The Quiet Before the Storm (Sort Of?)

This final week of March--and before the 2013 baseball season--is kind of an odd one here in the Kensington office. I just did my fantasy draft tonight and feel pretty good about my team (which isn't hard to do when you're in an eight team mixed league). But all things baseball seem kind of in suspended animation until next week. To wit:

--Our deadline for Zisk issue #22 is Friday, so on Monday I'll be going over the final layout and sending last minute text to Mike to edit before we hit the copier one of these first two weekends of April.

--We'll be getting the hard copies of Fan Interference the second of week of April to do our last edits before the book goes to press and comes out on June 17th.

--Our book tour is coming together, but there's not enough confirmed yet to announce anything. I feel like a band that knows they'll be on the road, but can't tell their fans anything yet.

--I haven't watch one swing of one spring training game this year because I knew the extra long, WBC-filled spring training would be boring for me, commentators and at this point, the players. That is a first for me. And it makes me wonder if my brain will switch on to full on baseball mode on Monday. Perhaps it will take a while to warm up to regularly watching a team (the Mets) that I know will be bad. (And that's nothing to say of how much I dislike the dishonest owners. It really has colored everything I feel about them. I watch sports to escape reality--and the Wilpons have taken that away from me. Sigh)

--Even the Kickstarter (thanks again to those who pledged) project is in a holding pattern. All the extras have been sent out to pledgers, but then we've got a whole lot of books to sign for those that ordered autographed copies. My wrist needs this entire 2 months to get ready for that signing marathon.

Well, that's about where we are at in Zisk land. Once we get closer to publication of issue 22 next month and the book in June, we'll hopefully have more consistent updates. I'll also be blogging and Tweeting every day on tour, so by late July you'll be sick of reading my baseball-related ramblings.

A Zisk Video Update 1/23/13!!!

Kickstarter Thanks!

One of the levels of our Kickstarter campaign for Fan Interference: A Collection of Baseball Rants and Reflections was a thank you on the Zisk website for supporting us.

In that spirit, I'd like to thank Cassie M. and Caryn Rose for their support of our campaign. Caryn is a great writer, and I encourage you to pick up her most recent book about following Bruce Springsteen throughout Europe titled Raise Your Hand.

Fan Interference will be published this June. Stay tuned for more details and dates for our book tour!

The Final Kickstarter Total

$3,318.

That is amazing. Both Mike and I are overwhelmed by the support for the Zisk book  Fan Interference: A Collection of Baseball Rants and Reflections. We think you'll find that the money you pledged is more than worth it.

We'll keep you updated on our progress here, on the Zisk the Book Facebook page and on Twitter (@ziskthebook).

(And if you've contributed to Zisk in the past, you'll be hearing from us within the next six weeks if a piece of yours made our publisher's cut.)

We Did It!

Tonight the Kickstarter for the Zisk anthology Fan Interference crossed its goal of $3000. We couldn't have done it without such great loyal readers. We're still accepting pledges for the next five days--any moeny we raise over our goal will go into the book's production and promotion.

Seriously, thank you all so very much.

#CYDickey

Yes, that's the best hashtag of the year. (Follow us @Ziskthebook, by the way.)

It's been a bizarre few years being a Mets fan. 2013 isn't going to be much better. Logically, trading R.A. Dickey and David Wright for a haul of prospects as the front office focuses on 2014 as the time to contend make sense. But as Newsday writer David Lennon Tweeted tonight, "May be naive of me, but can't the Mets at least wait until midseason to deal Dickey? Let him get trophy and pitch Opening Day. Save some face at least." I realy, really would like to see that happen. Which, of course, means, Dickey will be gone by Thanksgiving.

Fucking Wilpons.

New Fan Interference News!

Josh Wilker has agreed to write the introduction for the forthcoming Fan Interference. This is amazing news.


Josh is such a good writer he could write a truly compelling book about The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training. Yes, that's the second Bad News Bears movie.

In fact, he did write such a book. It's part of Soft Skull's Deep Focus series:

http://softskull.com/bad-news-bears-in-breaking-training/

Josh also has a critically acclaimed book and website called Cardboard Gods, a.k.a. "Voice of the Mathematically Eliminated":

http://cardboardgods.net/

We are very honored that Josh will be contributing to our book. You can contribute by pledging to our Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/47069349/the-zisk-anthology

We've got nine days left to raise $900. So please pledge now!