City of Legends

Friends, Romans and countrymen.  My fellow Americans.  Ladies and Gentlemen.  Lords and Ladies.  The loyal suppositions and human suppositories.  Rabid but respectable raccoons, poets, artists, lovers, ex-lovers, future lovers and the silent stalkers of the cyberverse.

I am still alive.

I did just add the fReado widgetized versions of The Compleat Panther Cycles and The Morgantown Suite Poems to the header bar for this blog, to ease access to these free online editions.

Enjoi.

I promised a surprise.  Nothing expected.  Nothing about my love life (I have a love life?  Amazing.)

What I am about to announce means I am embracing a shifting paradigm in books.  The amazing part is perhaps how slow I have been, considering my relationship with the digital renaissance and the elements of that movement over the last two decades.  Ah, well, even Odin is blind in one eye.

To the point:  I am working this weekend to bring several of my books to Kindle, the eBook reader that is marketed through Amazon.  This will provide my content of my books, in the layout and form originally presented, available to the audience that is embracing the paperless book movement.  The books will be provided at a lower price than the hard copies, particularly with The Compleat Panther Cycles, and will be the full books, no detail lost.

To assist in the market, we’ve come up with a series of marketing slogans (isn’t this fun?  No.  It makes me feel like a pimp, when in fact, as the author, I am the hooker.)

The books selected to be the first wave of my transition, along with their "clever" slogans are:

The Compleat Panther Cycles 
slogan:  Kindle the legend

As such
slogan:  Kindle the fire

The Morgantown Suite Poems
slogan:  Kindle memories

A Ronin in the Temple of Aphrodite 
slogan:  Kindle a quest

 The slogans are subject to tweaking (I am an editors’ nightmare).  The whole idea is to use the name of the device as the verb.  The final prices will be released when the books go live, sometime in the next three days or so.  I will keep you informed.

Now, back to dealing with some interestingly erotic text messages I just received.  Bad girl.

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.

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.

Having already seen my own lame attempts at videos for Right Set of Lips, Darfur (Jesus Wept) and The Unicorns, I have been much happier with other people’s interpretations of The Panther on the Beach (who knew this one would end up so high on my legacy list?) and Darfur (Jesus Wept). Of course there may be a few out there I am unaware of…

But what recordings would I most like to see as entries in the contest? Hmm. I said Hmmph.

• Strange But Beautiful: Let’s face it, you know you want it. You’ll have to rip it off the CD or get it at MySpace or by slicing it from a podcast, I don;t think I mounted the single anywhere.
• TRIUMPH: I would love to see what visions would haunt this one.
• Bragi to Freya: Go find it yourself, must I do everything for you?
• NQ (The Nosferatu’s Quandry): If you have heard it, you understand.
• I Will Dream of You Till Morning: Catch it this week during the weekend-long Evangelist CD release virtual party.
• anything from The Morgantown Suite Poems. Just to see how many people "get it"

There are others, of course, but these (and a couple of the long form piece like Eros V, Wordslinger and The Gods of Love Live at Kyrienar) would catch my attention a trace more (I may have bias, but I am admitting it).

Note (as I am uncertain of private channels); Centaur, while a recent musical comp, uses lyrics from The Goldenheart Cycles, from 12 years ago,

Love.

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.

Another new one from "The Morgantown Suite Poems"…

The Tribe + 35

The scent of patchouli and strawberry,
Mixed with sandalwood and coconut.
A metaphor…or a mistake, taking shape
In the mind of the lost soul, freedom
As a new religion.

Walls decorated with pointed images
Of war and peace and love and music.
Lennon and cartoon mating ducks,
Trying to find some shelter in times
Of great uncertainty.

Now, you are a bar. Where truth is sought
But never caught, in the bottom
Of a bottle, youthful exuberance
For pointless protests, une generation perdue,
True only to its self.

William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.

The Tribe was a headshop, on the edge of campus (West Virginia University), the first building in the notorious "Sunnyside" area that became, for a time, the bar zone for campus. A friend of mine worked there and I went in there once or twice to look around. I was a very cloistered and conservative young man, so I was never into that whole scene, except in my head. The intense smells of the incenses, the clothes, posters, music, books…it all seemed like some exotic distant planet.

Now, it is just another faceless place for underage students to get drunk. No matter how you feel about the tide of conservatism in this country, it is hard to look at the crowds in any of Morgantown’s bar districts (they now have a few) on a Friday or Saturday night and feel any sense of hope for America or belief in the moral superiority of the American way of life.

The Pantherization work has begun…Lord, I’ve bitten off, not more than I can chew, but a certain mouthful.

I sent a sneak of the cover of my next book, The Morgantown Suite Poems, to about a dozen people who might find it interesting. Great response, all around.

