City of Legends

Some news organizations are saying that the Nor-easter quasi-blizzard that is barrelling down on DC and Baltimore right now will be the "Snow Storm of the Century".  Okay.  Not anything I can do about it but make sure I am home, taking a nap, when it hits, the better to be well-rested when it is over for the digging out phase.

Two feet plus of snow is what they are calling for.  Big deal for DC, but I spent my childhood at Air Force bases along the Canadian border; Alaska, North Dakota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Two feet of snow is chump change.

Communications may become unsteady for a day or two.  Might lose power and have to actually sleep under more than one blanket.  Might have to eat the dog.  Nah, first the dog food, then the cats, then the dog…isn’t that the correct order?  But supplies are laid in.

My first shipment of loveaddict showed up yesterday.  I have my nits to pick, but that won’t stop me from getting out the first rash of orders as soon as I can get to the post office.  Liza, the cover looks great - you’ll see.

I have been keeping busy.

A lot of writing.  A lot.  I’ve developed a stiffness in my right thumb from all the writing.  It hurts.

I kicked off a contest on DA (deviantart.com) for artistic interpretations of my poetry.  I’ll show you what comes out of it, next month.

Composing some…interesting…music for the next CD.

And generally riding out the energy flatline that occurs right after a book (loveaddict) comes out.  My first shipment is due in a few days, and it immediately goes out to people…not only advance sales, but also appreciation copies to the cover model (Liza Lorraine) , the muse (Mariya) and the three blurbers (Larry, Dave and Smita…and yes, Dave, your long-awaited copy of The Compleat Panther Cycles will go out with that.  No idea what happened to the first one.).

The new book, loveaddict, is still tracked for mid-September.

The cover remains as designed (see left).

The blurb assignments are going out this week.

And, no, I am not going to reveal the dedication or foreword before release. 

Again, 10,000 thank-yous to the amazing team who have helped put this together, especially the beautiful and talented Liza Lorraine, for the cover shot.

The selection of works inside I have been silent on since last month as I wrestled with some tough decisions, but will abide by previous statements regarding key works from such sources as the Panther Cycles, the Goldenheart Cycles and Damascus.

As time and health allows, I do plan to tour in support of the book.  Sorry to have been so obscure over the last year or so…I am working it all out, though.

Love, romance, sex.  The high of raptured contact.  First kiss.  Parting kiss.  The discovered lie.  The damning truth.  The smell of brimstone.  The smell of jasmine and warm skin.  The spirituality of making love.  The necessity of pain.

Themes.  Themes to be covered in loveaddict, my next book (you’ve seen the cover in my last entry).  What was originally to be a volume of all new poetry, exploring the nature of love and why we are drawn to it, has evolved.  I am not giving details.  I want to surprise you, to please you like an unexpected kiss or a bundle of roses.  I will tell you that the book is a confession, and the titular character is me.  Not a confession of some great evil or crime, but of how my mind and soul work and how I have sought to fill the need for love and to love in my life.

I am still editing at this time, but we are probably looking at around 160-175 works.  Many published previously, elsewhere, in various literary and poetry journals (I don’t keep track of my publication credits, which I find in the ghetto of academic poets is considered a worse sin than plagiarism.  Fuck ‘em.  This is not a game to keep score in, this is my religion, not a dilettante’s hobby).  Many of the poems are new, so new you can smell the afterbirth.  Some are refractions of the past, distillations of the present and visions of an uncertain, but hopeful, future.

There are reflections of the catalog of my muses, from Alabaster to Aubergine.  From the Mad Gypsy to Brigit.  Valkyrie and Goldenheart.  The cats are present, Panther and Leopard, but only there because the Radiant Tiger found virtue in them, spoke of them, and chose to make the words public.  There are new muses, or at least ones you have never met before. 

Soon after the book comes out, I will be removing selected selected earlier volumes of my works from circulation.  Some of my older volumes contain works that, in the filter of time, I have judged disposable.  Just as I have decided certain people are.

The blurbology for this one will be interesting.  I haven’t decided yet who to approach.  Maybe Larry Jaffe?  Some new people.  Som non-writerly types, even.  Many were startled when "Artisan and domestic diva" Michele Beschen, the host of B. Original, blurbed As such…

I do wish to thank the lovely and talented Liza Lorraine for her contribution to this book, in the form of the cover photo.  It is stunning.  If one poem in this volume speaks to one person the passion and evocation of emotion that her photo does to me, I will be pleased.

Now. back to the editing. 

Still bound to be some tweaking, but here it is, photo of and by Liza Lorraine.  Book due in August, 2009.

After many false starts and a little negotiating, I have finally settled on the cover shot for my next book, loveaddict.  It is a shot that regular visitors to this blog and the Amomancer blog know all too well, by and featuring Brazilian photographer, friend and occasional muse Liza Lorraine:

There will be some adjustments made to fit the cover, etc, but I have always been a bit fascinated by the photo (and the photographer) and am delighted she agreed to partner with me on this venture.  This takes a load off my shoulders and I can now focus on the other 9,999 details of the book.

