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.).

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.

I have finished labelling all of the poems within the new book, loveaddict, by muse of inspiration.  Let me see how I can explain this without getting people mad at me.   Ooops, too late!

Being the inspiration for a poem is not the same as being my lover.  It means something about you, perhaps even something about something you have created, said or done, flipped a switch and the light flooded in for a moment.  Many of the works are dedicated, inspired by, creative women whose art, writings or photography just broke me open like a radium-laced Cadbury egg.

So here’s the breakdown.  A few of the pieces know no mother or muse, and thus are not included in the tallies:

• 20  Abstra (the abstract muse, often an amalgam of women)
• 9  Liza (the brilliant Brazilian photographer/model (the cover of the book))
• 9  Aubergine (some of the stuff was just too damn good to neglect)
• 5  Mariya (A brilliant and beautiful photographer and model)
• 5  The Leopard (Second wife, regardless of how it ended, it threw sparks)
• 3  Psyche (My first, and some have suggested, only true love)
• 2  Alisha (Like a comet in the night sky, she passed, but left an impression)
• 1  The Goldenheart (Spoken of enough, but thought of fondly)
• 1  Crimson  (A mystery muse, to all but myself (and her))
• 1  Faerie (My old protege and cover model)
• 1  Huerta (The nightblooming one herself)
• 1  Pink Jade (Sweet and gentle, I still speak with her from time to time)
• 1  Selke (And not a poem from the Selke Cycles…)

There you have it, for your own perverse edification.  I kept my promise, not a panther to be seen! I will be updating you all as it gets nearer to release date…man, this has been a killer to assemble.

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.