The Project for a New Mythology

Sometimes, You Just Have To Change The Diaper

2009-11-09T18:49:00.000-06:00

I once volunteered to babysit the son of a couple of dear friends so they could spend some time together without worrying about the baby. I forget how old he was a that time, but he was still in diapers and mobile. Not a terribly good combination for someone who had previously never changed a diaper before. But I marched right in to help out my friends, and hoped I’d be lucky enough that the baby wouldn’t make a mess while I was on duty.

I’ve never had good luck. About an hour into my duties, the baby made a doody. So, I made an effort to change the diaper. It was dismal. He wouldn’t stop squirming, wouldn’t stop giggling about it, and certainly wouldn’t listen to reason. There I was, a grown man with a moist towelette, trying to negotiate with an obstinate two-year-old with poop smeared all over his butt. A baby covered in shit doesn’t care that he’s covered in shit as long as the diaper is off.

Finally, I quit trying to reason with the poop-covered baby, picked him up, tucked him under my arm like he was a football, and I cleaned the crap off him despite the crying and struggling.

It was a valuable lesson I learned that day: sometimes, obstinate, unreasonable, screaming babies covered in poop should just be washed and re-diapered whether they like it or not. At that point, trying to treat them like dignified little human beings is uncalled for, if not outright impossible. Ignore their crying and simply do what’s best for them.

This is how I feel about every religious/social conservative, Faux News watching, Rush Limbaugh listening, Tea Bagger. They’re just a bunch of screaming, shit covered babies.

People who are so obstinately, aggressively, and willfully ignorant that they can look at a Hawaiian birth certificate and still be convinced Obama was born in Kenya - who can be on Medicare and carry protest signs demanding that the government stay out of their healthcare - who don’t want to pay taxes but want to be protected from criminals and terrorists by those public servants called cops, or bitch and moan about the poor quality of roads and highways, the slow response of the sand trucks on icy mornings, the long lines at the DMV, and then panic every time they’re told Social security will go bankrupt - are just not mentally mature enough to be part of the public debate. They are simply shit-covered babies who need to be cleaned up and put to bed for a nap while the grown-ups go have a serious conversation about how to fix the economy and provide for a secure national future where everyone has an equal chance to grown up healthy and educated regardless of their social class, racial background, sexual orientation, or - yes - conservative or liberal leanings.

But letting shit-covered, screaming babies like Limbaugh, Faux News, and Sarah Palin into the public debate when they have nothing constructive to contribute but fistfuls of flung poop, isn’t helping. It’s just making the mess worse.

Some people may argue that there are big shit-covered liberal babies out there - maybe, but I’ll bet you money that if you put the belligerent shit-covered conservative babies down for a nap, the liberal ones will quiet right down.

Because, let’s face it, I would not have ended up tucking that kid under my arm if he hadn’t first made a mess of himself and then refused to be cleaned up.

Just Sayin'

2009-11-07T13:57:00.001-06:00

see more Funny Graphs

Great Big To-Do List (But Short)

2009-11-05T06:32:00.000-06:00

Here it is, November, and The Evolution of Shadows has been loose in the world - officially - for about 18 days and I’m at the point now where I no longer know what to expect next.

I suppose that’s a good thing. It’s now time to move on to other things, especially since I finally sent the manuscript for my second novel off to my editor, Fred Ramey. My natural inclination is to be critical of myself (and of the mss), but I’m going to refrain because, well, that’s what’s expected of me.

Besides, there is plenty more to do.

1) Get the next issue of The Project for a New Mythology ready. My idea for binding it this time is, well, complicated. That means I’ve got to get a mock-up put together to make sure it’s feasible and can be done quickly with a small staff of volunteers (probably just me). Most of the issue will be essays this time, but I do have some poetry and prose submissions that have trickled in that I may include.

