My book, This is Not A Confession, published by Awst Press will drop in a little over fourteen weeks. April 22nd, to be exact. And as we get closer to that date, I’ve been wanting to tell you something. Okay, I don’t really want to tell you this. (And my publisher probably doesn’t want me to tell you this, either.) But here it is, anyway: You may not want to recommend my book to your easily-offended Aunt Marsha, your church pastor, or anybody else who you deem sensitive to graphic sexual content.
The reason I feel compelled to mention this is that a lot of you have come to know me through my dog photography and captions, which are sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but often full of some awfully big warm-and-fuzzies. While This is Not a Confession hopefully contains all of the above (I am afflicted with a condition where I tend to throw in random warm-and-fuzzies in spite of myself) it also contains a heavy dose of the disturbing and an extra-large prophylactic full of the sex.
So here is my disclaimer to you all, the people who follow my writing and photography on my blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Tumblr:
While they don’t make up the majority of the stories in the book, there are several pieces in it that contain graphic depictions of sex. More importantly, since these stories are nonfiction, they contain graphic depictions of me having sex, both as a small child and as an adult.
In short: This is not a book of dog photos (really, it isn’t). Also, this is not a tuck-little-Jimmy-into bed book.
That said, this is still my writing, and if you know my writing you know that I’m not setting out to shock for the sake of shocking (even if I could). I’m still setting out to do what I always aim to do: use language in fun ways to find meaning.
To life.
To ourselves.
To being human.
I hope you will read it. Like any writer, I always hope people will read the things I’ve written and that those things will resonate with them in some way.
It’s pretty much the most important thing to me.
Now, here — have a photo of a postcard that looks like the cover and describes the book:
And here’s the blurb in text in case you find the above hard to read:
Through these powerful and insightful essays, David Olimpio explores the residual effects of sexual abuse, divorce, and grief. With surprising candor and a disarming sense of humor, Olimpio takes on the outwardly-wholesome landscape of his childhood spent in a suburban Houston neighborhood and the complex sexual relationships in his adult life. Both poignant and poetic, This is Not a Confession leaves us with a sense that our identities have the power to transcend our circumstances.
Presales for This is Not A Confession start January 22nd!
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