Apologies for my absence – not ’cause I don’t love ya, I promise!
More essays, podcasts, photography, poetry and my usual general craziness are definitely on their way.
Managed to get some creative energy going – weirdly difficult nowadays – especially since this is not something I usually have any trouble with at all. First I got a few pieces of work-work done, then I turned the energy to my personal file and I was finally able to get a very important manuscript tweaked-up and into shape.
I have a kind friend who is far better at fine detail than I, looking at it now, so I can send it on to the printers with the fewest possible goofs. I’m really looking forward to this volume “At A Crazy Time Like This” being released, because it completes the set I began with “Structural Happiness,” and continued (in far more conventional short story form) with “The Kind Of Friend You Need.”
The central motivation for these books was definitely gratitude to crazy, wonderful, creative and eccentric friends and teachers – the themes are inspiration, hard-knocks, kindness, art, determination, love and loyalty.
I used the phrase “Glorious failures” in one of my poems – and I have even discovered it in aviation history (a consolation prize was given to one team which crashed while trying to fly across the Atlantic, for their glorious failure).
I embraced that concept for these books not only for sentimental reasons, but also as a deliberate refutation of the classic ‘heroic’ form of writing, which has been questioned for quite awhile (by some of my favourite feminist writers, especially), and seems to me to serve us poorly nowadays – because it fits too well into ‘celebrity culture’ – where we delegate most of our respect for humanity upward to a few token representatives, instead of saving all of our best gratitude, respect and affection for those around us, who could actually benefit from it.
We all know people who failed to achieve high glory, but were inspirational to us for the way they tried. I find these folks, who simply would not be stopped, even more inspiring than those whose talent fortune found, and far better rewarded. They had to find every bit of it within their circle and themselves!
I was also trying very deliberately for the universal in the specific. That is – these are all stories about real people doing real things, with lots of historical texture (from the eighties, in particular), but I bet every one of them will remind you in one way or another, about someone who touched your life once.
Uplift through the back stairway.
Hope and heart – behind the scenes and just next door.
Really looking forward to sharing the results with all of you – soon-soon!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
