City of Legends

That’s the ISBN for loveaddict. 

It’s out tomorrow, although it may be weeks before you can lay hands on a copy.  The ordering cycles of bookstores on new books are insane for writers outside of the merchantile that is modern publishing.

That’s okay.  It’s done.  Put to bed.  I need a nap.  Or laid.  Or both.

Here’s the backcover, sans ISBN, for you who have been waiting for the blurbology.

Read into it what you will, here’s the new plan for publication this year.

January 19, 2010:  loveaddict

June (early) 2010:  Apokalypsis

October 2010:  various shades of red

Along the way there will be a new CD…but that’s something peripheral.  I am glad  loveaddict is coming out now, as I need to get on with the next few projects.

And through it all I still plan to take a vacay sometime this summer, do some traveling, although I am contemplating doing it alone, as I have come to the conclusion that peripheral human relationships need to be kept peripheral.  Read into that what you will.

The book, loveaddict, is in flux as I resolve a few last minute points that normally wouldn’t bother me…but I am getting fussy in my old…er, middle…age.

I commit to January 19, 2010 for the release.

Woke up this morning feeling like a lion.  It was good.  Still is…like I was baptized in my sleep.  Still haven’t figured it out and maybe I enevr will and maybe I never should.  Sometimes, if you know how the sausage is made, you stop eating it.

Nevertheless or more…days away from the release of loveaddict, on the trail of my next book and CD, surrounded by, at least in the virtual world, a legion of good friends, admiring readers and the occasional temptation to engage in romantic or erotic brinkmanship, I’m on my game.  No, the world isn’t sunshine and lollipops, many things to grieve or regret.  Friends who have slipped into the grey, continuing stressful personal relationships with some family members, some nagging but so far surmountable health issues (hey, whatever doesn’t kill me just slows me down for the next attack).  Add to this the economy (both personal and external), war, famine, death, pestilence and the inevitability of Na’vi porn on the web and we’re just beginning to scratch the surface. 

I’m good.  Got a thank you note from Selke for including a poem about her in the new book.  A lot of people are very excited about it…now if the final blurbista (you know who you are) could get in gear…ahem.  I want to put this thing to bed so that I can get to work on the next book, to be out BEFORE I go on tour in 2010.

The new book and the new CD are both going to be a bit different.  It is going to be a revelation, after a fashion, an intimacy with my audience beyond anything and everything I have dared previously.

Just saw a piece on CNN.com about alienation of affection lawsuits.  I never realized before that I could have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit when I was living in Mississippi.  Of course, it would have been malicious, self-righteorus and ironic to do so…but such is life (since when did irony ever stop anyone else from behaving the way they do?  Irony drives the human personality!)  Check it out, though:  CNN:  Alienation of Affection Lawsuits.  Interesting material.

Yes, the new book, loveaddict, is nigh.  And yes, in keeping with my usual pattern I am already starting on the next book (Huerta is begging to be the cover of this one).  Plenty of anvils dropped about the name and focus, so I won’t give away anything here.  Do your damn homework, people.

Was reading a poet’s site that they had asked me to check out and I was ticked off.  They had several pieces listed as villanelles that were not, by any definition, the French Sonnet form, except in line count and rhyme scheme.  What, you say, isn’t that what defines a villanelle?  No, you silly un-French ass, the most important pillar of that form is the line repetition.  The poems were quite lovely, but they weren’t villanelles.  Period.  Don’t argue.  Try again.  Do better.

The Holidays are upon us.  I have some interest tales to tell from my recent Texas/Oklahoma visit.  And, yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  I’m going to give away some of my books to some avid readers, as well as announce the frame of an Eastern-US tour for the Spring of 2010.

All in good time.

The cure for the blues is work and praise for that work.  Having just received my first wave of reviews and blurbs for the yet unreleased loveaddict, I feel….pretty damn good.

Actually, I am a little embarrassed by the level of praise.  I am often accused of arrogance, but the blistering truth is that, on the whole, I have sincere and severe doubts about my own value as a person and as an artist.  And everyone should always harbour such doubts, it is what feeds the drive to do better, to try harder, to achieve more.

There are individual works that, when I write them or read them, I feel pretty good about, but I never said being a poet made me a better person, the poem is an entity unto itself and however much I would sometimes like to take credit for my works, the truth is that I am not responsible for the talents I have been given.  But I am responsible for making sure they are used as much as possible, and without intent or desire to do harm.

Go in peace, all of you.  Right now I am okay and despite the scars and bruises of a life occasionally lived in the soulless skies above the rocks of madness, I’m doing good.

My poem "the philosophy of dreams" has taken on a life of its own, gradually, and now I have been the latest to open a can of something closer to worms than whup-ass over it.

Earlier this year the poem got some attention when it was revealed that a reading of mine of the piece had been sampled by Euro electronica wizard Ophidian.  After hearing what he did with it for his piece "Phoenix" I totally approve of what he did with it and it is cool and righteous to realize how many thousands of chemically altered young people have heard my voice booming out at them at raves across the continent.

Very cool.  Very righteous.