2) Resurrect my third novel that was unfairly abandoned because of a person who shall remain nameless, and the sudden relocation from Boulder to Wichita. This is going to be a task. The project was already about 300 pages - and really, really, complicated. I called it my Kitchen-sink-conspiracy-theory book because it was all about the conspiracy of kitchen sinks . . . ((pause) - See, I’m not funny). Anyway . . . . because there’s so much going on in it, I’ve decided that I’m going to use it as an excuse to try a new writing program. I’ve been scoping them out for years. They all offer outline functions, character tracking and charting functions, whiteboard functions - basically all the stuff I used to keep in an assortment of college ruled composition books (which are often bloody hard to find, by the way). I love Moleskine’s but they’re just too expensive to use for this kind of work - especially with the sloppy way I take notes and jot down ideas. I’m not even sure the program I’ve decided to go with (Copywrite) will actually work completely with the way I write, so I’m augmenting it with a few other things: namely a note organizing program called Notes and another called Personal Brain. And, of course, there’s always MacJournal that works as my catch-all. We’ll see how it goes. The first step is to get the existing 300 pages, plus all my notes into these programs. It doesn’t sound very fun, but the story is so complex and I’ve been away from it for so long, there’s really no choice.

See, short - but big.

Are Schools Killing Creativity?

2009-11-04T19:45:00.001-06:00

Tragically, Not Glenn Beck

2009-11-03T22:58:00.001-06:00

Presented with minimal comment.

Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck

J Quinn Malott on the Kansas CW

2009-11-03T20:58:00.000-06:00

That's Not Funny

2009-10-27T21:13:00.000-05:00

There was recently a long review of my book done by an occasional commenter here on the blog. Scaea wrestled with some things and it was a positive review overall. It was actually kind of like being back in a writing workshop; the criticism was useful.

The only part I can solidly take issue with is the bit about humor. It’s not that I disagree with the suggestion of using humor, nor any of the assertions concerning humor’s abilities to sneak past people’s defenses.

It’s that I suck at it.

I’m good with funny anecdotes delivered in person, but that’s just because I can be very animated and rely heavily on anger-comedy and self-deprecation (think George Carlin or Lewis Black with a bit of Woody Allen - except I’m nowhere near as funny as any of those guys). Plus, in person, I don’t use humor to get past other people’s defenses, I use it as a defense. That doesn’t translate well to the written page.

So far, if there’s been humor in my fiction, it’s been accidental, which is the worst kind. That doesn’t mean I haven’t tried. I’ve tried to write humor. I used to be a big fan of Tom Robbins and tried, for a while, to imitate his style, but it was horribly unsuccessful. I’ve even tried writing a play or two that was intended to be a comedy. It sucked.

Essentially, it’s a tremendous difficulty to try to be funny on the page, and an effort that’s 98% doomed. I simply don’t imagine that way - if that makes sense.

Let's Talk About Disgust Part III

2009-10-27T17:56:00.000-05:00

In an opinion piece that appeared Tuesday in the Wichita Eagle, written by Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post Writers Group (should tell you something right there), yet another person tried to make the case that the 30 Republicans who voted against Senator Franken’s amendment to a recent defense bill did “the right thing.”

She buried her argument amid mounds of posturing against rape and even came out against companies trying to use binding, private arbitration to resolve criminal accusations against employees, but her ultimate argument is nonetheless specious.

Here’s the important paragraph:

In fact, the reason some Republicans objected is that the amendment was overbroad and might not be enforceable. The latter possibility was raised by the Defense Department in a letter to senators, saying that the department or its contractors “may not be in a position to know about such things. Enforcement would be problematic.”

(Read more: http://www.kansas.com/opinion/story/1028561.html#ixzz0VBFpgeRV).

Problematic enforcement is no kind of reason to avoid doing the right thing - and the right thing to do was to vote for that amendment, as imperfect as it may have been, to send a very simple message: companies cannot bury their crimes in the arbitration graveyard because they don’t want the bad publicity and the possible economic hit they may take from a criminal or civil case.