This is it…that picture was taken of me in Spring of 1974, by Ron Rittenhouse of the Dominion Post…great story behind it.

Lousy weather today, unless you are an earthworm or a duck.

Got a major lecture from an old friend about the necessity of me never letting Ann anywhere near me again in this life…as she pointed out, what my first divorce didn’t take from me, my second marriage did…and, from a professional level, she has a point there. I, of course, have some culpability in that…I was too focused on taking care of her wants and needs to do what is necessary for my own survival and stability. I needed to focus on me, as no one was focusing on me for a long time..A testament to that is the release of my books this year and the formation of the new company…now if I can resolve my creditors and heal the rift with my daughter, things will be better.

Heard from Mangey Charlie yesterday…more on this later. Some interesting thoughts in there.

I will probably go see “Star Wars: Revenge of the Bank Account” this weekend. Have to finish some edits, revise a couple of documents and see to my shoulder (a little messed up after doing some excessive yardwork yesterday)

Wake me when we get to Tau Ceti, I have to change buses there.

But, in the meantime, in this dreamstate I seem to hover in, I might as well blather on.

I think a lot of people are going to be very pleased with that final result of "The Morgantown Suite"…makes me wish I’d hung on to the royalties, but a deal is a deal is a deal.

Did some logo designs and initialwebsite setup for the new company. I have been on a learning tear of late and have picked up many new skills relevent to website design and execution.

Now, as to the poetry…will get back to it soon, I am sure…just going through a very short distraction.

Okay, the day is getting better. Got major work done on "The Morgantown Suites" before distracted by the siren’s call of "The Compleat Panther Cycles"…

May have scored a major coup for additional supplementary material (no, not HER, I’m not even asking HER, we’d just end up arguing over why SHE wants me to change everything so no one will even know it’s HER)…more on this coup, later. I’ll drop a note about this when it finalizes, both here and in my newsletter (if you want to see my most recent newsletter, and even sign up, go to
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewnewsletter.asp?AuthorID=369 and join up.)

Haven’t hear anything from the Deep South now for three months, weird, but I sort of expected it. I keep refocusing on the "Four Agreements" especially the one that says that what people say and think of you is not a statement as to who you are, but who they are. Reality doesn’t shift because people paint perception.

I note that my old High School, Morgantown High School, after two years of badgering by E.J. finally added me to their list of "Accomplished Alumni"…even if they did get the sobriquet wrong.

sigh. keeping my sandals clean.

Noting some odd hits on my blog…but hope that is just a market-expansion!

Rough night. For some reason or other, kept waking up (may have been the storms, but usually I sleep well through those, so maybe I was restless for other reasons)

No exciting email this morning…Brigit may have done her usual surface-for-a-day-then-go-away-for-months routine. argh. Well, at least unlike some people, she at least surfaces. No word from JIllian on her books (or Jezz just writing to be Jezz).

Four weeks until the release of "The Morgantown Suite" and the buzz is…er…there is no buzz. Some of that is my fault for having spent so much energy on the P’cycles and "INVOCATO"…part of it is the incipient apathy in Morgantown for anything that does not have the word "beer" in its title. (chortle-snort-snarfle) Regardless of what they think of it, regardless of whether or not ArtsMon really, really gets behind it (hey, they get all the royalties) it still is coming out. If asked to talk about it, pimp it or read from it, I shall…if not, at least it goes in my credits (book #7…there is a book #7, isn’t there?)

I had run into an interesting fellow the other night at Books A Million. At the end of the long discussion I gave him my number, in case he ever wanted to talk later…he called yesterday, when I was in the middle of twelve things, I told him I’d have to get back to him…he gave me his number. And…I think I lost it. Damn. Well, maybe he’ll read this. As a pet peeve of mine is people who slowly or never return calls (riles me to no end, bad business, you know, and besides it leaves the initiator wondering if you ever got the call or if there is a reason they are being ignored) I hate it when people think I’m ditching them.

Considering a March, 2006, release date for the memoir "Wings as Oft Leathery as Feathery"…updated to modern times. Part of me deplores kiss-and-tell books. Part of me is just so damn tired of the lies I have allowed. Lying to me is a sign of disrespect. Lying about me is a sign of betrayal, especially if I have done nothing to harm you. Invoking my own sense of loyal nobility to have me participate in your lies, only to throw them all on me when you get caught…well, you can imagine. Somedays I feel like those cheesy computers on old "Star Trek" episodes, where all Kirk has to do is tell them they are behaving illogically to get them to blow up.

Okay, back on focus. Will slip on the headphones shortly, program a track of Warren Zevon (Lawyers, Guns and Money; Mohammed’s Radio), Matthew Sweet (Girlfriend), A3 (Woke Up This Morning) and Amy Grant (Good for Me)…hey this is my brain, not yours…get a life…and work on completing either of the pipeline books.