Tiding You Over

Interviews, crises, and pretty pictures. Plus, a subscription discount!

As fellow St. Louisan T.S. Eliot said, “April is the cruelest month.” But April is also the coolest month: The Last American Road Trip is a national bestseller!

This happened for one reason: you! Thanks to word-of-mouth praise, my new book gained traction. I now have written a bestseller in the worst economy since 1932, topping my prior feat of writing a bestseller in the opening salvo of a global plague.

These are strange times. Nothing lasts, but nothing ends either.

It is surreal to be on tour. There is a stark dichotomy between the wonderful people I meet on the road and the dread I feel when I read the news. Over nine days, I did events in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Austin, and Tulsa — and stopped at many places in between. I remain awed by the beauty of our country and inspired by the resilience of its people, but my soul aches at a fate so undeserved.

I have a lot to say about recent events. But I can’t write and tour at once. That is why I am offering you this Exhausted Guilt-Ridden Discount:

My newsletter is free and will always be free. I don’t believe in paywalls in times of peril, and peril is having a solid run. But my newsletter is my livelihood. Bestselling books are nice, but they don’t pay the bills. This newsletter does.

I’ve got new articles planned, but I can’t write them until May, when the tour ends. I will also return to doing Q & As where paying subscribers can send in questions.

Therefore, I am offering 20% off if you sign up to be a paying subscriber between now and April 30! Your discount will last for an entire year. This little button here should get the job done. This is my first time creating a discount and as a technologically impaired magic thinker I believe it will work better if I post it twice!

In the meantime, here are some new interviews. More are coming, so please check this page for updates. In each interview, I discuss The Last American Road Trip but also our current political crises and what led up to them. If you’d like to get my take on the news, check out the following:

Andrew Keen: Episode 2505: Sarah Kendzior on the Last American Road Trip ← This is a particularly good interview that includes a written transcript and summary.

My San Francisco book event at the Commonwealth Club ← The only book event recorded for the public; lots of questions about AI and media from the tech crowd.

Jared Yates Sexton: A Live Conversation With Sarah Kendzior

Willoughby Hills Podcast with Heath Racela: 136. Sarah Kendzior's Last American Road Trip

Jill Homer: Making plans in the sand as the tide rolls in ← A thoughtful review essay of my book and examination of our times.

Longview News-Journal: A new positive review of Hiding in Plain Sight from an east Texas newspaper. Was Hiding in Plain Sight published five years ago? Yes! Do I appreciate new reviews anyway? Hell yes! Is there a five-year gap between when my ideas are dismissed as paranoia and accepted as conventional wisdom? Apparently!

Added on 4/23: Coming from Left Field: 104– “The Last American Road Trip: A Memoir” with Sarah Kendzior ← This was a fun one, given the times; at 19:30 I burst into laughter because they read my 2012 dissertation.

Added on 4/23: Organizing My Thoughts by Kelly Hayes: Sarah Kendzior: "Don't Give Up On Other People" ← Written transcript of a conversation with Kelly, who is one of the smartest and most empathetic journalists around.

Added on 4/28: Sarah Kendzior - The What Matters Most Podcast #1170 ← new revelations and more!

Added on 4/29: Some remarks I gave on power and resistance at the LA Festival of Books

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I am going back on tour. If you are in Tempe, AZ; Los Angeles, CA; or Montgomery, AL, take note:

April 24: Tempe. Changing Hands Bookstore at 7:00 PM. In conversation with Sam Dingman. Event info here.

April 26: Los Angeles. LA Times Festival of Books. 1:30 PM panel “Write to Remember: Memoir as Witness in Times of Turmoil” in Taper Hall 201. LA Times Book Festival Information here.

May 6: Montgomery. The NewSouth Bookstore at 5:30 PM. In conversation with Dr. Lee Farrow. Event info here.

I am extremely grateful for your support of my writing. If you’ve read my books or seen me speak, you know I leave my heart on the page and on the stage. If you like The Last American Road Trip, please leave a review somewhere: it helps spread the word. I am battling powerbrokers who do not want people to know this book (or the others) exists. And some who’d prefer that I don’t exist either!

I am looking forward to returning to a regular writing routine. Before the book came out, I was publishing original articles here on a weekly basis, and I encourage you to check out the archive. Your support keeps the archive open and free to all!

I’ve got so many stories brewing in my mind. But for now, photos of some of the places I visited this month:

Cannon Beach in Oregon. I had to fly for most of the West coast tour to make it to the venues on time, but I convinced my publisher to let me drive from Seattle to Portland — and I’m so glad I did! This was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean in Oregon and my head is full of Pacific Northwest road trip dreams. And yes, that is the beach from The Goonies.

I had a few hours free on my first day in Seattle, so I drove to Snoqualmie and North Bend for a Twin Peaks self-guided tour. I ate cherry pie at the Double R diner (aka Twedes), saw Laura Palmer’s house, walked Ronette’s bridge, and of course went to the Great Northern (aka the Salish Lodge) and saw the waterfall from the opening credits. I may write more about this later. This land and waterfall are sacred to the Snoqualmie People, who wrote in an exhibit on the region, “the rushing waters give us the strength to keep our traditions alive.” I encourage you to visit the Snoqualmie visitors center and museums if you are in the area.

This strange creature is called a “by the wind sailor”. They were scattered all over the beach in Oregon and appear in early spring after a big storm. Since I missed my annual morel hunt in Missouri, I consider this special sighting my ocean morels. I’m not eating them though!

I saw the real Invasion of the Body Snatchers in San Francisco — these cars have no drivers in them! Twenty-first century reality is scarier than twentieth-century science fiction.

I am planning a new article about Texas and Austin, so I won’t share too much yet. But in the midst of unnerving rapid change (those robot cars are in Austin too!), I was relieved to see hundreds of thousands of bats emerge from under Congress Bridge, as they have for decades. This was the first communal moment I had with masses of people awaiting nature to show itself in a timely fashion since I saw Old Faithful explode in 2019 (which I describe in The Last American Road Trip). It felt good to be awed by wildlife with Americans again.

This gun cross was waiting for me when I emerged from the restroom in a rural Oklahoma gas station. It was too high up on the wall for me to check if it was made in China.

I stopped in Muskogee to visit the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, which I also may write about later. I write about Merle Haggard in the section of my book on the “doomed female road trip”, since Haggard’s tough guy hit “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive” (‘I’m on the run, the highway is my home’) was written by female songwriter Liz Anderson.

“See the Civil War — and Reba!” This Oklahoma billboard always makes me laugh.

This is a 66-foot obelisk honoring Route 66 that I discovered at a truck stop between Joplin and Springfield, Missouri. A hundred years ago, there were over 20 of these obelisks all over the US. There are allegedly seven still standing. I have a new road trip plan!