My new book, Appearances: A Novel In Fragments, has been out for a couple of weeks now.  Go here (and scroll to the bottom of the page) where you can either purchase a hard copy or download it for free as an e-book.  I worked on the thing for over three years.  It is dear to my heart.

Oh, and did I mention that you can even download it as an e-book for free!

Watched an interesting documentary this afternoon: Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter.

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Have been revisiting Emerson.  I don't care for his poems but find incredible poetry in his essays and lectures.

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Listening to Jeff Beck's new CD Live+ (14 live tracks from various concerts, 2 studio tracks).

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At the Austin City Limits website there's a link up to a show B.B. King did.  I watched it yesterday and was particularly fascinated whenever the camera lingered on his fingers.

King didn't play a lot of chords. He played a lot of single note rhythms with a very distinctive vibrato and a lot of bends.

You bend strings by pushing them.  It takes strength and finesse to bend strings.  Eric Clapton once remarked in an interview that, while he no longer practiced scales and patterns, he did still practice bends.

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Since I finished Appearances I've been at something of a loss about what to do with myself.  I have no ideas for writing at the moment.  So I've been filling my time in other ways:  housework, yard work, errands, guitar,reading, etc.  Oh, and have I mentioned I watched this great documentary about Abraham Lincoln?

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Marty Resting

I'm feeling kind of emptied out.

Over the last ten years I've published five books of my own writing, plus 3 volumes of interviews I curated.  There have also been some assorted chapbooks, uncollected poems, interviews, etc.  It's been a very productive time.

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Still...I have no ideas at the moment.

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Thought can't be forced with good results.  This I know.  I've tried.

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So, while I wait for any kind of response to Appearances, I'm thinking to try and focus on what I can do...namely my inept exploration of the guitar.

Today I spent an inordinant amount of time grooving with a jam track to no one's advantage.  It felt pretty good.

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Today?

A lot of dogwood blossoms littering the backyard.  And thousands of maple tree helicopters raining in the front yard.

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I'm a bit between things at the moment.  Being done with the writing of Appearances is at once an accomplishment and a loss. I'm not sure what to do now and that bugs me.

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Listening to Keith Jarrett's new CD, Creation.  I've been attending to his music for 40 years.  It continues to enrich my life.

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Contemplating two very dead and much mourned azalea bushes.  Sigh.

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A couple of days ago it was in the 80's.  Today it's been in the 40-50 range. Coldish.  Flowers don't look amused.

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Listening to Junior Wells.

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It feels great to have Appearances starting to make its way in the world.  Funny thing, though, after working on it for a few years, I'm left with a funny void.

I've exorcised a whole bunch of allegorical figures.  The Hypnotist, the Ventriloquist, and the Projectionist, for example   Even the Virtual and the Real.

So, I'm very self-consciously confronting the need to start over again.

Last year I published Dipstick  Diptych with Marsh Hawk Press.  And this week, Appearances with Moria.  Two major (to me) events/efforts.

Writing has rarely come easily for me.  But I've learned a few things over the last 40 years.  The primary thing: one can't force the good stuff.  Not to say I haven't tried.

Sometimes things need to steep.  Right now I'm in steeping time.

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OK,  Junior.  I wanna hear that again.

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Fresh Galatea

The new issue of Galatea Resurrects is up:   http://galatearesurrection24.blogspot.com
My conversation with Marton Koppany is included in its pages.  Happy reading!