About the Book

Forty-one chapters. Five acts. No lessons learned in the order presented.

It’s a book about becoming a father, losing a father, dating like a man who learned romance from fog machines and VHS credits, and the slow realization that self-awareness always shows up a few years late.

There’s a karaoke incident. A crockpot situation involving my groin. A church full of cicadas. A scammer who spent weeks trying to swindle a fictional elderly forest hermit named Betty. A letter my father wrote near the end that I found in a closet box thirty years later, still ending mid-thought.

Some people may remember it differently.

I was mostly trying to explain myself.

My son is twelve.

He’s going quiet the way they do. Becoming a whole person in a room I keep getting locked out of. Answering in syllables. Closing a laptop when I come in, not because there’s anything on it, but because it’s his.

And some nights I catch myself standing near his door, not knocking, running the exact math I spent my entire life accusing my father of running.

It isn’t giving up. It’s just how far away they drift while you’re still standing right there. Loving them completely. In the hallway. Not knowing which word to underline.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brandon Losacker is a writer, designer, filmmaker, and musician in Cincinnati, Ohio.

For more than twenty years, he has made things look better than they are: brands, videos, motion graphics, websites, and entire lives assembled on editing timelines. Twenty years of professional polish, followed by this book, which is the opposite of polish.

He spent nearly thirty years playing in bands, including one that billed itself, with complete sincerity, as Mennonite glam rock. He plays guitar, drums, bass, and keys, sometimes all on the same song and always louder than necessary.

He also makes milestone and memorial films from other people’s memories, which is a strange line of work for a man whose father filmed everything and mostly got eye rolls in return.

He gets it now.

He is also a dad. This is the part he takes seriously.

He has 160 college credits and no degree.

He considers this on brand.

This is his first book.

He would like it on the record that nobody asked him to write it.

THE SHORT VERSION

What is Please Don’t Look at Me (but also please do.)?

Please Don’t Look at Me (but also please do.) is a funny, candid memoir by Brandon Losacker about family, failure, fatherhood, grief, dating, shame, and finding the funny in the fallout.

Who wrote Please Don’t Look at Me?

Brandon Losacker, a Cincinnati writer, designer, filmmaker, musician, and father, wrote Please Don’t Look at Me.

What kind of book is it?

It is a humor memoir told through personal stories that move between embarrassment, family history, grief, fatherhood, relationships, music, and midlife.

Is the manuscript complete?

Yes. The manuscript is complete, with 41 numbered chapters arranged across five acts, plus front matter, a cold open, three field notes, and a coda.

Can I read it online?

Yes. Selected chapters are open to everyone. Every chapter has a public page, while the complete text of gated chapters remains available only to invited readers.