City of Legends

Having made the announcement that As such… will be joining the scrap heap, I also want to reassure hardy souls that there is salvage being done.  And while I have not yet made final stock of the survivors of love gods of a forgotten religion, I have made a somewhat (kinda/sorta) final decision regarding which poems from As such… will make it into loveaddict (at least the first edit pass).

These are (in no particular order):

• I will dream of you til morning
  
• beyond these walls (a sonnet)
  
• I stand for you (a villanelle)

Yes, just three.  The standards of loveaddict are exceedingly high.  As there is a rumour that this is my last book for a while, perhaps even leaving the rest of the works until postmortem, I want it to be a book that I am proud of, both in terms of literary quality and emotional resonance.

I haven’t yet made final decisions on a handful of pieces, but I can tell you that, as "love gods of a forgotten religion" is taken out of print, at least the titular poem, as well as "the patchwork skirt of my love", "Monument", "the Unicorns" and "We Owe Debt to Memory" will slip between the covers of loveaddict.

And, minor tsunami alert:  I will be taking out of print "As such…".  Great book, well done, I am just tired of the baggage it carries.  I am invoking the "TRANSCENDENCE" clause on this one.

I hear celebrations in many small pockets as I announce this.

Next month, when loveaddict hits the streets, expect some other changes.

After repeated threats on my part to this effect, I am taking out of print the entirety of my books with iUniverse.

This means:

• from an unexpected quarter
  
• love gods of a forgotten religion
  
• 101 Great Love Poems

will all cease to be available as new.

I am cannibalizing the first two to provide a few works for loveaddict (and because the covers now offend me), but have never really been happy with either one.  The third is mostly a bastard child of The Panther Cycles and as such is out of place in my catalog.

I have also been very unhappy with the course that iUniverse has taken over the years, since I was grandfathered into their organization when they acquired Writers Club Press.  It is a tough decision, as 101 Great Love Poems has been one of my best sellers and is the only book of mine currently available in hardback, but I feel it is time.

Later this week I will be presenting you with a preliminary list of what poems will be rescued as these books go dead.

The new CD, blister, continues to take shape. 

A pingback brought this photo to my attention, one of a set of three of my ex-wife, Ann, from a film festival in Los Angeles in 2001. She was featured on the cover of my books from an unexpected quarter and Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion and remains one of the more remarkable people I have known in this life.

People ask me why I married her, considering the age difference and some major issues we were never able to rise completely above. This picture doesn’t tell the tale of the person I came to love and respect, but it does explain why just about everyone always asked her "What are you doing with HIM?" My answer to people who asked me that question remains "Well, she asked…"

Her work with young people via Sunrise House in Salinas and with the Calfiornia Friday Night Live Partnership with the students from high schools and middle schools in Monterey County, particularly North Salinas High School, proved her a most thoughtful, charitable and competent person.

Her totem-muse was "the Leopard" and she inspired such works as sparks like frozen lemons, monday mourning poem, sacred smile and brisant revelations, which has since turned into perhaps my most kick-ass contribution to poetic rock.

To this date, she remains the last woman I touched as lover.

Okay, one miracle down (you have no idea how much furious effort is going on in the background to accomplish all of this)…

The City of Legends Store has re-opened.  You can get there by slicking the linked name (in the previous sentence) or by following the top of the page link that reads "The City Store" (trying to keep it simple).

We’re offering some discounts on some books and CDs as a "Pre-tour Blowout", and as always, free shipping and custom signing.  Shopping cart services are courtesy of PayPal.

Available in the ‘Store are:

Books:

• As such…romantic poetry of rebirth
  
• Ronin in the Temple of Aphrodite
  
• Psalms of the Monster River Cult
  
• The Morgantown Suite Poems
  
• The Compleat Panther Cycles

CDs:

• Nemicorn
  
• The Naked Reads
  
• Amomancer:  nightblooming
  
• the last romantic verb

Not in the store?

