Category: News

Seriously – it’s almost October?

It’s been a truly insane month since I last had the chance to post here, and I’m sad to report that not a lot of writing has been going on. I had a reading of my book at the Swift Hibernian Lounge. Here’s a photo of me reading my book from the pulpit in the back room (courtesy of Tony Brescia – thank you!), and I still think all the followers of my work and their pals should read the first installment of my magnum opus and subsequently review it on Amazon, Goodreads or Shelfari.

It was a year ago this month that I announced the start of my Kickstarter project to publish Book 1 of Ministers of Grace. I’m still amazed that I knew enough generous people to kick the in dosh to make it happen. The donation period ended the day before my 36th birthday, which made for a helluva celebration. And although it’s been almost three months that my book has been available to the world, I regularly want to pinch myself because it still doesn’t seem real.

As I approach my 37th birthday, I can comfortably declare that the last year of my life has been defined by relentless change. During my various adventures in three states, I maintained a blog during one of the temp gigs I held for a spell, followed by relocating my life back home to New York almost six months ago. The unfortunate consequence of such a major move is that I’ve not been able to devote my full attention to marketing my book in the way that I would have were my life in a more stable situation. Almost every writer I know has a day job, and given that I lack both a stable day job and a place to live (stilllllll) after almost half a year means that there is so little time and headspace available to sit down and write. I’m lucky if I can knock out a poem a month, whereas I’d been accustomed to knocking out 2,500 words a day without so much as breaking a sweat during the (albeit stagnating) tranquility of my life in New Mexico. Right now, I’m deeply grateful that I already have the first drafts of both Books 2 & 3 done, because I find that in lacking extended time periods in which to work, it’s easier to dive into the predictive calculus of redrafting vs. the comet chasing of plotting.

However, more than anything else, I’m even more grateful that I had so many incredible people who helped me get Book 1 out. The FAQ I’ve encountered most often lately is, “When is Book 2 coming out?” The short answers are, “If I have my druthers, it’ll be late next year. If I don’t, it’ll be a little bit after that.”

In the meantime, have a first draft of an 8×8 syllabic poem. It’s all I’ve got in the reserve tank.

Octaves

Ivory is a conduit,
permissive of ambient pearls
curling in a Coriolis
through the ear and far beyond the
battlements of memory to
where all the tunes you’ve ever danced
to stand at attention, waiting
for an arrow’s spark to shake your groove.

♥ EAB

Last night, for the first time in more than a year, I got back to redrafting Book 2. It’s superexciting. I can’t wait for you all to meet Shakti and Yusufina. They’re two of my favorites.

Amazing that it happened on the eve of my reading, too. Yessirree, my reading and book launch is TONIGHT at 7 PM at the Swift Hibernian Lounge in NYC. It’s free, and it’ll be fun. See you there!

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I also mentioned in my last post that “Obstinacy,” the poem I drafted last weekend, would hit a couple more drafts before it was done. Here it is in its latest incarnation.

Obstinacy

Will summons shape as a lean Minotaur,
and it draws itself forward, attentive,
in a rocking chair at the stony shores
of platitudes, picking and poking at
the varnish on the armrests with a meat
hook, musing how he’ll mount the unworthy
and their crumbling logics. The tides obey
the tables – low swells to high, steep curls back
to deep – and none sails near to challenge the
strictures, not with such menace keeping watch.

♥ EAB

First of all, I’m elated to announce that I’ve sent out all the Kickstarter rewards, and that means that the Great Self-Publishing Adventure of 2012 all done and dusted. If you were to perform a chemical analysis of my internal composition, you’d discover that I’m at least 67% Gratitude for all the love and support that came my way to get Book 1 of Ministers of Grace out into the world. I still have a thousand more Thank Yous in me for everyone who helped. For those of you who haven’t picked up a copy, you can get yours here.

Secondly, a number of people who’ve read my book have told me that they liked it. Testimony goes a long way in this world, so when you raise your right hand and swear to tell the truth about what you thought about my book, a respectable number of people will believe you. Therefore I’d like to invite those praising and/or criticizing folks to spread the word by writing a review on Amazon, Goodreads or Shelfari. Extra bonus points to those folks who tell their friends, too.

Thirdly, I’ve admittedly lapsed in my attention to almost everything in life on account of having moved for the fourth time in four months. Such is life when you relocate from Santa Fe to New York. I’ll be moving at least once more in the next two months. At least. I’m hoping to get back to promoting Book 1 pretty darn soon, as well as working on when I’ll be able to drop the rest of the trilogy on you. The good news is I wrote the first drafts of Books 2 and 3 of Ministers of Grace a couple of years ago, so it really is just a matter of finding the time to redraft the unsightliness of raw plotting into finessed and slick prose. I’m hoping to get back to it over the next month or so, as I’ve already heard a few calls for MOAR.

Fourth: my book launch and reading is happening this Sunday, August 25th, at 7 pm at the Swift Hibernian Lounge (34 E 4th St, between Bowery and Lafayette). Hope to see you there if you’re kicking around NYC.

Lastly, in the chaos of moving, I’ve done very little writing, and lately, I’ve felt like the folds of my cerebrum have been unfolding into slackened cords of nothing-doing. That said, I challenged myself to write a poem last night, a 10 x 12 syllabic poem employing the terms rocking chair, varnish, table and draw. This is a first draft, too, so I imagine it’ll morph over time, but hey, at least I wrote something recently…

“Obstinacy”

Her will summons shape as a Minotaur,
and it draws itself forward, attentive,
in a rocking chair at the stony shores
of her platitudes. It picks and pokes at
the uneven varnish of the arm rests
with a meat hook meant to mount unworthy
rationales, carving sins as hash marks with
its jaws snapping at their crumbling logics.
The tides obey the tables – low swells to
high, steep curls back to deep – but no one comes
around to challenge her strictures. No one
can, not with such menace keeping the watch.

♥ EAB