I opened Word and saw something I haven’t seen in a while. Tabula Rasa. A blank page. Do I still remember how to start one? It feels like we’ve been doing nothing for a whole decade but editing the story of Mark and Jen, and the slow unraveling of their marriage.
Which is kind of true. We started Every Lie We Told in 2017.
But finally, the publication date has arrived (12/1/25), and all the business that goes with it. Forming an LLC, copyrighting. Building a new website and social media presence. Gathering reviews with advanced readers. Updating and reposting blog entries. And editing, editing, editing the manuscript.
See how the page is filling. Not with fiction, though it feels unreal how far we’ve come from where we started. 2017. A lifetime ago, and world events that have aged us all. I escaped a toxic work environment–the one that Mark’s old TV station is modeled on–only to find myself across the river from another in Washington, DC. A symptom of the same sickness. There’s still many regrets about leaving Colorado, but exiting that television station will never be among them.
Whatever the downsides from missing family, and the decades of familiarity with Denver, we’re in striking distance of American History. And New York! Like Mark, we’re instinctually drawn there, every year indulging ourselves with a bite of the Big Apple.
I won’t speak for my wife and writing partner, but I don’t think she’d disavow any of this. For now, she’s sitting across from me, reading through the proof of Every Lie We Told with a pencil, pretending she’s an editor in a NY publishing house. Occasionally she asks for input on rephrasing, but she wants to be finished before dinner and is racing to the final chapter. After that, there’ll be no time to lose in promoting our book before its debut. So another blank screen is a while off.
Now look. The one I started with tonight has already filled up. It still has to be approved, edited, and proofread (to be done by Julie) (already done—thanks, Julie), but something will have come from nothing again.