• from an unexpected quarter
  
• Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion
  
• PanthEon
  
• 101 Great Love Poems (hardback and paperback)
  
• Invocato

But I may later decide to fold them in…I just hate making the store too chaotic and huge.  All of those not in the official store can be purchased elsewhere.

And yes, when Evangelist is done, it will be available through the City Store.

Let me see, who hasn’t yet weighed in on my personal life? Bill Clinton? Let me check my emails, he may be in there someplace.

I had a brief but intense chat with my bro, Larry Jaffe, this morning, he being the author of such books as "Unprotected Poetry" and the founder of Poets for Human Rights. When he gives me a heart-to-heart, you know he means it. He kept me sane, once…okay, twice, with good advice and the strength to lend me. I owe him, so I listen when he talks. Besides, he did the foreword of Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion. He was also reminding me about finalizing some details for the swing through the Sunshine State I am planning to make as part of the Evangelist tour.

Quick vote: How many of you think having my hair dyed tiger-stripe (brown and orange) would be kick-ass?

Chaos reigns, but that’s my sphere. I am writing, planning, executing, designing, redesigning, recording, editing, engineering and plotting my ass off. In my spare moments, I relax (I just got through watching the on-demand (available one week early) of the season finale of The Tudors on Showtime. (Hint: She gets her head cut off.))

I have a major proposal draft to finish today and tomorrow, and then I will sit by my phone, sad eyed, waiting for a sign from God. And just to work up a good sweat, I think I shall do some lawn work. Did a little yesterday and found a tick trying to make a meal out of me. Bad move on her part. Not in the mood to suffer such things well.

You’d find me a comic figure right now, my skin blotchy red and purple, my hair definitely of the bedroom hair category, barefoot, dressed in black from head to toe. Dancing to All Over the World by Strange Fruit. I Niacin-loaded just a bit ago, the first time in a while. I needed to get back on my regimen, my patterns that had proved successful in the past. Note, flowers to Blairgowrie don’t work.

The flush caused by proper overdose of niacin just helps to flush the capillaries, cleanse the cardiac palette and deliver the other arcane chemicals, oils, minerals and vitamins I have developed as "my mixture" more efficiently. The flush itches like a bitch, but that’s just a side-effect that tells you it is working. Like fire ants with chainsaws. Yikes! Don’t tell me to use the time-release. I want the loadburn.

Coming on the speakers now: Don Henley and All She Wants to Do is Dance (it makes me think of you know who, out stylin’ the night away. I am glad she finds joy in that…) My playlists are minefields, but so is life.

I wrapped up two variant readings of I rained poetry and shipped them off to the Jezika™ this morning. Here’s hoping one is to her pleasure. Take one down, 1,473 still left for the weekend. 1,473 bottles of absinthe on the wall…I sing.

The usual peaceful-if-intense detente state that has existed in my head for many years has been moving towards a shooting war of late, but once recognized, a chaos state is not a problem, it is an opportunity. I am still writing obsessively. I am keeping just ahead of the madness…just ahead. U2 gives me Vertigo. Thanks, guys.

Some have noted that the widget on Amomancer for selling my books through Amazon contains seven of my books, but not "As such…". Read nothing sinister into that…Amazon has just not put up the cover yet. As soon as they have it available, it goes in the rotation. That is the most important book I have ever written, with the most beautiful cover (and foreword)…I am not the bastard some would think me to be. Yes, I said the most important.

Note: Four years, 3 months, 12 days. I made a promise. I am no longer lashed to the third rail. That was unseemly. This has to be a test of will, not the strength of a strap’s thickness. I am holding on by will alone, now. I dreamt last night, a beautiful dream in white and bright lights and daisies with a soundtrack provided by Enigma. I am at peace with the storm. I sleep in the arms of chaos and kiss the fire. This is life. Pleasure and pain, smiles and the saline rain, I would live it again if offered. I have promised the next dance already, so I guess I have to.

