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DV: So what is Collected Words?
Tucker: Collected Words is five books I’ve written during the last thirty years. The first, Good Morning, was mined from the daily email missives I’ve been sending to my friends every day for eight years. Our Rift is a book of poems. Paddle’s Last Gift is a memoir of our beloved family dog. Dear David is a letter I wrote to my youngest son on his bar mitzvah more than twenty years ago. And Gray Matter is a book of small, experimental essays. A lifetime of work – more than 750 pages. Also useful as a doorstop.
DV: Where can one buy Collected Words?
Tucker: Collected Words is available by subscription only. Details can be found on the publisher’s website, caxtonremus.com. Only copies that have been pre-ordered will be printed. It will not be sold at book stores or online.
DV: Why publish now – after all these years?
Tucker: Covid made me do it. Stuck in quarantine, my mountain of unpublished words stared at me: “Don’t we deserve our chance?” My missive readers had been bugging me for a book. So I figured, Why not?
DV: What are these missives?
Tucker: They’re 600-word daily musings to my pals. I started them eight years ago by accident. Daily Voice was going through a crisis, typical for a start-up. I wanted to let our investors know what was going on each day, so I began these daily bulletins. Then the crisis passed – but some investors said they enjoyed reading what I sent. So a few readers snowballed into a multitude, now all over the world.
DV: How do people get to read your missives?
Tucker: They ask. My email is ctucker@dailyvoice.com. If I think they’d enjoy them, I’m happy to share. If they hate what I write, which sometimes happens, I spare them the pain. Delight or delete – that’s my motto.
DV: So what have you been up to in retirement?
Tucker: My wife, Jane Bryant Quinn, and I wanted to do something exciting and different. So we sold our New York apartment and moved to Rome. We were having the time of our lives exploring Italy and writing about it. Then Covid came, disrupting everybody’s plans. We came home last March, then returned to Rome in August. We plan to divide our time from now on between home and Rome.
DV: Do you miss Daily Voice?
Tucker: Launching Daily Voice was one of my life’s great adventures. Back in 2010, lots of folks knew there had to be reliable, timely community news online, but no one knew how to do it. Our incredible team figured it out. Today, Daily Voice covers more than 100 communities in 5 states and is growing by leaps and bounds. My friends Travis Hardman and Ted Yang are exceptional leaders. I’m proud of what we accomplished together and thrilled to be cheering them on.
