In other words, this is a book with drugs in it, but it is by no means a book about drugs.
Again, this is a book about writing, about writing the book you’re reading, actually.
This is a book about why we choose to write, and that is the most fascinating part about it. In an age when self-publishing is becoming to be more accepted as, to borrow a phrase, Artisanal Publishing rather than the derogatory Vanity Publishing it was maybe a decade ago, it’s easy to accept that some people write just to write, but that isn’t quite true. Certainly some people write just to write, but self-publishing is more than just saying “hey, I made something”, even though that’s the tone many young authors (myself included) occasionally take. The choice to share your work this way, to face a publishing field that will probably never make you any sort of money, to face a world "more full of writers than readers […] Real readers”, to quote the book again, it demands a drive.
Everett’s drive is a passion for writing and using writing to improve the world around her.
The beauty of her writing, and I know this is the third time I’m saying this, is that she somehow manages to weave her idealistic goals into a realistic narrative, for all she suffers, she never loses hope, and she never resorts to beating us over the head with her point. What makes her a masterful writer is that she takes all these seemingly unrelated threads of her life, and manages to present them to us with definite and understandable meaning. She has the great skill of making her personal life a sort of fable, without resorting to mythologizing herself, while presenting it in an almost diary format. I am jealous of this skill. Extremely jealous of it, and I have nothing but congratulations for her considering this was written over the course of two weeks, two weeks unwillingly spent without a permanent address.
Mik Everett doesn’t come off as better than you, and she certainly doesn’t come off as someone who knows everything, but the fact of the matter is, the structure and craft of this novel indicates someone who probably knows a thing or two, and knows how to share it without making you feel like you’re somehow lesser for not knowing them.
It’s a phenomenal book.
It’s a short read. I read the 150 pages in about three 2-3 hour sittings, and it was well worth the time investment.
October 2, 2019
Ugh. The author of the book is running a bookstore that specializes in self-published books. A quote from the book:
"If you just carried any selfpublished book, that would be a whole lot of typos." "Right?" I said. "And then someone would buy that book
and, coming from our store they would know it was selfpublished. And they'd see those typos, and it would undermine
both the credibility of our store as well as the credibility we're
trying to help self-published authors build up"
It's too bad there wasn't someone out there to check the typos in her own book. Besides the horrible formating (all left-justified with random line breaks just as I typed it up there) just that quote alone has two typos. You can't go on about how you only sell quality self-published books and then misspell it as selfpublished twice in a row before finally getting it right.
She couldn't even get names right. There was an artist named Brian and she spells his name as Brain over 25% of the time he's mentioned.
It's important to get the stories of the homeless out there, but this was so poorly written and the author just wasn't likable so I would recommend looking elsewhere.
"If you just carried any selfpublished book, that would be a whole lot of typos." "Right?" I said. "And then someone would buy that book
and, coming from our store they would know it was selfpublished. And they'd see those typos, and it would undermine
both the credibility of our store as well as the credibility we're
trying to help self-published authors build up"
It's too bad there wasn't someone out there to check the typos in her own book. Besides the horrible formating (all left-justified with random line breaks just as I typed it up there) just that quote alone has two typos. You can't go on about how you only sell quality self-published books and then misspell it as selfpublished twice in a row before finally getting it right.
She couldn't even get names right. There was an artist named Brian and she spells his name as Brain over 25% of the time he's mentioned.
It's important to get the stories of the homeless out there, but this was so poorly written and the author just wasn't likable so I would recommend looking elsewhere.
January 13, 2020
Engaging and Enlightening
I enjoyed this book immensely. It was very interesting, but I didn't care for the ending at all. You've rooted too hard and too long for this feisty little family to be left hanging. Why end it with one belittling the other's fantastic accomplishment at the end? As a four-time indie autgor, I can say that finishing a novel is hard work. He should've cheered for her, especially considering the book store they owned. I think it's the most depressing ending I've ever read. You don't steal a reader's hope on the last page, their hope for the protagonist's big triumph. It's here in my hand, of course. She did triumph. She published it, but I can think of a hundred better endings. Not necessarily an end to their homelessness, but at least a sweet gesture of respect from his heart - a mini bottle of sparkling cider with a cork to pop or a new Uniball pen, her favorite. Instead, we're ledt with his jaded remark and her defeat. I hope she's still writing. She's good.
