I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m a huge Chicago Cubs fan. When I was 6 or 7 years old, my parents got cable for the first time. It was one of those old punch-button cable boxes, and my brother and I discovered that cable channel 3 in Amarillo carried a superstation called WGN, broadcasting out of Chicago. And on that station, just about every afternoon in the summer, was a Chicago Cubs baseball game. (And when the Cubs weren’t playing, classic Scooby-Doo episodes were on, and that was cool, too.)

There is nothing better for a 7-year-old boy than watching baseball on hot summer afternoons. Even if it was on TV.

We got hooked back then, and we’re still Cubs fans today. It’s been a long, rocky relationship. We were fans in 1984, when the Cubs lost the pennant in Game 5 to San Diego. We were fans of Bill Buckner, before he went to the Red Sox and committed the hugest error in MLB history. We were fans of Harry Caray and Leon Durham and Ryne Sandberg and Bobby Dernier and Andre Dawson. We’ve suffered through Brant Brown and Bartman, through Kerry Wood the strikeout phenom and Kerry Wood the frequently disabled bust (and we’re ready to grit our teeth through the year of Kerry Wood the Closer). We’re hopeless Cubs fans, which means we are full of hope every year — this could be the year — only to see that hope dashed on the rocks of injury and error and classic meltdowns and really, really bad teams.

Thanks to the Cubs, we’ve learned how to handle disappointment. We’ve learned what it means to be hopeful. We’ve learned to always look to next year.

And 2008 just might be “next year.” Plenty of baseball experts, from Baseball Prospectus to Sports Illustrated, are predicting that the Cubs will make the 2008 World Series. I’m hesitant to join them, just because I know it’s a long season and who knows what can happen? But why shouldn’t this year be the year? It’s 2008, the 100th anniversary of the last time the Cubs won the World Series, way back in 1908. It’s the year they finally have a well-balanced team, with a great offense and a good pitching staff and a (potentially) dominant closer. And an excellent manager in Lou Piniella. This could be the year. The curse could be lifted. The clouds could open and shine upon the green ivy of Wrigley Field.

At any rate, I’m convinced of one thing: it may be unchristian at this point not to pray for the Cubs to win the series.

The Bookseller magazine has announced the winner in its Oddest Book Title competition, and it’s the self-help manual If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start with Your Legs, which, um, walked away with a third of the votes.

As discussed earlier on this blog, there were several great candidates for the prize. My vote went for the classic Cheese Problems Solved, because it’s a weirdly obscure title but doesn’t seem to be trying to hard, you know? (Also, I’ve never specifically had what you might call a “cheese problem,” but if one cropped up, I’d definitely want a solution to it.) And I admit to having a real fondness for the contest’s runner-up title, I Was Tortured by the Pygmy Love Queen, by Jasper McCutcheon, and not just because the title has brought me a lot of Google traffic. There is perhaps no more evocative phrase in English than “pygmy love queen.” Attach it to a book of fictional World War II erotica — which this one happens to be — and you’re golden.

Anyway, congrats to the pseudonymous (I hope) author Big Boom for winning the prize.

Here’s the rest of my interview with Tara Leigh Cobble, indie musician, speaker, and author of Crowded Skies. If you missed it, here’s Part 1.

JB: What did you learn in the process of publishing Crowded Skies? What will you do differently next time? (Will there be a next time?)

TLC: Since I was self-publishing, it was really important to me to have editors that I trusted. I used some of the same editors that worked on Here’s to Hindsight, because they knew my style and tone. Next time I think the process will look fairly similar, unless I use a publisher again. And yes, there will be a next time. I’m already doing some initial writing for the third book.

So I gather you used an outside editor/copy editor/proofreader?

Back in January, I mentioned my online friend Tara Leigh Cobble, who is an excellent indie musician and writer and who also is blessed with synesthesia, but whom I’ve never met in real life. She once met Jason Morant and thought he was me, though. Which is awesome.

Like me, she had her first book, Here’s to Hindsight, published by Relevant Books. It’s a really entertaining, honest account of her life as a touring musician, and Tara Leigh is a wonderful storyteller. And like most great storytellers, TLC had more than one book in her. One problem, though. Not long after Hindsight was published, Relevant got out of the business of book publishing. What to do? Most already published authors would start banging out proposals and trying to find an agent and working the email in order to find another publisher. But not Tara Leigh. She’s an indie musician, and a pretty successful one at that. So she decided to be an indie author. In January, she released her second book, Crowded Skies: Letters to Manhattan, and published it herself.

The book describes how she gave up her comfy life in the music-centric city of Nashville to live in the expensive and scary and uncertain culture of Manhattan. And Crowded Skies is just as good as Hindsight. I really enjoyed it.

I’m always a little wary of self-publishing, viewing it as the last refuge of writers who aren’t good enough to get published “for real.” And because I’m probably a publishing snob. But TLC is a good writer. She’s been published “for real.” I’m certain she could have landed this book with a publisher, but she chose not to. And as someone who already has a devoted following, she’s already got a system in place — concerts and appearances and a website — to distribute the book. Self-publishing was right for her. She didn’t resort to it. She chose it.

I know there are a few writers and aspiring writers who read this blog, so I thought I’d interview Tara Leigh and let her share her experiences about the book and the process of writing and publishing it. We’ll do the first part today and finish it up tomorrow.

JB: Crowded Skies is a follow-up to your first book, published by RELEVANT. Did you intend to write a “sequel” when you wrote the first book? If not, what circumstances led to the decision to write the new one?

Recording an album is a much more expensive process than writing a book. With the book, the major expense was the amount of time I had to go without working so that I could write it. I saved money ahead of time, but staying at home instead of touring really put a dent in my bank account. It’s sort of the same way with an album — I have to take time off the road to write and record it — but a book takes far longer to write.

(Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow.)

You probably don’t know it, but today is the first day of Discardia, a totally made-up holiday season that falls between the solstices and equinoxes and their following new moons. (For you non-meteorologists, that’s March 19 to April 5.) The purpose of Discardia, which was created by blogger Dinah Sanders of Metagrrrl, is to “get rid of stuff and habits you no longer need.” I’ve got a few of those unnecessary habits and things, which tend to become clear to me during the season of Lent. Furthermore, on the Discardian New Moon (April 6), “you don’t buy anything or bring anything into your home and enjoy the fact that you have enough.” Great idea.

Why not celebrate Discardia by cleaning out or decluttering some aspect of your life — your closet, your car, your garage — by recycling stuff, tossing stuff, or simply giving stuff away? Start with whatever you have too many of. Books? DVDs? Shoes?

Fight materialism. Welcome to the season of Discardia. Read more about it here.

(Cross-posted from the Junky Car Club blog.)

I want to mention politics as little as possible on this blog, because it’s so divisive and quickly leads to defensiveness and name-calling and the spread of hurtful misinformation (and that’s just on my part!), but I have to bring attention today to Barack Obama’s long-awaited speech on race and racial relations and the whole Rev. Jeremiah Wright thing. If you didn’t see or hear the speech, here’s a transcript. Read it if you have the time.

My immediate response is that Obama knocked it out of the park. I’m not sure how much of his own speechwriting Obama does*, but this is a brilliantly written speech (brilliantly delivered, too, but his oratorical skills are no surprise at this point). I’m impressed that he is able to be honest about his connection to — and admiration for — his pastor without throwing him out the window, disowning Wright’s ideas and inflammatory stance without disowning the man himself. He denounces Wright’s hateful attitude while calling attention to the systemic racism that produced him and many others. He acknowledges that black people aren’t the only victims of racially based disadvantages. He owns up to his own failures, educates his audience on the history of America’s racial divide and the factors that still contribute to it — on ALL sides — then calls his audience to join him in trying to rise above them. He wraps this challenge into the original intent of the Founding Fathers, and says this divisiveness and resentment on all sides needs to be overcome. And he says it with humility and authentic religious faith and without showing off. As far as speeches go, it was gracious, forgiving, compassionate, empathetic, and — wait for it — hopeful.

It’s the right speech, with the right content, at the right time. In fact? I’ll go out on a limb. This will be the speech that defines him, and it’ll be the reason he wins not just the Democratic Primary, but the 2008 election.

[* Update: Marc Ambinder reports that Obama wrote the speech himself over the past couple of nights. Man. I'm impressed.]

[Another Update: I can't say it any better than Andrew Sullivan..."This was a testing; and he did not merely pass it by uttering safe bromides. He addressed the intimate, painful love he has for an imperfect and sometimes embittered man. And how that love enables him to see that man's faults and pain as well as his promise. This is what my faith is about. It is what the Gospels are about. This is a candidate who does not merely speak as a Christian. He acts like a Christian."]

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, here’s a little background information (from my upcoming book, Pocket Guide to Sainthood) about the patron saint of Ireland and notable Christian missionary:

St. Patrick
Ireland (5th century)
Feast day: March 17
Also known as: Patricius, Naomh Pádraig, Gaewyn

Sure, the dragon-slayers and hermits and pillar-sitters have been weird, but here’s where sainthood really gets fun, because: Pirates! St. Patrick, Ireland’s beloved saint and the sole reason for the existence of green beer, was born in Britain. But as a teenager, he was kidnapped by — wait for it — pirates and sold as a slave to an Irish landowner. The master forced the young lad to tend sheep, and Patrick whiled away the long, boring hours by praying. A lot. By his account, up to a hundred times a day. Several years into his slavery, God appeared to him in a dream and told him to head for the coast. So Paddy escaped (or was freed…the historical account is fuzzy), traveled some 200 miles to a seaport, befriended a few burly sailors, and enjoyed a little more adventure on the high seas before returning to his family.

Patrick then entered the church and began training for the priesthood. Before long, another vision — in this one he heard the people of Ireland calling him “to come and walk among us” — convinced him to return to the land of his slavery. So he did, and is known for a variety of pious activities there which may or may not have actually occurred. These include the following:

a) performing countless miracles and converting thousands of people, including pagan kings and their entire kingdoms;

b) explaining the concept of the Trinity by using a three-leaf shamrock; and…

c) driving all the snakes out of Ireland by herding them into the sea, which is why he is often depicted with a handful of slithery companions. [Footnote: It should be noted that the surrounded-by-water, post-glacial geography of Ireland has never been a very good snake habitat, so giving St. Patrick credit for the lack of snakes in Ireland is like giving Frank Sinatra credit for the lack of polar bears in Las Vegas. Most historians think the “snakes” are a metaphor for the pagan Druids.]

Obligatory Weird Miracle Story: Legend has it that a druid chieftain named Dichu tried to stop Patrick from entering Ireland as a missionary. Dichu lifted his sword to smite him, but Dichu’s arm suddenly became rigid, and he was unable to move it until he pledged his obedience to Patrick. And thus Dichu became the saint’s first convert.

Random Fact: Some historical sources claim St. Patrick died in 461. But the Annals of Ulster, an ancient chronicle of Irish history, report that Patrick was born in 373 and died in 493. The Pocket Guide can’t solve the matter, but this is certain: Living another three decades after everyone thinks you’ve died? No picnic.

…

Read more about Patrick at today’s “St. Patrick Revealed” at Slate.

And here’s Dan Kimball with some thoughts about Patrick’s missionary prowess.