How The Pandemic Inspired This Dublin Man To Follow His Dreams

DUBLIN, CA — Longtime Dublin resident James Morehead may be an engineer by training, but he's a poet at heart.

The Google product manager comes from generations of writers and has been rooted in Dublin for 20 years, slowly accruing a body of work that he'd been posting on his blog.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. The extreme stress and sleepless nights were a catalyst for Morehead to double down on his passion.

"All of these things that were sort of hitting you like a tidal wave" led to the best poetry he'd ever written, he said.

It was too good to just sit on his website, where it would eventually languish after he stopped paying to keep the site online, Morehead said.

No, this poetry was book-worthy, Morehead said. He wanted to continue his family's legacy and see his work displayed in a way that would outlive him — and in a medium in which he had more control.

"It was an important mental shift," Morehead said.

With some encouragement and help from friends and family along the way, Morehead set out on the journey to self-publish what would eventually become "canvas," a collection of poetry from seasons throughout Morehead's life — including some of his earliest works written after his 10th grade writing teacher sparked his interest in poetry. The book is named after the first poem he wrote in 2020 that made him feel like his work was better than ever.

Morehead knew that some stigmatize self-published books as lacking professionalism and sought to create work that looked just as good as anything you'd find on a bookstore shelf. He solicited his father as his editor and friend, artist and "Mythbusters" star Kari Byron to create the cover art, which was made with explosive black powder.

When you have @KariByron creating cover art for your book, you know explosions will be involved! Here is Kari creating the amazing cover for my debut book "canvas" (pre-order https://t.co/JXib9lvcEB or https://t.co/pXnqw71uKU) @amazon @BNBuzz #poetrymonth #poetrylovers 1/3 pic.twitter.com/pxbKWiIa1J
— James Morehead (@dublinranch) April 3, 2021

"They say you can't judge a book by its cover," Morehead said. "That is so untrue."

His suspicions were confirmed when he walked into a local Barnes & Noble with a hardcover copy of his book and the staff was wowed by the quality, he said. It was validation for all of the hard work and research he poured into his self-publishing journey, which he chronicled on his blog.

Morehead is already planning a second book slated for next year and looks forward to seeing "canvas" on sale at Dublin's Barnes & Noble and Pleasanton's Towne Center Books June 15.

And if he got one trip in a time machine, Morehead said, he'd take his grandfather to see his book on the shelves.

Preorder "canvas" on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.