I enjoyed this book immensely. It was very interesting, but I didn't care for the ending at all. You've rooted too hard and too long for this feisty little family to be left hanging. Why end it with one belittling the other's fantastic accomplishment at the end? As a four-time indie autgor, I can say that finishing a novel is hard work. He should've cheered for her, especially considering the book store they owned. I think it's the most depressing ending I've ever read. You don't steal a reader's hope on the last page, their hope for the protagonist's big triumph. It's here in my hand, of course. She did triumph. She published it, but I can think of a hundred better endings. Not necessarily an end to their homelessness, but at least a sweet gesture of respect from his heart - a mini bottle of sparkling cider with a cork to pop or a new Uniball pen, her favorite. Instead, we're ledt with his jaded remark and her defeat. I hope she's still writing. She's good.
May 17, 2020
I appreciated the "slice of life" narrative in this book and found the explanations of the many small things that people must do to adapt to homelessness relatable. We do need more stories like this being spread in the world. That the book doesn't end with a real resolution didn't bother me. Stories like this don't always wrap up neatly, as in novels.
I also found the content frustrating, as other reviewers mentioned, because the author clearly doesn't take her own advice about making sure independent books are proofread and edited. The author gives other independent authors input several times in the book about making sure typos and formatting errors are eliminated in their work. However, every page in this book has major, jarring typos that should have been caught before publishing. These aren't minor nitpicks, like an absent comma here and there. These are confusing issues like blatantly missing words, incorrect words ["Join" instead of "John" or "voraciously" instead of "vicariously" and so on], and more.
I also found the content frustrating, as other reviewers mentioned, because the author clearly doesn't take her own advice about making sure independent books are proofread and edited. The author gives other independent authors input several times in the book about making sure typos and formatting errors are eliminated in their work. However, every page in this book has major, jarring typos that should have been caught before publishing. These aren't minor nitpicks, like an absent comma here and there. These are confusing issues like blatantly missing words, incorrect words ["Join" instead of "John" or "voraciously" instead of "vicariously" and so on], and more.
February 11, 2019
I read this book because I know the author a bit through internet interactions. I was interested in the premise and honestly, I really enjoyed this book.
There are typos, enough that you will notice, but not so many that it couldn't be an A paper at most colleges. They're largely formatting related (no dash or separation, a missing end quotation) and do not affect your understanding.
However, the story is so interesting I didn't care about the typos. Each person is well fleshed out, and presented in a realistic manner. They're flawed but likeable. The description of living homeless is engaging but quite mundane. This is not a woe-is-me, deep in addiction type story of homelessness that seems to be popular. This is just a family that suddenly couldn't make ends meet, and how they cope, which from the author's experiences, is obviously far more common than people think.
There are typos, enough that you will notice, but not so many that it couldn't be an A paper at most colleges. They're largely formatting related (no dash or separation, a missing end quotation) and do not affect your understanding.
However, the story is so interesting I didn't care about the typos. Each person is well fleshed out, and presented in a realistic manner. They're flawed but likeable. The description of living homeless is engaging but quite mundane. This is not a woe-is-me, deep in addiction type story of homelessness that seems to be popular. This is just a family that suddenly couldn't make ends meet, and how they cope, which from the author's experiences, is obviously far more common than people think.