Now I find myself accused of a retcon (retroactive continuity, a phrase that emerged out of the comics industry for when you rewrite the backstory of a character or event without regards for inconsistencies that emerge).  It seems some people latched onto the muse breakdown I offered up for loveaddict and noticed that despite the fact the poem in question "the philosophy of dreams" appearing in the book, Brigit (aka the Crimson Panther) is not listed in the muse breakdown list.  There is a muse named "Crimson", but it was correctly surmised that she is not the majestic Titian-haired goddess christened Brigit.

The truth is, after time and tempest has passed, I had decided that, in reality, "the philosophy of dreams" was more in the "Abstra" column than the "Brigit" column, and identified it so in the new volume.  That simple.  Okay, not that simple, as it took a helluvalot of soul-searching to come to that. 

I stand by my decision and will continue to evaluate the source and force of my works as I deem proper and accurate and true to the spirit of my work.  Believe me, many elements of my life would play easier if I could delude myself and rewrite my histories, but that is not in my nature or my passions.

as of this moment…subject to minor changes.  In alphabetical order (and perhaps missing one or two top secret weapons of mass destruction).  And, yes, Jessica…you guessed right.

• and the dreamers dance on
• Brave and Constant Hearts
• Cithara song, strummed lightly as the sun leaps the horizon
• dance naked in the sky
• Dare we cross the Rubicon?
• deep breach
• Evangelist
• Evidence of God
• Faith Healer
• feral with desire
• fit me in
• flashes of light
• flesh to flesh
• gather you
• Golden Gates
• I stand for you (a villanelle)
• I trust you are well
• I will come for tea
• I will dream of you til morning
• I will drift into the light
• if I were an angel
• in the memory of lovers
• in the strangest corners
• kisses and all
• kisses for karma
• like a blossom
• love
• lovesong
• making love
• more than a moment
• more than simple lust
• My Passion, My Cathedral
• passion, sepia
• reunion in another sphere
• shiny, shiny things
• soft passion
• ten thousand roses
• the ancient brain
• the grande
• the lover
• the patchwork skirt of my love
• the philosophy of dreams
• the priest of passion serves the sacrament
• The Satyr’s Suit
• the Unicorns
• the venom of our vices
• thunder of lust
• to your burning disdain
• Waiting for the Pentecost
• warm breath stirs soft flesh
• we can split the sky
• you are not here

It was a tough process, especially since the size and scale of my catalog created an issue of which direction to take:  Innocence or a more, ahem, feral approach.  I think the inclusion of "shiny, shiny things" answers that question.

To my blurbistas, the files go out on Friday.  Many, many thanks to those who have loved and supported me in this project and process.

Cleared it with the dedicatee…(which means if you haven’t heard from me in a few days, it isn’t you, sorry…but look on the bright side, this means we are likely to still be talking a month from now).

Layout is nearling completion, now is the horrendous phase when I second guess every editorial decision I’ve made for the book (loveaddict) and keep getting distracted by my next projects.  Focus.  Focus.  Focus.  ooooooooh…shiny…

And for those of you still curious (judging by the comments and emails, some of you are)…at least one of you guessed right.  Hint:  They’re female (the dedicatee).  Second hint:  They have very nice legs.  Yeah, I know, big surprise.

It’s good to be king.

"It’s swell here in Hell", as I say in my poem "TRUTH".  Actually, I’m fine…just vibrating like a vibranium tuning fork (which is to say, you can’t see the energy, but it is there).

The book progresses.  Have dropped from a week behind my latest schedule to about 3 days behind schedule, and all without the benefit of caffeine overload (I am saving that for the final sprint).

Great episode of "Californication" last night on Showtime.  It reminded me of a few moments from my life that I will never admit to.  Reminds me, I should make sure and send a crate of copies of loveaddict when it comes out to all the charming people who make it such a wondrous series to watch.  It is perhaps my most powerful television addiction at this time.

Love to all.  Truly, even those who don’t like me, who don’t like my poetry and the self-selected few who would rather I roll over and die.  Love to you.  I wish you joy, peace, happiness and immortality.

Hmmm…

My friend, Thomas, was nosing about, trying to get me to tell him who the new book, loveaddict, is being dedicated to.  I am practicing keeping secrets, I told him. 

I can, however, say who (or is it "whom") it will not be dedicated to:

• Either ex-wife
• Any one of the three sisters or the three Panthers
• Any woman I have ever made totem of a fruit, a vegetable or a gemstone
• Immediate family, or even not-so-immediate family.  That would be icky.

The specificity of some of the exclusions sounds like you can bet it is at least a woman.  Never said that, all will be revealed in good time.  But I can tell you I spent a massive amount of time thinking about it.

Why?  You ask.  Well, on at least three occasions in my life, right after I have taken the immortality pledge by dedicating a book or other magnum opus to a woman, she bugs out.  So, I was thinking of dedicating it to some of my creditors, in hopes…

But that would be a waste of a perfectly good opportunity to celebrate someone who has had an impact in my life and on my art. 

I have considered dedicating to groups of people, like the Morgantown High School Class of 1973, the nuns in Dundalk, Ireland, or the people at the Appalachian Education Initiative.

I have sat down with all the muses, major and minor, and evaluated them for impact, resonance and deservedness.  As my brain makes the inevitable, if somewhat delayed, transformation from liquid to crystalline intelligence, I have come to realize many things that, in their own time, were obscure to me.

Wait until you read the book.