The idea for the book started while the story was happening. My Pete adventure was so amazing I knew I’d be writing about it when it was over. But when it was over in March 2020, the pandemic hit, and like many of you, I wasn’t feeling my best. I don’t know what finally kicked me into gear in July. Maybe it was the idea of life going on without the story being written. I needed to share my Twitter Travels for Pete story. Much later on, I would realize that the title would need to be changed, but for a year, the name of my podcast was the title of the book.

During the pandemic, I still found coffee shops that were open and wrote my best material surrounded by the sound of espresso machines and the muffled chatter of masked patrons. Of course I wrote a lot at home too, but I needed the energy of the outside world to get me going. Dunn Brothers in Linden Hills Minneapolis has always had just the right writing vibe for me, but sometimes, I’d switch it up and write at the Starbucks in Galleria for more energy. Sovereign Grounds in Minneapolis was my comfy place where I just let the words flow.

I did all of my writing on a cloud-based writing platform, Novlr.org. For some reason, I was more motivated to write on Novlr than to open up a Word document. Maybe it took some of the pressure off.  As time went on, and I shared chapters with the people featured in them, online access to the document on Novlr was a godsend, something I didn’t know I’d need. 

As I wrote, it was becoming apparent that it wasn’t so much a story about me, but rather a story about the campaign, about the Team Pete community. With each completed chapter, I reached out to those mentioned to make sure they approved what I wrote. I realized how meta this was. The Team Pete community was participating in a book about the Team Pete community. That involvement reminded me how meaningful it all was. The book was a tribute to Pete, the Pete for America campaign, and most importantly, all of us.