October 25, 2019
An examination of homelessness from the point of view of a small business owner struggling to make ends meet. Mik Everett's medical bills for cancer surgery were huge. She and her husband decided to do "the right thing" and pay them instead of going into bankruptcy, wiping out most of their savings. A late IRS refund and an unsympathetic landlord plunged them and their two children into a world they'd only seen from afar: homelessness. Everett shows what homeless is really about and how many families are just a few paychecks away from destitution. Ironically, the couple's bookstore specialized in self-published and indie books--an honorable endeavor that ends up endangering their livelihood. She has guts for writing this book and presents the unvarnished truth about their lives, their hopes and dreams, and the mistakes made along the way.
September 10, 2023
I wish I had seen before reading someone talk about how fatphobic this book is, so here is me doing so for someone else who might feel the same. I had been planning to read this for a long time and had to give up on page 45 after the fourth or so casual example of a fat person being a throwaway villian denying her young grandson books. The kicker is that by that point in the book, I knew from the first sentence about a "beautiful daughter and overweight mother" the latter was about to do something terrible and I was right. Which also does not speak to very compelling or creative writing! I'm afraid this book belongs buried with the rest of the extreme fatphobia of the 2010s when it was created.
January 29, 2020
The author and her partner are relatively recently homeless bookstore owners, originating from the devastating medical bills coming from an insurance company changing their mind about a cancer treatment leading to this family of four (two small children) being evicted.
This is not some shining redemption arc, it is snapshots of their daily lives and struggles, including their hopes about the future of writing and publishing. Lots of interesting stuff about what kinds of interesting people one meets living in a broken camper van in a wal-mart parking lot, as well as the struggles of trying to support small/self-publishing local to colorado.
This is not some shining redemption arc, it is snapshots of their daily lives and struggles, including their hopes about the future of writing and publishing. Lots of interesting stuff about what kinds of interesting people one meets living in a broken camper van in a wal-mart parking lot, as well as the struggles of trying to support small/self-publishing local to colorado.
December 19, 2019
Two weeks
Written in two weeks, basically a verbatim report of two weeks in her life. And it shows. Rambling, typos, in need of editing to tighten it up. There are resources for people who are in her situation, which they could have researched. Just an really odd memoir, not much that is very sensible about the book, the reason why she writes it, or what the point is. Okay writing, even beautiful sometimes, but depressing. Lots of weed smoking, which I don't think helps their situation.
Written in two weeks, basically a verbatim report of two weeks in her life. And it shows. Rambling, typos, in need of editing to tighten it up. There are resources for people who are in her situation, which they could have researched. Just an really odd memoir, not much that is very sensible about the book, the reason why she writes it, or what the point is. Okay writing, even beautiful sometimes, but depressing. Lots of weed smoking, which I don't think helps their situation.
December 30, 2019
This is an uncomfortable read. It describes in great detail the challenges of being homeless, how slippery the slope is leading to homelessness, and how difficult it is to lift oneself out of it. If books such as this were required reading for everyone in public office, perhaps the homeless would be better understood and really helped rather than being treated as trash. I will say that the abrupt ending was rather shocking and disappointing.
While the book clearly needs further editing, the messages are clear.
While the book clearly needs further editing, the messages are clear.
April 26, 2019
Interesting but seems incomplete. It has the beginning, about how they move to Colorado and events that cause them to be homeless. It has the middle, with events during their homelessness. However, it ends there. The author’s bio says she’s living back in Kansas. What happened to the bookstore? Were they able to sell the business? Did they lose it? Why did they move back to Kansas? The book left me hanging.
May 7, 2021
Super engaging!
I was pulled in immediately and felt connected to the author. I was curious about how you could be homeless and still be a business owner. It was shocking to see how different it actually is from the way homelessness is usually talked about. Shocking how they are normal people just like my parents and me. I'm re-examining how I think about people and their situations.
I was pulled in immediately and felt connected to the author. I was curious about how you could be homeless and still be a business owner. It was shocking to see how different it actually is from the way homelessness is usually talked about. Shocking how they are normal people just like my parents and me. I'm re-examining how I think about people and their situations.
