the cover of Evangelist
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under As such, Candy Tothill, Evangelist, Muses, The Compleat Panther Cycles
It has been suggested that I take the point on the cover of the new CD, Evangelist. To that argument I have two responses: As such… and the original cover for The Compleat Panther Cycles.
Let me illustrate:
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This is the cover to As such…romantic poems of rebirth. It is of the extraordinary Ms. Candy Tothill, the brilliant South African author who has been kind enough to say one or two nice things about me and allow me to pledge my undying passion and affection.
Next to her I look pretty pathetic. I had wanted her for the cover of Evangelist…but…such are times…
I have long stood by the notion that an attractive, or at least visually interesting cover, is of value. Add to this that the entire book is about her, she wrote the foreword and I love her something awful, and you have a few reasons for her to go on the front (and back).
Then we have the original cover of The Compleat Panther Cycles, a cover that had to be replaced because we could not get final approval from the photographer, but that prompted my older brother, Robert, to say: "Is it supposed to take the power of speech from me and when will I get it back?"
This is NOT the panther, but rather New York goth model and musician Jillian Ann, who smokes it up quite nicely. Again, me…not so much…in fact, in that outfit I think I would scare away buyers.
By the way, people, I just got word that As such is now available at www.amazon.com . Go! Now! Buy!
Sunday yardwork, free eBooks and the whole romantic/goth/emo debate
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Journal, Mari Laureano, The Compleat Panther Cycles
It is a lazy, sunny Sunday here in suburban D.C., and I have yardwork to do in a bit.
I completed the podcast this morning and will be posting it later today. I went with a confessional tone, just you and me. I told the story of how I got into poetry and how I feel about it, then capped with a reading of "Running the Cliffs". I hope you enjoy the show.
Ever since I started offering the free eBook of "The Compleat Panther Cycles" at archive.org there has been a marked uptick in visitors to my site, cityoflegends.com. This is pleasing to me, as most people who write that I have met prefer to be read. If you haven’t yet swung by the link at archive.org and picked up your free pdf copy of TCPC, as well as downloading the cover as a pdf (in case you really like the back cover blurb from famed erotic poet Mari Laureano or just the cover image of New York goth-model and musician Jillian Ann) what are you waiting for?
I got an email the other day from a student who had written a piece for English class debating whether I was better described as a "romantic" poet, a "goth" poet" or even an "emo" poet. Sheesh guys, let’s watch the hyphenates. It’s murder having to change suits everytime fads change. Aside from some evolving sophistication and darker themes (you go through some of the things I have had to go through and not have a crimson and ebon streak) I am still the same author I have been since before most of my readership was born.
Now that’s an interesting way to look at it.
ahem…major effing announcement here
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Brigit, Dan McTaggart, Mari Laureano, Media, The Compleat Panther Cycles, The Panther
I am now, without further huzzah or fanfare,
going to blow your mind.
I have just placed here for FREE DOWNLOAD, the entire contents and covers of
THE COMPLEAT PANTHER CYCLES in pdf format at archive.org.
If you buy the book in stores, Amazon.com, through the publisher or even through the City of Legends Bookstore, it will run you between twenty five and forty dollars, weigh in at over three pounds and make a hole in your bookshelf every time you pull it out to read again.
Here, it is free.
Happy National Poetry Month.
You owe me one, now.
Special thanks to Dan McTaggart, Barbara Holmes and Brigit for their forewords. To Mari Laureano for the stunning rear cover text. To Jillian Ann for being the woman whose beauty captured the essence of the mythology of the Panther that I spun from a real woman, filtered through my own longings.
It was one hell of a trip, writing, then revisiting to edit, assemble and annotate.
Inamorata
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under A Ronin in the Temple of Aphrodite, Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion, The Compleat Panther Cycles, from an unexpected quarter
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.
The "HOT" cover that never was to the book…
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Journal, Media, Robert DeVault, The Compleat Panther Cycles
Tired, but triumphant, our hero slips into the shadows and prepares for his next tour de force, content that, even if he falls on his face, he has the strength, the experience, and the fortitude to stand up, dust himself off and ride again.
In other words…I’m going to survive.
Sorry.
(laughing)
Hey, about to run a few essential errands then get back to the various projects that festoon reality with my name attached…
I have two slotted for completion this weekend so I can focus all my energies on the podcast recording sessions.
Bleah! I’m worn to the nubs.
Got word that Jillian Ann got her copy of THE COMPLEAT PANTHER CYCLES (she is the devastatingly striking model on the cover and between the pages, she also is a gifted and innovative techno-musician)…don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the cover we used, I just wonder how much more intensely the book would have been perceived with the cover I originally mocked up with her photos. Oh, here it is…revealed at last.