Instead these 30 Republicans, Senators Brownback and Roberts included, sent a very clear signal to corporations that, despite the amendment’s passage, they stand willing protect the corporation’s economic interests over the rights of individual citizens, even if those individual citizens are gang raped.

It’s over the top to accuse Brownback and Roberts of being directly “pro-rape.” I’m sure they would be very much against the rape of their wives or daughters or sisters or mothers. And I’m sure they are adequately appalled by why happened to Jamie Leigh Jones. The problem is they are much more slavishly devoted to corporate patronization than they are appalled by rape. They’re willing to look the other way, ignore people’s suffering, as long as they get the political backing they lust after.

Brownback and Roberts aren’t pro-rape, they’re just callous and afraid of offending the lunatic fringe of America.

A Bad One

2009-10-27T06:39:00.000-05:00

This may be the hardest thing to explain, but all the positive reviews were making me uncomfortable. Now, there’s a bad one and I’m a bit relieved. Somebody hated it - now I have someone to fight with.

It’s not that I think the person was particularly correct about anything. But people do have their opinions and a bad review, like that one guy in the fiction workshop who doesn’t like anything, is a good leveling agent in that it keeps me from thinking I’m infallible. It’ll keep me from slacking off.

It is the darker version of what James Tate’s poem “Teaching the Ape To Write Poems” does for me. Reminds me that I am, after all, just a hairless ape with a keyboard (and so is the reviewer).

There was one earlier review that wasn’t exactly bad, but, to me, it wasn’t exactly good either. I’m not going to name names or rattle cages, but I will say that the writing in this lukewarm review was worse than the writing in my book.

Anyway. Take your pick. The bad review from Curled Up, or the good review from Publisher’s Weekly, or, better yet, the starred review from Library Journal.

Meh.

Let's Talk About Disgust Part II Why Sam Brownback, Pat Roberts and those who defend them are douchebags

2009-10-17T19:29:00.000-05:00

I posted a link to the Daily Show’s bit about 30 Republican senators voting against Al Franken’s “No Government contracts for Gang Rapists” amendment on Facebook.

An acquaintance tried to defend Brownback and Roberts and the rest of the gang of 30, stating that Franken’s amendment was nothing but political bullshit designed as a gift to trial lawyers. He then went on to state that Jamie Leigh Jones was not denied the ability to pursue criminal charges against the men who raped her, she was just barred from suing Halliburton and KBR.

At first, I thought about giving my acquaintance the benefit of the doubt. Apparently, this acquaintance didn’t know that much about the case. But then I realized no, there’s no reason to offer someone the benefit of the doubt when it comes to gang rape, false imprisonment, denial of medical treatment, and destruction of evidence.

So, just to make sure there is no confusion here about Franken’s amendment and the fact that it is in no way a “gift” to trial lawyers or a bunch of political bullshit, let’s review the case.

All statements will be paraphrased from the following sources:

Wikipedia page on Jamie Leigh Jones
ABC article
The Age article
Guardian UK article

Jamie was drugged into unconsciousness and then gang raped by seven KBR/Halliburton firefighters in the Iraqi Green Zone.

Jamie awoke the next day “naked and severely bruised, with lacerations to her vagina and anus, blood running down her leg, her breast implants ruptured, and her pectoral muscles torn – which would later require reconstructive surgery.”

A US Army doctor was brought in to examine her and a rape kit was completed.

The rape kit was handed over to KBR officials and Jamie was locked in a trailer under armed guards, denied food, water, and further medical treatment. The rape kit would conveniently be “lost” for the next two years.

She was told that if she reported it or tried to leave Iraq for medical treatment she would be out of a job with KBR both in Iraq and in Houston.

Jamie was able to convince one of her guards to let her use a cell phone. She contacted her father, who got in touch with Texas Representative Ted Poe (a Republican) who, in turn, contacted the State Department.

State Department officials in Iraq retrieved Jamie and brought her home to Texas.

