Monday memory: Rise and Fall

Good things come to those who wait.

Originally I was going to write this as a Saturday promo piece, but the more I thought about it, the more I remembered the whole process of writing my most recent book, The Rise and Fall of the TEA Party - and How it Elected Donald Trump. (I simply call it Rise and Fall as shorthand.) So I made the executive decision to create a Monday Memory because those are more unique to my schedule, and there were a lot of memories. I suppose if you were a fan of monoblogue or followed my social media back in the time I was writing the book - a process which began in August 2016 for a tome that was released for the tenth anniversary of the Tax Day TEA Parties in April 2019 - you’re probably familiar with some of the story, but my recent Substack readers are not.

Rise and Fall was a labor of love that began once I resigned from the Wicomico County Republican Central Committee back in August, 2016. I had served nearly ten years on the body, starting with my election in 2006. I won two terms, but lost my second attempt at re-election in 2014; however, since I was also the Secretary I could remain on the committee as a non-voting member. About a year later I was re-appointed to the WCRCC thanks to a vacancy and served until my resignation, borne out of frustration that an otherwise sane GOP had nominated Donald Trump, who wasn’t conservative, but a populist. (Initially I backed former Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, but voted for Ted Cruz when the Maryland primary finally came around.)

It was at that time that my book idea was hatched, since to me the nomination of Trump was the opposite of what the TEA Party intentions were. I pretty much kept it to myself and a small circle of friends that I was doing this, but on December 1, 2016 I announced it to the world of social media:

To introduce and market my forthcoming book, tonight I have created a Facebook page. It's another labor of love for me, but instead of using previous blog posts as the fodder for the book this will be all original writing and research.

I'm giving this an early start to help gin up interest in the book. Since the bulk of my Facebook friends know me from the political world I'm hoping they spread the word as I update them on my progress. Over the weekend I finished the initial draft of chapter 2 (of at least 10) so I have a good start!

(By the way, December 1 is a significant date for me because that was the date I began monoblogue back in 2005. It was also the date when I started my first architectural job in 1986.)

Over the ensuing months I would update the readers of my page about its progress. One thing I often did was a word count, which was a habit I got from a now-departed and sadly missed acquaintance of mine, Joe Steffen. Steffen was a political official in the Bob Ehrlich administration in Maryland nicknamed the “Prince of Darkness” so I knew him from my political and blogging exploits, but he was also a fiction writer and his word counts were how he would track his progress online. I liked the idea, so I adopted it as well.

When I first began Rise and Fall, the idea was to have a book of between 80,000 and 100,000 words. It would examine the beginnings of the TEA Party, which I assumed was “Santelli’s Rant” back in February 2009, and examine how it collapsed in a heap when Trump was nominated.

But as I found out in doing a LOT of research and reading, the seeds of the TEA were planted in several places, the most prominent being Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential run. Initially, the TEA Party had a very libertarian streak in it but that was driven out by the GOP wedging its way in and the influence of social issue advocates (at the time, against both abortion and gay marriage.) It also influenced the very 2016 primary season that frustrated me so, although I didn’t realize it at the time. But I’m getting ahead of myself, and you’ll see the fruits of this over the coming weeks.

The second key era of Rise and Fall came after I had worked on the book through 2017. This came on New Year’s Eve of 2017:

When the year started, my draft was 13,151 words in 4 chapters and an introduction. Yesterday I passed the 60,000 word mark (60,294) and I have at least started all 15 chapters I am envisioning, plus the introduction that was expanded recently as well. It may not seem like a lot of progress over the year but bear in mind I had to do a hiatus of several months because I was working two “real” jobs, plus moving, plus trying to put a little content into my “home” website of monoblogue, plus weekly writing at The Patriot Post. Now I have just one job, so time is less tight – a better gauge is how I've done just this month, which has expanded the draft by over 15,000 words. If I can keep that pace I should be done in the next 2 to 3 months, but that will also take some cooperation as you'll see as you read further.

With this milestone in my rear-view mirror, I think it's time to begin seeking the right publisher. Obviously most of the books I've used in my research (and others in the same vein) were published by houses big and small, so that to me would be a good place to begin. I would rather go through my options there at this point than just revert to self-publishing, because I think there is an animus against self-publishing “serious” work.

And believe me, I tried. I even created a social media page and a website to drum up more interest. But the problem with getting a publisher is that they want people who have made a name for themselves - but how do you get a name for yourself if you don’t get published? Most non-fiction books intended for mass consumption, particularly in the political realm, are written by people who already have a name for themselves - on the other hand, I’m just a guy with a passion for a subject. (Perhaps if I was aware of Substack then, that may have been a solution. But there’s nothing quite like holding your book in your hands.)

By the middle of 2018, it didn’t appear my publisher prospects were all that good, and the book I wanted to have finished by the 2018 election wasn’t going to be out in time because I had no incentive to finish it. So I decided to punt and add the 2018 midterms to the narrative. I also backtracked and decided that self-publishing would have to be the way to go, and I set a new deadline of February, 2019. It turned out I was instead finished by tax day of 2019, although the “official” release on Amazon was a few days later. It was really, really hard to format my book as I wanted, thus the delay.

Besides the book, though, the thing I am proudest of is how I arranged my own promotional tour after its 2019 release. I literally scheduled by myself for myself the twenty or so radio appearances I made, on talk stations all over the country and online. There were a lot of seven-to-ten minute spots there, but a few others I really enjoyed where I had a half-hour or even full-hour segments. I liked those because I felt much less pressure to get my points in and go. And that’s not my comfort zone, nor was the local reading I did. (Luckily, that was pretty much among friends.)

Regardless, as I announced back in September, tomorrow will begin the serialization of Rise and Fall. One chapter will be put up every Tuesday in order to conclude on February 27, 2024, which is the fifteenth anniversary of the initial wave of TEA Parties. (Or, as I call it, TEA Party +15.)

Over the next few days as well, I’ll record podcast #2, which will look at some of these Tax Day TEA Parties and see how they compare to where we are at now.

There are a lot of memories of this time, and I just scraped the surface. I hope they jog your recollection of an exciting time of activism and whet your appetite for future endeavors.

Programming note: My paid subscriber peeps get an extra treat this week: a normal Wednesday post and Podcast #2 on Thursday.

And don’t forget: you can still Buy Me a Coffee, since I have a page there now. Just remember…