City of Legends

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.

Having recently announced to the world that I am pulling out of AuthorsDen, a site where I had been in residence for many years, I just today reaffirmed my commitment to them and decided to re-assert my presence there.

Then mere moments ago I get a notice and a call from my friend and collaborator Daniel S. McTaggart, announcing he is dropping out of AD. I had to laugh.

Dan, you will be missed there, and anytime you want me to post anything of yours or let the world know about an upcoming project or event, just drop me word (and that goes for any and all of my writerly friends). Mi blog es su blog (we know how much trouble that can lead to, eh?)

Dan has stood by me through thick and thin, sharing some very bizarre events in my life, and I am proud to have not only designed the cover for his book Midnight Muse in a Convenience Store, but also co-authored an anthology with him, Psalms of the Monster River Cult. He has made multiple appearances on my lagging podcast (I’m getting back to it, I promise). Both books are available at fine bookstores and online. Go. Buy. Sheesh.

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.

I love the book, "The Morgantown Suite Poems", so don’t get me wrong. It’s a good book, nice cover (better be, I chased Ron Rittenhouse for months to get permission to use the photo I wanted on the cover).

But there is a certain sadness as to how the book became the official sample of my work that will be given to competitors for the West Virginia state finals for Poetry Out Loud next week.

"The Compleat Panther Cycles" is too expensive and massive.
The unholy trinity that I have with iUniverse, "from an unexpected quarter", "love gods of a forgotten religion" and "101 Great Love Poems" I rarely recommend, not because they have nothing to contribute (particularly "love gods…" which I adore) but because I have a thing about my former publisher.
"Invocato" is not easily accessible.
"PanthEon" and "from out of the city" are out of print.
"Ronin in the Temple of Aphrodite" might be over the heads of many high school students…
and "Psalms of the Monster River Cult"? Well, the poem "if your husband comes home" found some furrowed brows, as high school students might be corrupted by hearing of people having sexual relations outside of marriage.

So the winner, by default, is "The Morgantown Suite Poems"…makes me wish "As Such…" was already out…

Next time.