We couldn’t use it due to legal issues and in respect for and with the original photog…but under UCC regs, it is modified enough to qualify as a new image. We just couldn’t use it commercially…
I liked the comment my brother, Robert, made when he saw this cover: "Will I regain the power of speech and will it always affect me this way?" Yes and yes. It still affects me in about twelve different ways, three of them illegal in seven states…maybe one day we shall unleash it, or something even steamier…hmmmm…I could always use a model for the cover of THEOCRICIDE. A demon for the front, an angel for the back?
sorting the cats
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Brigit, Goldenheart, Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion, Mari Laureano, Muses, PanthEon, Poetry, The Compleat Panther Cycles, The Panther, from an unexpected quarter, the Leopard
I had a call a few minutes ago from my old friend Anastacia, who mentioned that the other day, owing to her friendhip with me, that someone asked her if she was "the Panther"…
okay, for the record, let’s sort this all out…one more time…there will be a test.
The Panther (a/k/a the Black Panther) was the prime muse behind The Panther Cycles. A successful writer and artist in her own right, she now lives on the West Coast and I have not had any contact with her in probably six or seven years. She did the layout and cover art for my book "PanthEon" and was NOT involved with the creation of THE COMPLEAT PANTHER CYCLES.
The Crimson Panther (a/k/a Brigit, the Goddess) was a major muse I had an affair with and have remained friends with. She took the handoff from the Black Panther, is considered one of the "3 panthers" from a dream I had even prior to her entry into my life and I have occasional contact with her, as we are collaborating on projects. And yes, the art looks remarkably like her.
The Golden Panther (a/k/a the Leopard) was my second wife and a major muse. I have not heard from her in some time. "Damascus" is my set of works most associated with her, as at the time we met she was dating only women…then she changed her mind for a few years. Last I heard she was back with women. She was the cover model for two of my books, FROM AN UNEXPECTED QUARTER and LOVE GODS OF A FORGOTTEN RELIGION. For nearly the entirety of the last eight years, she is the only woman I have been involved with, romantically.
La Pantera is Mari Laureano, the extraordinary erotic poet from New York. We are friends and she wrote the rear-jacket blurb for THE COMPLEAT PANTHER CYCLES. She is married and we’ve never been involved. Her website is www.furiverse.com
A2Panther, Anastacia, is an old friend of mine who actually was about my only close friend who tried to talk me out of marrying Ann. We are close friends and she, from time to time, tries to fix me up with friends of hers (although the one I was really, really interested got away while I was married to the Leopard). We went on exactly one blind date, aeons ago, where we both realized from first glance that there was zero chemistry between us. She is nowadays happily married and lives in the DC suburbs.
Some have suggested that the Goldenheart was actually the Golden Panther…she could also be actually the Crimson Panther (she, like Brigit, was also a redhead)…but as that relationship never had a high-water mark to measure, I am disinclined to accept that analysis.
Finally, the model who appears on the cover and in the inside art for THE COMPLEAT PANTHER CYCLES is Jillian Ann, a young woman and accomplished alternative-scene model and techno-musician. We have never met face to face and I have never been involved with her. She is merely a representation, not an actual player in the tableau (however, that position is still open and I am taking applications).
Got it straight? don’t make me matrix this…
awake at 4:15am
Posted by William F. DeVault | Filed under Journal, The Compleat Panther Cycles
Well, that sucks. That means I’ll either be too tired for SNL tonight, or will need a nap…
Had nice notes from a model I’m talking to regarding using her image on the cover of "The Complete Panther Cycles". She captures the edginess and sensuality of the Panther…not just the actual Panther, who was pretty fantastic in her own right, but also the more abstract, pedestal-zone version. She seems excited by the project. Her portfolio is immense and edgy and shows a dedication to working that I hadn’t encountered much in my exposure to models.
Still mildly cranked off over the whole poetry-on-request bs from yesterday. In a talk with some friends yesterday I compared it to being a smoker…you walk into a place where smoking has not been forbidden, where you are comfortable being who you are (a poet, not a pervert) and the management says you can’t smoke there anymore. They have the right to set the rules, I have no problem with that…but you aren’t going back there, as that would mean denying yourself something that is part of you. There are many places where the mere act of creative expression is not grounds for a rap on the knuckles…regardless of what the real background is (two people I discussed the matter with suggested alternate politicalities that might be part of the whole pastiche) I would no longer feel at home.
That someone would feel more threatened by my writing poetry than a room full of drunks is baffling, but I guess the establishment in question doesn’t make money off of my poetry, they do make money selling alcohol.
I know what Larry Jaffe would say to this all…and he’d be right. But, having demonstrated my Quixotic streak, I am still going to stick around here for a while…maybe a little walking into the wind is just what I need.
Mac and I are going to do a little guerilla poetry in Fairmont later today…I could use the outlet.
~so while hanging out in your corner...