As you all well know, this is subject to random change. What can I say? I am mercurial, fickle and given to flights of ADD and….ooooh, shiny! Where was I? Ah, yes, the tracks.

(They’re Shooting Monks in) Burma: Protest piece about the violence in Myanmar.

TRUTH: You’ve heard it here. A slam against the geopolitical.

Panther on the Beach: The villanelle that seems to have a life of its own.

Zoloti Vorota: Literally "Golden Gate", a long form built around several poems inspired by the photography of my friend and muse, Mariya Andriychuk.

Vampyr: An erotic piece inspired by Liza Lorraine.

Laying in the Fields of Arbol: A long compilation of many works in the recent collection of works inspired by my beautiful and creative friends.

Faith Healer: The musical and poetic fusion that draws the venom from the wounds.

Yes, you are counting only 7 tracks, that may be all. I might add something more, but both Zoloti Vorota and Laying in the Fields of Arbol are long form, multi-poem compositions.

I am nearing completion of the TRUTH CD and have not yet found that one piece that blows me away, not in the same manner that "Right Set of Lips" or "Wordslinger" do. Knowing me it will come to me out of nowhere and I won’t know it until I’m run over by it.

Despite the fact that my voice is still a bit gravelly from the flu, I’m getting by. The raggedness of my voice just makes for an interesting attitude to my readings and recitations as I lay down the tracks.

Since I am planning to use one of Mariya’s images for the cover, I am going to submit several mock-ups to her and let her pick. That will be interesting, as I have not ceded control to another person in any aspect of my creative life since Aubergine. Time to start trusting people again.

Perhaps I shall do a work based around the theme of trust…the higher you fly the harder you fall but you’re still better off than those who didn’t fly at all…? Trite but if I get intimate to the topic…

I had a nice talk with Liza last night, she always leaves me more intrigued than when the conversation began. I like complicated women, always have, makes me feel like I am having to work hard for what I find. I like the sense of accomplishment. She asked me to tell her a secret. I did. Some real quid pro quo.

(ahem)

On the First Day of Christmas my true love gave to me

a kiss that inspired poetry…

Thanks to the lovely Liza Lorraine for her lips and image.

Still not 1,000 percent recovered from my bout of RSV, but coming back gradually. Everything tastes like wet paper towels. Mild cough, congestion. Only one more airline leg to go (yay!).

Of course, thanks to the weather and schedules, I will have to hang out here at JFK airport in New York for the next nine hours (already been here almost three) as flights are being canceled due to the weather across the Northeastern United States (snow and freezing rain). Imagine! Snow and ice in December. So rare that there are no emergency plans for it and everyone has to panic when it happens.

I got to spend some quality time with myself, working on various projects, as I lay in my hotel room beds in Salt Lake City and Tooele (pronounced "two-willa") in Utah. We’ll see if I have the energy curve to work on them in the long run. Time will tell.

Almost completely done with my Christmas shopping, just have one or two more things to buy and those will have to wait until at least tomorrow, as I refuse to haul items on the plane that would not fit in my car. Special thanks to Jet Blue for the extra legroom, the inflight television and their new terminal at JFK that includes free wireless. Special special thanks to Jazz for the banter when I was feeling badly and very extra special thanks to Liza for giving me some very good thoughts and inspiration.

Show of hands: How many people think I should hang up the self-flagellation for now and get something done? Yeah, me, too.

Much love to all. Work to be done. Where did I leave the blanket they found in my spaceship when I crashed to Earth? I need it.

Later this week I will be activating yet more poetry/art integrated pages at my new site. www.williamfdevault.com, bringing dozens more of my classic and recent works to life and light with art and photography by talented creative artists from around the world.

One feature I am adding is special areas where I will be featuring clusters of my works interpreted with the help of a single artist or photographer, in many cases individuals who are already familiar to my readers.

The first two that will be activated are two amazing photographers who come at you from very different aspects:

Ukrainian graphic artist, photographer and model Mariya Andriychuk will have a featured gallery where a dozen of her photographs are used to interpret various works of mine.  Mariya is one of my friends who has helped to inspire the Fields of Arbol features on Amomancer.  Her photographs will adorn such works of mine as In the Arms of the Dragon.

Brazilian photographer, model and artist LiZa Lorraine will have a similar gallery, also with  dozen of her works.  LiZa has been a creative and inspiration contributor to several of my recent works, including the aforementioned Fields of Arbol.  Her talents will enhance such works of mine as Cithara Song, strummed lightly as the sun leaps the horizon.

Two more disparate artists would be hard to find.  LiZa’s work reflects an everyday elegance, the beauty of a smile, of well-turned ankles in ballet slippers.  Mariya’s is edgier, swinging from the blatantly erotic to the intensely, desperately spiritual.

I am very grateful to have these the first of several interpretive and creative artists featured on the new site.