I Have Some News About A Brand-New Thing

Almost five years ago, I had what I thought was a great idea for a book. [ultrasound photo]

And since I didn't know anything about being a dad, I thought I would interview some dads about their parenting experiences. I thought 40 sounded like a nice round number, so I interviewed 40 dads. None of these people were "experts," just guys I knew who had some experience, and I thought maybe some stories + wisdom. I got 26 interviews done, and then our baby arrived, which slowed my progress a bit. But I kept doing interviews, kept editing and condensing them, and creating illustrations for each dad's chapter, like this one: My kid turned four years old in July, which means the book idea is almost five years old. The book itself published on September 17:

Buy the book in hardcover and ebook editions here

In advance of the publication, I hand-wrote a few quotes from some of the dads I interviewed, which I thought captured the spirit of the book pretty well. "I distinctly remember cutting the umbilical cord, and just thinking, 'Well, there goes one half of my life and here comes the rest of it.' I remember I was having a mini—I don't know if it was euphoria or a panic attack—but I just felt that this tightness in my chest just reached a crescendo and broke." —Kurt, Alberta, Canada "For as much joy and happiness that comes with being a parent, there's an equal amount of heartache and agony, and frustration and anger and all these negative things, but they don't weigh the same. At the end of the day, the positives, even if it's an equivalent amount of time, weigh more, in my experience." —Seth, Idaho "I think it's the confidence of ignorance. Because you have no idea how hard it is, you don't think it's hard. You look around and you're like, 'I had a parent, and I've known parents and if they could do it, I could do it. There's billions of parents in the world. How hard could it be?" It was like a two-by-four to the face." —Brian, New Jersey "I always considered myself too selfish to have kids because of the time loss, because of the disposable income loss, the liability, and all those things are true, certainly. I was right, but the upside is worth it. There is one thing I know about myself: That I don't know what I'm going to like or dislike in the future." —Nick, Colorado The book is now available in hardcover + ebook wherever you buy books, and through the links below. I hope the dads in the book can help other parents as much as they've helped me during the past four years.