Without the rape kit, and with Jamie only able to identify one of her attackers, criminal proceedings were unlikely. Also, KBR claimed they were protected from prosecution by CPA order 17. And, although a section of the US Code provides for jurisdiction by the DOJ, the DOJ has not yet filed any criminal charges and it does not appear that they will.

In May 2007, a State Dept. diplomat recovered the rape kit (which never should have been handed over to KBR in the first place), but the kit is missing the important notes and photographs taken by the Army doctor. Without the notes and photographs, criminal prosecution is next to impossible due to a lack of evidence.

Jamie and her family and lawyers, unable to pursue a criminal case, chose the civil courts as a path to justice. However, KBR states that the terms of Jamie’s employment contract require that she enter into private arbitration with KBR.

KBR has won over 80% of its arbitration cases, including sexual assault cases similar to Jamie’s. Also, under the terms of this private arbitration, there would be no public record, no criminal charges, and no recourse if arbitration were to go against Jamie. In other words, Jamie’s brutal victimization would have an 80% chance of going completely unpunished.

Finally, in September 2009, the 5th circuit court of appeals decided that Jamie’s case should be tried in open court.

Also in September, Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, the senators from Kansas, voted in favor of stripping government funds to ACORN because a few gullible employees were caught in a sting operation by two “Conservative activists” posing as a pimp and a hooker looking for way to beat government taxes. Although some unwise ACORN employees did attempt to answer the poseur’s questions, no actual crime was committed and a number of ACORN employees didn’t fall for it and some even contacted police - but ACORN still lost its government contract to help with the next US Census.

Just last week, Senator Al Franken added an amendment to a defense spending bill that would deny government contracts to companies, like KBR, that have placed clauses in their employment contracts requiring that employees working overseas go through arbitration instead of seeking criminal or civil proceedings in all complaints against the company.

Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts voted against Franken’s amendment because they must believe it’s OK to give government money (our tax dollars) to companies that have employees who gang rape a female employee, lock her up behind armed guards, deny her medical treatment, threaten her with the loss of her job, destroy evidence, and and then try to avoid any public accountability for those criminal acts.

To say that voting against Franken’s amendment is standing up to political bullshit, or preventing the enrichment of trial lawyers, is simply morally reprehensible. The ACORN vote established the principle that it’s OK to strip a government contract from a group for giving hypothetical answers to hypothetical questions from a fake pimp. But for 30 Republicans, Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts being two of them, it’s just political theatre the strip a government contract from a group that committed a real crime and then tried to cover up that crime.

Fake crime = no government cheese for you.

Real crime = Here’s billions of dollars for you, and we’ll turn a blind eye the next time some of your employees decide to drug, gang rape, and imprison one of your own employees.

Franken’s amendment is indirect justice. Franken’s amendment is good politics, proposed for the right reasons - to ensure that Americans working abroad, can’t have their right to seek justice for crimes committed against them heard in open court.

Corporations are not more important than people. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts need to learn that.

Pat Roberts needs to be voted out of office, and Sam Brownback should not be elected the Governor of Kansas.

Let's Talk About Disgust.

2009-10-17T10:45:00.000-05:00

Let’s talk about disgust. In fact, let’s talk about naked, blatant, disregard for human beings and sick, pandering to corporations.

In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang raped by her Haliburton/KBR co-workers. Then locked in a shipping container, and denied treatment, and outside contact until someone assigned to guard her took mercy and loaned her a cell phone. She was told that a clause in her contract prohibited her from filing charges against Haliburton/KBR.

Sen. Al Franken proposed an amendment to a recent defense bill that would deny government contracts to companies that have clauses in their contracts that bar employees from filing criminal charges in cases like Jamie’s.

Both Kansas Senators voted AGAINST this amendment. Sen. Sam Brownback and Sen. Pat Roberts.

Brownback and Roberts took the side of the rapists.

Link to a video and more links, including the original news piece.

