I’m not interested in selling Thrasher t-shirts.

            I’m
not seeking the limelight.

            I
don’t want to be a household name.

            I
don’t want to have a certain “look” every single time my picture gets taken.

            I
don’t want a slogan or a tagline.

            I
don’t ever want to create a Club Thrasher.

            I
don’t want to assume I can charge big bucks to let others hear my thoughts.

            I
don’t want to get used to anybody—anybody—coming to see me and letting me sign a
book for them.

            I
don’t want to be too big to answer my own email or fan notes.

            I
won’t buy into the buzz. Even if the buzz gets too loud to think.

            I’m
not above doing anything.

            I’m
not in this to see my face on some billboard or really anywhere.

            I’m
not doing this in order to one day break out and then slip away.

            There’s
really one thing I want.

            One
thing I care for.

            One
thing that drives me.

            One
thing that inspires the work I do.

            It
has nothing to do with me. With Travis. With www.travisthrasher.com. With hashtag
Thrasher. With FB FANS TRAVESTY.

            All
I want to do is write a good story.

            I
just want to tell a really good tale.

            I
want to surprise and intrigue and surprise a little more.

            I
want to share a little hope. Or a lot hope.

            I
want the words to last with the reader long after they forget my name.

            The
beauty in collaborations is the fact that my name isn’t the first thing you
see.

            A
publisher or an agent or a brand manager or anybody else might say this is a
bad thing, but I love it.

            I
can type and write and structure and create and work and work a little more.
Then the book can be released and it can do its thing.

            I
don’t have to be front and center.

            I
don’t have to be anything.

            All
I have to do is tell an authentic story. All I have to do is work my hardest
and let the rest of the process figure itself out.

            Oh,
I’ll sell books anywhere, and I’ll try anything to let people know about them. I want FB
fans and Twitter followers. But that’s not why I do this.

            Never.

            I
do this because I want to inspire the sort of beautiful hope that stories have
brought to me. That my God and my Savior have shown me. That my family has
offered to me. That life often offers me.

            A
beautiful hope.

            That’s
what I want. Not in my smiling mug or big fat name but in the words on the
page.

            A
beautiful hope.

            The
kind that lingers long after you finish the story.

            The
kind that makes you pick up the book again and check it out.

            The
kind that makes you wonder what else this guy wrote.

            Yeah.
I want people to read all my books—every single one. Let them judge and decide.

            I
want them read because like my children, they all mean something to me.

            I
want them to mean something to others, too.

            But
as for me—as for my brand—as for my name—as for all that . . .

            Whatever.

            All
I long for is a beautiful story full of hope.

            That’s
all.

            That’s
enough.