Hello!
André here, the author of Seven Ways to Disappear: The Book within the Book. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be introducing myself to you. The book, Seven Ways to Disappear: The Book within the Book, is 20 years in the making, which is a testament to dreams coming true and for perseverance paying off. And procrastination and distraction!
I am a native of Las Vegas, Nevada – born and raised – with a career background in human services, social policy, and advocacy, which is a far cry from the theme of the book.
It was during my undergraduate studies, at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, when I took a couple of African-American literature courses and realized that there was a world of literature, poems, and essays that resonated with me more than any other time in my life. At the same time, I started to get feedback from English professors on my writing, which led me to believe that some form of writing could be in my future. Eventually, I decided to minor in English, which set me on a journey of casual writing that eventually led me to a writing group when I moved to Los Angeles.
Since you’ve found your way to this blog, I assume that you’ve either read the book, or you are interested in learning more about the book. Either way, I’m grateful that you’ve taken the time to read this blog.
First, I must tell you that this book is part of a larger project – a novel I’ve been working off and on (mostly off) for 20 years. The novel is called Seven Ways to Disappear, which is about what happens after the events of September 11, 2001, when four disconnected friends in Los Angeles are overcome with feelings of hopelessness and despair. They want to choose a way to literally, metaphysically, and symbolically disappear. To do so they turn to the book, which is also titled Seven Ways to Disappear that outlines seven different ways that we disappear:
1. Reinvention of self
2. Withdrawal into yourself
3. Drugs and Alcohol
4. Isolate yourself
5. Sleep
6. Invisibility
7. Death
What I’ve done, which was always the goal, is pull out the ‘book within the book’ and publish it for readers to enjoy. Initially I planned for the novel to be published first, but since that didn’t happen I decided to publish Seven Ways to Disappear: The Book within the Book. The goal is to have people in real life experience the book just as the characters in the book do. Some of the characters take the book to heart, some take it for what it is, and some connect with the book in ways that illustrates their need for connection with something greater than the life they have.
Over the course of this blog, I hope to share more about Seven Ways to Disappear: The Book within the Book, discuss some of the ways I’ve outlined that people disappear, and I’ll share with you my journey of publishing this book along with its launch.