October 7, 2025
Interesting
Insightful into a perspective of homelessness. More so a “how it happened” and a couple weeks of the ins/outs of the challenges of daily life. A lesson on how easily it can happen. As I learned of this book by reading an essay on another platform by the writer’s colleague, I’d sure like some follow-up on whereabouts the writer (and her family) is 12 years later, when her author bio on Amazon says she’s back in Kansas and the book is set in Colorado.
Insightful into a perspective of homelessness. More so a “how it happened” and a couple weeks of the ins/outs of the challenges of daily life. A lesson on how easily it can happen. As I learned of this book by reading an essay on another platform by the writer’s colleague, I’d sure like some follow-up on whereabouts the writer (and her family) is 12 years later, when her author bio on Amazon says she’s back in Kansas and the book is set in Colorado.
July 18, 2018
It really opened my eyes
I couldn't stop reading until the very end. Ending is awesome btw, anything else wouldn't do. I have to think this through, now that I read it, but I already want to get as many other people to read this.
I wish author good fortune in his glorious life! :)
I couldn't stop reading until the very end. Ending is awesome btw, anything else wouldn't do. I have to think this through, now that I read it, but I already want to get as many other people to read this.
I wish author good fortune in his glorious life! :)
December 31, 2018
The writing seems a bit too raw and straightforward - almost like actually reading a non-edited diary. But i suppose it fits the subject. Not all of it is that interesting, and there are a few too many typos, so i tended towards 3 stars. But there's so much warm honesty on a tale worth telling here that unlike life and society, i'm willing to give this homeless author the benefit of kindness.
January 20, 2019
Real Life
This is a stark and honest a depiction of life in our depressed and fucked up country. I have been dirt poor, but not homeless. This is not the way anyone in our country should be forced to live, but I doubt it will change anytime soon. What a struggle. Thank you for pulling no punches.
This is a stark and honest a depiction of life in our depressed and fucked up country. I have been dirt poor, but not homeless. This is not the way anyone in our country should be forced to live, but I doubt it will change anytime soon. What a struggle. Thank you for pulling no punches.
June 18, 2022
a book of lived experiences, with a point as liminal as transient life itself. highly recommend reading if you are a minimalistic traveler, transient being, are or have been homeless, or sit with the fact that homelessness looms around the corner for so many of us these days. at worse it shows empathy for others, at best it's encouragement that there is immeasurable strength in community.
June 8, 2018
Awesome Read!
Fantastic style, casual and direct. Authors, the homeless, those concerned with social justice and realities of those down on their luck (like working two jobs and still being homeless) should read. Honest and beautiful and sad and funny. Love this family. 💖
Fantastic style, casual and direct. Authors, the homeless, those concerned with social justice and realities of those down on their luck (like working two jobs and still being homeless) should read. Honest and beautiful and sad and funny. Love this family. 💖
December 31, 2018
Shocking
A shocking yet pleasing read. Self publishing, small business ownership, writing, homelessness, it is all here in this book. It helps we see clearly things that we take for granted are out of reach for many people, specially when going homeless.
A shocking yet pleasing read. Self publishing, small business ownership, writing, homelessness, it is all here in this book. It helps we see clearly things that we take for granted are out of reach for many people, specially when going homeless.
January 4, 2020
Spell check
The story was somewhat interesting. However, much of the book was about self publishing, yet there were typos on nearly every page!! Typos that wouldnt be caught by spell check (such as want vs wont) but are glaringly obvious to the reader.
The story was somewhat interesting. However, much of the book was about self publishing, yet there were typos on nearly every page!! Typos that wouldnt be caught by spell check (such as want vs wont) but are glaringly obvious to the reader.
Read
July 15, 2025I don’t really want to rate this because it’s a very straightforward recounting of the author’s own life. But this was really engaging and I love the way Everett brought the “characters” to life. Fiction can never top reality.
June 9, 2018
Definitely worth a read for the vivid writing and the grit of everyone described.
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