Volume 4 2009-2010 Issue of The Project For a New Mythology

2009-10-15T05:49:00.000-05:00

I’ve been busy this year. However, I have a plan.

Volume 4 will be a “themed” issue. I have a few pointed questions I’d like to ask a few selected writers - past contributors, new friends, etc. I’ll be forming the questions over the next couple of days and then this weekend - I hope - I’ll send out emails with the questions and instructions to the selected writers.

Then we’ll see who responds.

Sounds like fun doesn’t it?

All the received responses will go into the issue, contributors will receive copies (I’m debating the actual number of copies since this will be another hand-bound issue - with some complexity), and I’ll sell copies through the PFANM websites and Watermark Books. Selected responses will be published in a condensed version online.

That’s the plan, anyway. I’ll also be sending out emails and facebook notices asking for volunteers to help with production. I hope to have the issue out by the end of January 2010.

Oh Blog.

2009-10-13T06:47:00.000-05:00

I haven’t forgotten you. Nothing to say these days. Been busy.

Trying to plan 2009 issue of PFANM.

Trying to finish revising By The Still, Still Water.

Working, working, working.

I’ll have something soon.

Reading Tonight.

2009-10-08T06:14:00.000-05:00

Just a few hours away now.

If you happen to be in the Wichita, KS area around 7pm tonight, come on by Watermark Books and listen to me read from my first novel “The Evolution of Shadows.” Then ask me questions and have your book signed by me. After that, if we’re still friends, come join me at The Anchor for drinks. I’ll be on the non-smoking side.

7-8 pm (or so) Watermark Books & Cafe, 4701 E. Douglas (the Lincoln Heights Village shopping center on the south west corner of the intersection).

The Anchor 8pm or so until whenever-ish, 1109 E. Douglas.

See you there?

Well, What Does It All Mean?

2009-09-29T05:50:00.000-05:00

Last week, as I was traveling around to the various tables full of booksellers during the “Moveable Feast” at the MBA conference, I spent some time at one table with a poet who, very nakedly talked about the themes in her book of poems.

It’s kind of a necessary task when trying to sell a book of poetry. There’s often no broad, unifying story hook to hang one’s sales pitch upon. So, this poet was in a tough situation and, of course, she was there for her own benefit and the benefit of the booksellers. Now, keep that in mind when I say this: her plan of attack turned me off of her book of poems because I hate being told what a poem is about.

Don’t get me wrong. I love poetry, but I almost never read the jacket copy on books of poetry until I’ve read most of the poems. It’s the same reason I get bored at poetry readings when the poet stands up there are and launches into some extended story about how they were hiking in the mountains one day and found a squirrel trapped in a soda bottle and so the poem they are about to read is about our abuse of nature. Well, fuck, now I’ve been assigned a meaning to “get” from all of this. Thanks. And, sure enough, there’s some constructed linguistic jungle gym where the poets gets in a description of the squirrel in the bottle followed by some lame, moralistic preaching.

There are two things going on there: 1) I hate being told how to interpret a piece of literature. It smacks of the group literature discussions in the English classes I endured in high school; and 2) The poet is, essentially, giving away the poem in such a way that he audience doesn’t have to work. It’s like literary TV.

I bring this up not because I was irritated by the poet specifically, but because at some point the poet asked me a question along the lines of what themes, or something like that, inspired my book. If I hadn’t been in a position where I felt a need to be charming, and if the booksellers weren’t there, I might not have frozen like a opossum on a highway.

I don’t go into a story inspired by a theme. I don’t shape my narrative or my scenes around a theme when I revise. It leads to being pedantic (and I do that enough here). I didn’t set out to write a book about love, loss, and friendship. I didn’t set out to write a book about the horrors or injustices of war. I set out to answer some questions I had about these particular characters. Why would Gray commit such a bizarre act of violence when Lian leaves him? Why would he go off to Bosnia? Why would these people go looking for him?

