The Book That Will Reimagine What You Think of So Much.
“Redneck Karens: How Texas Learned to Mind Everybody Else’s Business” is a profane, funny, first-person look at the New Texas—where everybody still talks about freedom, but half the state seems ready to call the HOA, the sheriff, the school board, or Facebook on the other half. It moves through South Texas, San Antonio, the Hill Country, ranch life, hunting culture, school politics, social media, luxury “country” living, and the strange new habit of treating every personal annoyance like a public emergency.
The book is already written. This campaign is not raising money so I can someday sit down and start writing it. The manuscript is finished at roughly 41,000 words. Crowdfunding will help pay for the professional edit, cover and interior design, ISBNs, first print run, audiobook production, and the other costs of publishing it independently through our own publishing company, Route Three Publishing House.
By backing the campaign, you’re helping launch the first title from Route Three Publishing House and helping keep the book independent, raw, local, and in the voice it was written in. No committee sanding off the profanity. No corporate focus group deciding Texas needs to be more polite. Just a finished book getting the professional production it deserves and going directly to the people who want to read it.
This Book Has A Purpose
The purpose of Redneck Karens is not simply to make fun of difficult people, although there is plenty of that. The larger purpose is to look at what has happened to Texas as growth, social media, surveillance, politics, consumer culture, HOAs, school-board battles, and lifestyle branding have changed the way people relate to one another. At the center of the book is a simple contradiction: we still talk constantly about freedom, but more and more of us seem determined to control how everybody else lives.
The book also asks what parts of the old Texas are actually worth preserving. Not the racism, cruelty, ignorance, or nostalgia for a past that was never perfect. What is worth preserving are things like privacy, humility, neighborliness, personal responsibility, a sense of humor, and the ability to disagree with somebody without immediately trying to punish them. Sometimes the most civilized thing one person can say about another is, “I don’t like it, but it’s none of my damn business.”
Ultimately, this is a book about making room for other people. It is about recognizing that freedom only means something when the other son of a bitch gets some too. And it is about trying to hold onto the character, weirdness, humor, and independence that make Texas feel like Texas without turning the whole place into one giant HOA meeting.
Totally Fan Centered
Everything that I do is centered around the words that I write and the fans that read them. If you know me, you understand that independence and autonomy are at the heart of everything that you and I do together. That is why you guys always get first crack at the work and the projects and the perks that come with them. Of course, I know that you like limited moving parts, no bullshit, and a limited number of hands in the pot. That is why I believe so strongly in direct support for every single project. Thank you for supporting my projects! Enjoy the perks!