I think I pitched this as a parody of a bestselling book by the radio talk-show host Dr. Laura, but once I started writing, it became something else. At the time, I was writing full-time, no job, a new baby and I was just starting to figure out how I wanted to write. There are excesses and outright mistakes in here that make me cringe, but I think it has enough nice moments that I reread it sometimes . . . maybe just to recapture for a moment that innocent energy for creation I had back then. And the advice isn’t too bad, despite all the faults.

1. Avoid Racing.

A big, glossy mainstream magazine asked me to explain mountain bike racing to its readers once. It’s like a ballet in a mosh pit, I told them. They didn’t get it, and I was somehow glad when they didn’t publish the article. They’d never raced bicycles and never would. They didn’t deserve to know.

Bike racing changes you. It makes you faster, and it makes you harder, and it gives you better stories and it finds you new friends. It teaches you new skills and it makes you less likely to complain when the temperature in the car isn’t just right or you step in a puddle on the way to work. Lots of kinds of racing do that, though. What’s special about bike racing is, of course, the bike. The machine is perfect for what you ask it to do and where you ask it to do it. You’ll never completely understand bikes unless you race. You don’t have to become a racer. But you have to race. At least once.