To me, the “theme” of a book is interpretive, therefore it is up to the reader. If I’ve answered the questions I’ve asked of myself, then, I assume, most readers will end up at the same spot. If I’m honest with the story and with the characters and don’t force it anywhere it wouldn’t naturally go, then my readers will fill in the “theme.” Theme is the answer, not the question - but the answer isn’t universal, it’s individual.

The interpretive nature of theme is why a book like “The Catcher In The Rye” is both one of the most widely taught books and one of the most widely challenged. It’s why Hemingway’s books mean different things when read at different points in a reader’s life. Hammer down a theme on a book, and you kill its power to adapt and to mean something to as wide an audience as possible.

That’s my thinking anyway.

St. Paul and the MBA tradeshow

2009-09-27T15:58:00.007-05:00

I almost went on a long travel-babble, but decided to make it all short and sweet.

After almost a year, I finally got to meet my editor, Fred Ramey, in person. I know understand how remarkable it is to have an editor who gets you as a writer. Fred says that at Unbridled, they like to publish careers. So, I think I’m staying.

On Friday, I took part in the actual conference. I was part of the “Moveable Feast.” That was where I got to bounce around to four different tables full of booksellers and tell them about my book. I think it all went well, and, just like Caitlin told me to do, I collected business cards. Now I have thank you notes to write.
It was at the author lunch before that where I got meet fellow Unbridled author Mattox Roesch, the author of Sometimes We’re Always Real Same-Same. I’ve been reading his book at little but haven’t jumped in completely yet. But, considering the philosophy behind Unbridled, I’m sure it will be a marvelous piece of work.
After the Moveable Feast, hung around in Rice Park in downtown St. Paul while I waited to meet up with my old internet based friends Brian and Michelle (and Brian’s fiance Benji). My old boss from Watermark Books came through the part on her way to her hotel and we chatted about the event and she kindly took my picture next to the F. Scott Fitzgerald statue in the park (see below).
My evening was spent with Brian, Benji, and Michele. It was a wonderful time, and I hope to see them all again soon. They took me for coffee, then to an Italian restaurant where everything was served family style - but for the life of me I can’t remember the name of the place. I think I was more pleased that it felt like we’d done all of this somehow before rather than awkward as if after all the online chatting we suddenly felt like strangers. It felt like being with old friends who I’d simply lost touch with and was able to pick-up the conversation exactly where we left off last.
Having met them, now I have to miss them.

Here are pictures.

Here is my friend, Laura Flaugher. She was at the first table of booksellers I spoke to. We used to work together at Watermark, then she moved back to Iowa. She helped me get my sea-legs before I went on to talk to other tables.

The F. Scott Fitzgerald statue.

Me and F. Scott.

There's me, Brian, Michele, and Benji, who made sure I got to my delayed flight on time. If only Benji could have made sure the pilot made it on time. The pilot was almost an hour late.

So Much To Say

2009-09-26T12:37:00.000-05:00

So much to blog about when I finally get home.

St. Paul, KC, flying monkeys.

It's all about self-promotion

2009-09-22T21:58:00.003-05:00

Now, officially, my book has a release date of October 20th, 2009. But, when Watermark Books - my local independent bookstore (and former employer) and my publisher got to talking about having an event for me, I simply asked if we could have the event on my birthday. They all agreed.

It's not very often that an author can have the release party for his very first book on his birthday. So, anyway, that's why Watermark has copies of the book on hand right now.

You can pick it up before the event, read it, and ask me tough questions. Or, if you can't be there for the event and want a signed first edition from the JQM "Birthbook" event just give Watermark Books a call (see their webpage here) and reserve a copy that will be held for the event and signed by me. You can then pick it up in person when you are free, or have it shipped to you (shipping fee is $6.75).

So, head on down to Watermark Books and pick up a copy, and be sure to come back on October 8th for the reading and signing.

A whole stack on display.

Yeah, that's my mom, dropping by Watermark to buy the book.

