“The Empty-Nest Road Trip Blues”

Being an author myself, I seem to know a disproportionate number of other authors, and it’s a rare week that one of my friends isn’t announcing the publication of a new tech book or even a work of fiction. Great fun and, of course, it’s always fascinating to compare my knowledge of them and their public persona with the narrative style of their book. Often their written work is an extension of themselves, as I expect this blog has a voice and perspective that’s in alignment with my own views and opinions (though with a few less profanities woven in for color).

Still, the written word, and the digital word in the case of ebooks and Kindle editions, has a certain import to it and seems far less ephemeral than this sort of jibber-jabber blog prose or, worse, a status update on Facebook or Tweet, so it’s still terrific cool when a friend announces something’s up and available.

Move into the fatherhood realm and it’s truly an honor to get to know some of the most influential voices in the world of dad’s rights, male perspectives on parenting, fatherhood advocacy, and similar.

Which all leads up to why I’m so excited by the publication of my friend Bruce Sallan’s new Kindle journal The Empty-Nest Road Trip Blues.

It’s cool for a couple of reasons, actually, one of which is that it really demonstrates the potential of an interactive digital book in a way that the latest digital version of a print book doesn’t. Bruce embeds seven videos directly in his book (along with over 100 photos). Videos. In an ebook. How cool is that?

More importantly, the story itself is touching and while I’m not quite in the same position, with my eldest in 10th grade, it’s not too far down the road that I’ll be taking her on a road trip, dropping her off at her out-of-state college of choice and… driving home without her. (sigh)

In The Empty Nest Road Trip Blues, Bruce shares the adventure he had with his oldest son Arnie, driving from Los Angeles to Boston in time for Arnie to start college at The Berklee College of Music. Eight days and about 3000 miles. That’s a lot of driving but it’s also a long expanse of solo time for the two of them to talk about life, what’s yet to come, and what’s happened in the past.

And that’s much of what Bruce explores, in a book that’s reminiscent of the self-reflective Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, another book I really enjoyed when I read through it a while back.

Whether you have a child heading off to college or not, if you’d like to get a sense of how us fathers think about the journey of life our children are on and how we strive to help them be successful as best we can, I encourage you to check out Bruce Sallan’s The Empty Nest Road Trip Blues.