You can write it, or you can live it. Or both. I am sorry for and to those who are discomfited, hurt, stressed or put off by my ways of thinking, expressing myself and living (and loving). Truly. But I am who I am and in the balance, a greater force for good than evil.

My life. It is my life to make of it what I choose.
I will win, and lose
and smile more often than not.
Courage will give me hope. Hope will give me
strength. And strength
will give me the courage to seek new truths.

Those lines open my poem "My Life". I may make mistakes, but I don’t rewrite my histories, deny my heart or refuse a request for help. I once told a lover I’d take a bullet for her. And for any member of her family. And for anyone she asked me to, even an ex. I don’t know if she understood. Maybe that’s what drove the wedge between us, I know it used to piss of my second wife.

I have things to do, people. Love to all. Special love to one, she knows who she is.

Whilst my actual manhood is under remote control from thousands of miles away, I have gathered my wits and wiles and held council of war with a few choice friends to announce (subject to delightful change at the whim of the right woman) the initial planning stages of a coast-to-coast poetry tour this summer, taking in festivals, conferences, book fairs, schools, churches and maybe even a diner or two (just to make Dan McTaggart happy).

I have tentative arrangements underway already in six, make that eight, er…eleven…cities (nothing named until they are locked in, but let’s just say there are a few cuckolded husbands and ex girlfriends who are going to have clear shots at me from the back of a room within driving distance). Most likely to begin in August…I was planning to go on vacation to LA this August but my traveling partner may have opted out and thus the tour will be therapeutic. Of course, if she wants to come and be my wingman for the tour, I won’t argue…I had this one wingman named Ann on the Southern Poet’s Reading Tour…

Florida has never heard me read in person. They will. Texas knows me all too well, and they are getting an extra helping. Chicago? I wouldn’t miss it (or a certain suburb) for the world. I’m a dead man if I skip Morgantown, Salinas, Birmingham or Mobile, and New Orleans looks good.

My ex has been eying me all week saying she knows my reaction to stress and it tends to be an explosive change of direction that confounds my peers, dazzles my friends and pisses off my critics (I have no enemies, no one is worthy of that title). I figure I have one good run left in me and rather than rot somewhere, waiting for the worms, I am going to burn like a magnesium flare. Not much good as a mouldering hulk, you know.

I haven’t mounted a tour like this since 2002 (I have mounted anything since 2004, but let’s just keep that between us, shall we?) and the Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion book tour, which was a blast.

So if you know a good local venue, high school (the tour will overlap the start of the school year), festival, sorority house or bookstore, drop me a line, I’ll get you with my coordinator and we’ll make some magic. I may even get a band on the road, you never know. And I am willing to partner with one or more local poets to share the stage…never have been a microphone hog.

I am still looking for a theme, and such might yet occur, but I will let you know in a few days.

Oh, for those of you looking to order As such from amazon.com or your local bookstore, I got off the phone with my distributor a few hours ago…they were apologetic, but it is taking longer than usual for the book to get listed out in Books In Print, which is what all the book vendors use to order from. Keep patient, I will let you know when it is live. Right now the largest stash of the book in the world is probably sitting in South African customs.

Originally posted at Author’s Den, this examination of my greatest muse is as relevant today as ever.  Originally written in 2005, I haven’t changed a word.  I guess I’ve pretty much been on this wavelength for some time.

————————————————————

I was down at my favourite hang out, the "Black Bear Burrito," working on a summary of my book "Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion" when a whim struck me.

And I shall, as is my duty to you, and to love.

The response to my suggestions earlier today of some of the projects for the new year has been gratifying and overwhelming. I am grateful the fans feel comfortable addressing what they want and that they care so passionately.

INAMORATA will be a reality. Will it be the book I put out before the Frontiers in Writing conference in Amarillo? I don’t know…depends on my emotional stamina (my lovelife is a strange and beautiful thing at this time) and a few other factors that could push any of the other projects forward or backwards.