I will try harder to live up to this

2009-09-20T18:31:00.000-05:00

see more Political Pictures

Congratulations to Brian

2009-09-14T22:22:00.000-05:00

My friend Brian just had his first YA novel picked up my Simon Pulse.

It’s called Chasers and it’ll be out in the spring of 2011.

Go by his blog and give him some love.

An Agent I Could Love

2009-09-09T22:50:00.000-05:00

Recently got my hands on the new Poets & Writers magazine. I’ve been following their series of articles where they interview various editors and agents about the state of the industry. I found their group interviews with agents to be particularly galling (there should be two posts when you click the link). And I’m fairly certain that an agent somewhere will read those posts and say “well, I was going to see if he needs representation, but after those posts, I can see he’s not interested in agents.”

In some ways, that might be a good thing. It’ll certainly weed out the ones that are only concerned about getting the biggest contract possible - the consequences of money-inspired over-inflated-expectations be damned.

But let me say here, I can see the value of an agent in certain regards. Part of it comes from the lead up to the release of my first novel.

The other part comes from reading the interview with Georges Borchardt. Mr. Borchardt (or an agent like him) is the kind of agent I would love to sign with.

One of my favorite passages from Mr. Borchardt is this one:

“You don't necessarily make the money out of the flavor of the month. The real money, if you're in it for the duration, comes from books like that [Elie Wiesel’s ”Night“]—from books nobody wanted—be they by William Faulkner or Elie Wiesel or Beckett or many others. Unfortunately, that argument is totally unconvincing to publishers now. If you're an editor at Random House or one of the other large firms, you can't say, "We're not going to make any money on this book for the next three years, but in ten years everybody will be envious of us for having it." The guy you're saying it to has two years to go on his contract, which is about to be renegotiated next year. What good does it do him to have a book that will bring in money ten years from now? He couldn't care less! He wants the book that makes money now so he can tell his bosses, "You should give me another contract for five years at twice the salary." So it's become different, and I think that's what's weighing on publishing, more than any of the other crises that come and go.”

Do I hope my book is on par with Faulkner, or Beckett? Sure, I hope it is. Do I actually think it is? No, not really. It is, after all, up to the readers .

But what I do think is this: the current act of publishing as executed by the big publishing houses, and the types of agents who specialize in providing the flavor of the month, is detrimental to a truly vibrant and lively literary landscape. Mr. Borchardt seems to get that, and that’s the kind of agent I would want representing me: an agent who thinks my books might be important and still finding new audiences ten-twenty years down the road and not focusing on an immediate and oversized contract that could scuttle my future chances of being published if I don’t meet the lofty sales needed in the fiscal quarter immediately following publication.

Books are not a product like socks, or frozen dinners, or toilet paper*. The good ones, the ones we would rush back into a burning building to save, that we would smuggle out of (or in to) totalitarian countries tucked under our clothes, the ones evil governments fear, are things that have an intangible worth that is missed and overlooked by people out to simply make a lot of money. Finding those kinds of books is a gamble, a huge risk, and it’s not one some agents and a lot of the big publishing houses are often very willing to take.

The agents with a long perspective and the smaller publishing houses are where the lively literary culture is being kept alive during this long, cold economic winter. I don’t bring that up just because my book is on a small press, but because I have friends and former instructors whose books are on small presses as well, and they are some of my favorite books: Gavin Pate’s book “The Way To Get Here” published by Bootstrap Productions, Eric Olson’s book “The Procession of Mollusks” published by Astrophil Press (distributed by Small Press Distribution), Lucia Orth’s book “Baby Jesus Pawn Shop” published by the venerable Permanent Press, and Laird Hunt’s books “The Impossibly,” “Indiana, Indiana,” “The Exquisite,” and “Ray of the Star” published by Coffee House Press.

If there’s another agent out there like Mr. Borchardt, and who has a track record with indie writers and publishers, I’d be willing to talk to him, or her, about signing on with that agency.

