I realize now I had two ambitions in mind when I wrote this essay collection. 1. Was to make my choices to be and live as an immortalist somehow accessible to people in general. Why did this catch my eye? (a pretty girl). How has it changed me so far? (Total transformation). And what did I have to face in the process? (A hell of a lot.)
I followed a path that family, friends and acquaintances couldn’t relate to. Even now, many of them just sort of accept that I’m doing this weird thing they can’t understand. I’m not sure I could or have quite explained myself. I’m not sure anyone who hasn’t taken the journey can really understand. But as a literary initiative, I’ve challenged myself to recall and organize moments, feelings and insights that have brought me here in terms that are readily accessible to anyone. You don’t have to be an immortalist to follow the story. No matter what you may make of it.
2. Is to make my living with Bernadeane more accessible or at least show some of the road that got us here. As I say in one of the essays, Significant Other, we are like astronauts on the moon; if anyone else out there is doing what we are – we don’t know about them. That’s a strange and challenging experience. Neither of us can sleepwalk through it.
I’ve recently received a couple emails from people who are not immortalists to tell me they enjoyed Outlier Heart, and what they got out of it. That makes me feel like at one level or another, I’ve pulled it off.
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