I do promise that certain key poems in LOVE GODS OF A FORGOTTEN RELIGION and FROM AN UNEXPECTED QUARTER will certainly make the leap as those two volumes go out of circulation, and you can probably guess at least a handful of those, but the vast majority of the volume will be material previously unpublished in book form.

Also, INAMORATA will have at least two things in common with my blockbuster THE COMPLEAT PANTHER CYCLES (TCPC): Size and content volume. I plan to make this an oversized volume with 300-400 works.

Editor? I haven’t decided yet. I have found being my own editor for a few volumes very exhausting, so I will probably seek a new editor. Candidates, the line forms here…

Cover model? I have a few candidates already. She’ll have to be something to stand alongside the likes of Jillian Ann, Ann-Michelle and Sarah Chadwick Spiker. I also want to do internal illustrations, as in TCPC and I want a cover that combines the eroticism of the original, unpublished cover design of TCPC with the archival beauty of RONIN. A challenge. But a life without challenges is an illusion.

Beyond that? Not certain, but I had to pick up a new project with the wrap up of the two new CDs and the 2 new books in the last few weeks. I am nothing if not a workaholic.

Well, it’s Thursday and I have a lot to do…

but I don’t really feel like it. Getting over my first real cold in some time, dealing with my Grandmother’s stroke, mild upheavals at work and the fun of life in general.

The show, this week’s FROM OUT OF THE CITY podcast (available at RADIO CITY OF LEGENDS and iTUNES Music Store for download or subscription. void where prohibited by law) is all but in the can. This is good.

The poll I set up to help guide my choices of works for the Valentine’s Day podcast is cranking along. No huge surprises. Again, vote early and vote often. I set it up to allow multiple choice and re-votes every 1 hour.

I see where the lovely and talented Nordette Adams went ahead and used the facial transformer on her AD site. Very cute.

Still a little miffed at Authors Den. They set up their own podcast, including CHAPTERS, POEM OF THE DAY and "OPEN MIC". The latter specified basically open reads, and I don’t do open microphone reads, except where it suits me. (Really attractive hostess? Where’s the sign-in sheet?) So I direct them to few of my works, incuding some full chapter reads from THE COMPLEAT PANTHER CYCLES. They put a couple of my full-production pieces under OPEN MIC and ignored the chapter reads.

I’ve always had a red-headed stepchild relationship with AD. I remember about a year ago I got an email about a special program they were running for longtime members (I was a very early member…) but when I contacted them to take advantage of it, I was told it was a mistake for me to have been included on the mailing…but they’d give it to me anyway, since I had received it. Yeah, classy.

I get to call iUniverse in a couple of weeks and pull the plugs on two of my books, FROM AN UNEXPECTED QUARTER and LOVE GODS OF A FORGOTTEN RELIGION. They’ve both been solid sellers, but both are long in the tooth, and have covers featuring she-who-must-not-be-named (according to her lawyer), so I am avoiding any further harrassment and burying them. An hour after they go off distribution, you know that the value to collectors will skyrocket. Hmmm…maybe I should buy a stack and hide them for a few months.

Besides, both books have the same substantial editing error in them that I categorically refused to pay the publisher to clean up, so, screw ‘em.

I am leaving 101 GREAT LOVE POEMS with iUniverse, as it is my best-seller to date. Besides, I like their work on the hardbound edition and will probably put them back to work for my 101 GREAT EROTIC POEMS later this year and the annoying 101 GREAT METAPHYSICAL POEMS in a year or two, not to be confused with 101 GREAT ADULTERY POEMS and 101 GREAT I-SHOULD-HAVE-SEEN-IT-COMING POEMS.

Maybe 101 GREAT SELF-INDULGENT DRIVEL POEMS? That might have to be a double-thick book.