Waterborne is Launched

My second novel, Waterborne: Chronicle of the Clan of Noah, is now fully released and in the hands of readers. As a writer, this is an important moment for several reasons:

• There’s nothing better for a first book than a second. The publishing of a debut novel is a milestone like no other, a significant achievement. But over time a writer’s readership is saturated and the steam of initial release dissipates. A second book reignites this energy like nothing else can. With a second book a writer has a backlist and the reader-writer relationship deepens.
• Let the comparisons begin. Comparison is in our DNA. We compare everything. This helps us make practical sense of our world. And when an author has more than one book, comparison is enabled. And through comparison, the conversation among readers becomes more dynamic.
• Readers begin to hear what a David J. Marsh book sounds like. Hearing an author’s voice in one book is an introduction. Hearing the author’s voice in a second book sets a tone and gives the reader a template, engaging their taste and aesthetic.
• Proof (for myself) I can do this—again. Creative work creates doubt in one’s capabilities. This is the nature of it. Self-doubt is never eradicated. Publishing a project on which you’ve been working for years is the greatest exhibit of admissible evidence, for the defense, in the court of self-doubt.

Thank you to each of you for finding a spot in your reading stack for Waterborne. As you can see—a novel is finished, not by the writer, but by the reader. Thank you for your collaboration with me.