I’m writing a book. It’s called The First 30 Trips. 

Wanna read it?

I am looking to expand my group of early readers! Get access to a pre-release version of the book before its published. All you have to do is tell me what you think.

Sure, what’s it about?

The First 30 Trips is a memoir-in-essays that explores a failed search for self through work and the adventures that happen along the way. It’s thoughtful, funny, and often unbelievable as the stories stretch from flying through the bush of Alaska, to landing rockets on the high seas, to starting real work of self-discovery, and going everywhere else in-between.

The book is constructed as 30 stories from the first 30 years of my life, broken into five sections:

  • A youth spent growing up in rural Alaska, flying groceries to communities beyond the road system. Navigating the questions of youth from the right seat of a plane, until the death of a loved one lights a fuse I didn’t know existed.

  • Taken from Kurt Vonnegut’s promise to a friend, The Children’s Crusade follows a small group of engineers as they transform an old launch site on California’s Central Coast.

    The days are long, the work is impossibly hard, and I begin to realize that we each have some special thing we lack; something we pursue as we raise the site up out of dirt and lose ourselves in the quest of a first launch.

  • The promise of landing the first rockets from the edge of space on a barge at sea kicks off a series of adventures that span from shipyards along the Louisiana bayou, to tense negotiations in Belgium, to possible corporate espionage in the Bahamas. Of course, somewhere in the middle we try to land rockets.

    I begin to realize that there is no limit to what the work will ask - or take - from any of us. And I see that our egos and identities are so enmeshed with the stories we tell ourselves about our jobs, that I hardly notice as the last bit of my actual self slips away.

    I find myself on the bow of the ship one night, somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, having survived a harrowing swing on a rope between two ships in a storm, finally finding my limit.

  • Back home in Alaska, the quiet of a long winter provides needed rest. But it also lets uncomfortable questions catch up while news of a new arrival force hard decisions and the real of my life to begin.

  • Exploring the joys of a simpler life, after nearly losing everything. My task of exploring these thirty moments over thirty years complete, I set them down; they are no longer me. I prepare to cross the threshold, hopeful about the next thirty years and the new adventures they’ll bring, now that I can leave old stories behind.

How does it work?

It’s pretty easy, really. Just fill out the form below and indicate if you’d like to try one chapter, a certain section, or take on the whole thing. I’ll email you a copy of the book. All I ask is that you read it and tell me what you think! What works, what doesn't, and what stuck with you after you were done. Occasionally I might follow up with a few more questions, but if I do, I’ll buy you a coffee ☕.

Check out a chapter I posted on my Substack if you want to see how the book feels before signing up.

When you’re ready, just fill out this form to get your first chapter!