*well, maybe Dan Brown’s books are toilet paper.

The PFANM Website, Book #2, and The Evolution of Shadows

2009-09-07T11:12:00.000-05:00

The Project for a New Mythology Updates

This last week I’ve been working on the updated version of the Project for a New Mythology website. After years of struggling with MS Frontpage, and then being unable to figure out how to upload all the pages for the site from MS Publisher, I gave up on doing this thing on a Windows based computer, and moved it all over the Mac.

I love my Mac.

I’m still working on the PFANM website, but it’s far enough up that it’s presentable, so go on over and take a look at the site and tell me what you think. In the next week or so I’ll have the contributor’s bios back up, as well as links to the online versions of certain, selected (and author approved) stories from the off-line print editions.

Novel #2 - “By The Still Still Water”

I finished my most recent run-through of my next novel. The knife is still bloody, but I think the story is healthier for all the cutting. I am a bit worried about one character whose sections were almost completely hacked out. I’ll have to build up her existing scenes.

Overall, the book might need some more time, despite its already long gestation period between the completion of the first draft, and now (years).

The Evolution of Shadows News:

31 days (as of Labor day) until my first official reading at Watermark Books.

The book has been getting a lot of positive reviews (snippets here & here, links to the full reviews here). From one angle, that feels great. After all the rejection letters from agents (“present tense literary fiction doesn’t sell [to editors]”, “it has a haunting lyrical quality, but I don’t know how to sell it,” or “personal motivations are great, but there needs to be something bigger, world shaking, like in the Da Vinci Code”), it’s nice to have so many people get what the book is trying to do, and think it succeeds, and is a good read.

From another angle, I can’t enjoy it. What if I can’t duplicate it with the second book? What if, even worse, all the good things they say about this first book makes me lazy with the next book? What if all I had in me is this one book and that’s it?

PLAYLIST ISSUES
For some reason, iTunes removed The Afghan Whigs songs from my iTunes “Evolution of Shadows” playlist. No idea why. So, I removed the playlist from the website and I’ll try to re-do the playlist with The Afghan Whigs songs reinstated.

Hacking and Slashing

2009-09-04T06:33:00.000-05:00

I spent most of my summer working on my second novel. I’ve been diddling with it for years, but never really submersing myself in it. Over that time I’ve blamed a lot of things for that - everything from my own lack of self-discipline to my job status, and from complete burn-out to a complete lack of talent.

The truth is probably that I was intensely focused on trying to get “The Evolution of Shadows” published.

If one spends years in a single gear, I guess the other gears get rusty, or frozen up. But, I’ve discovered over the last two months or so the one thing that hasn’t gone away is that ability to slice a crippled scene with the cold ruthlessness of a killer.

All the reviews of “Shadows” are making it even more ruthless. Not sure I can live with myself if the second book is weaker than the first.

Bobbie Louise Hawkins on iTunes

2009-09-03T20:35:00.000-05:00

Go. Get. Now.

Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Terry Garthwaite, Rosalie Sorrels - “Live at the Great American Music Hall”

This was a legend, a myth, while I was at Naropa. The if you can find it, grab it thing. Now it’s on iTunes.

Frustrated

2009-08-31T06:44:00.000-05:00

At times, I have a bit of an obsessive personality. Over the past few weeks I’ve been futzing around with a new design for the Project for a New Mythology website, and using MS Publisher. I know, I’d be so much easier if I would just do it on the Mac like my author site, but I’m trying to learn as many programs on different platforms as I can.

See, stubborn.

Anyway, yesterday, I finished the pages and began to try to upload them to the server.

Frustration, frustration, frustration. It wasn’t working. I diddled with it for a few hours, then gave up. Except I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So, this morning, instead of working on the last few pages of the novel - I diddled with the website some more.

Now, here it is, about 6:50am, and I have to go get ready for work.

Frustration, frustration, frustration.