Greetings from Austin, beautiful people! Today’s email will be short and to the point (keep an eye out for the regularly scheduled more extended essay tomorrow)! My second book, This Way to the Stars: A History of the Hero, is now officially available in paperback and on Kindle on Amazon.
Here’s a look at the description from the back cover:
Heroes.
They have been with us since the beginning. Their stories shaped our ancestors. Their journeys tell timeless truths about the fundamental nature of being. And their myths have always moved us—pointing us toward what it means to be good and live well.
By spending time with them, we are ennobled. By studying their way, we see how we might join this invisible community of those dedicated to the True, Good, and Beautiful.
In A History of the Hero, Huisman first outlines the Hero’s Way—a model of adventure and transformation running through hero myths that individuals can use as a map for self-development. Huisman then traces the development of the Western ideal through the stories of the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. We follow Gilgamesh on his search for immortality, Odysseus through the high seas, Aeneas out of a fallen Troy, David confronting Goliath, the Knights of the Roundtable on their quest for the Holy Grail, and many more.
Rooted in a retelling true to the original sources, Huisman’s book is both a reference book for scholars of all ages and a tool for anyone seeking the transcendent.
Where better to learn of the Light than from those closest to it?
This way, to the stars.
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For those who prefer to listen, a sample of the Audiobook (which I am still recording) is available on YouTube (below) and Spotify.
Through the first four days since the book’s release, we’ve managed to crack the top ten in Ancient & Classical Literature (see below).
What, you might ask, are the sales that correspond with these rankings? Not as much as you might think! A modest 53 orders. Honestly, I’m just happy that anyone wants to read what I write, so 53 is a win.
As a creator, I think it’s probably a natural desire to have your work “accepted” by the world, with the default metric measuring our success on that front being sales. Something inside sees sales, likes, and views as weights on a worthiness meter. Perhaps it’s because of the muscles that social media has strengthened in us. Or maybe it’s just technology’s way of amplifying what’s been a core need in us since the beginning.
Either way, having been through this part of the book release process twice now, a few reminders always return me to a proper perspective.
The first (for when I start to become overly concerned with sales): it’s who you are, not what you create (or what you own), that makes you worthy. This is the principle of non-attachment taught by gurus of nearly all philosophies and religions. “Nothing except the soul is worthy of wonder.”1 Not sales. Not likes. Not wealth. As long as your soul smiles back when you look in the mirror, the rest doesn’t matter.
The second (for when the seeds of resentment and jealousy start to stir under the soil and ask, “why aren’t more people buying your book?”): “Don’t demand an audience with the king or push for a place among the great. It’s better to wait for an invitation to the head table.”2 The reality of my situation is that I’m still in the infancy of my enterprise. The harsh reality is that I haven’t put in the work required to be great, so to demand my work be received as great is selfish and disrespectful to those who paid in pounds while I have only paid in ounces.
When eternity is your timeline, ten years is nothing. And that’s what writing is for me. The thing I want to do forever because it is an end in itself. The surprise tears of joy that fill me when I’m deep into the research and writing of something I’m passionate about. Nothing beats that. It is God wrapping his arms around me and whispering that I am where I am supposed to be, doing what I am supposed to do.
I pray that each of you finds the same for yourselves. Because the world needs more people to come alive and be fully themselves. In the words of St. Irenaeus: “[t]he glory of God is a human being fully alive!”
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Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter 8: On the Philosopher’s Seclusion.
Proverbs 25:6.