Doing Thursday on Friday, New Belleville Newsletter August 13th, 2009

Slow week here in my world. Car keeps breaking down. And always in the worst possible place. This last time was on the Upper Deck of I35, where, to the utmost frustration of every other driver on that monstrosity they call a road, my car slowed down to a mere 50 miles an hour … nerve-wracking, I tell you! And that’s the big excitement for the week! However, thanks to the multi-talented Robin Blackburn – she came up with what sounds like a very plausible diagnosis – maybe I can have a working box on wheels soon.

For those of you who do not know, NBP is publishing a collection of poems by Robin to be out hopefully sooner than later. So, Robin, on top of being a pretty darn good poet, and a kick-ass editor, she’s also car savvy. (When my car decided to go kapoot once again, I was heading down to San Marcos to reconvene with Robin about her collection of poems. We rescheduled, and I’ll let you know more soon, and maybe even post one of her poems before then.)

In other news, Dillon McKinsey hosted Writing on the Air last night on KOOP 91.7 radio, Austin, Texas! Lee K. Davis was unfortunately out because of day-job reasons – those darn day-jobs! don’t they just get in the way of our lives over and over and over again? What’s one to do? When one has bills to pay, bankers on one’s back like spider monkeys, food to buy, and the price of a gallon of gasoline constantly on the upward rise??? Dr. Dora Robinson was present as well – if you’re reading this, Dora, I think you should talk more about what you’re doing writing wise, maybe even read us some experts of your own stuff. Dillon brought a pre-recorded cd on New American Literatures, which brought up several interesting points. There was one poem in particular, Incident by Countee Cullen that I liked, and that I thought was rather poignant in its simplicity.

Then on to listen to the Dalton Gang do a reading! Free beer and organic tea by the great folks from Cafe Caffeine, great venue thanks to Book People, and great bunch of writers thanks to Dalton Publishing. Here’s some brief comments on some of the writers and their work. There were plenty of other talented writers. You’ll just have to show up to one of their readings if you want to know more.

Robert Stikmanz read a section from his book Sleeper Awakes. Rob is very soft spoken, and the whole room had to really quiet down so that we could all hear him, which gave his words an even more enchanting feel to them. Having read the book, I think the section he picked was perfect. It comes from the very beginning of the book, and thus gave just enough away to spark interest in the story. It gave us enough of Rob’s universe to let us understand how different that particular place is. “The Hidden Land of Nod” is close by, just a smidgen out of our awareness periphery. Maybe, just maybe if we opened our eyes and our hearts a slight bit more, we could see a whole other universe right under our noses … Thanks, Rob! For a great reading.

Gary Kent, quite possibly the extreme opposite of Robert Stikmanz, at least in the soft spoken department, ended the reading with guffaw and hilarity like only he can. He shared with us a wonderful story from his book, Shadows and Light, Journeys With Outlaws In Revolutionary Hollywood, that would inspire any wannabe stuntman to join the film world head first, either that or quite literally scare the living [dog] shit out of them into a more sane profession, like accounting or something. Sorry, you’ll have to purchase the book and read it to get that scatological reference. Gary, good stuff! I want more!!!

Micheal Gilmore read from his book, Restless Astronomy (link is a PDF file). He ended his section with a not so nice poem to / about a certain loud-mouthed cigar-smoking extreme-right-wing radio show host – whose name I cannot mention here, so as not to desecrate my humble little blog – that everyone present thought quite funny, myself included. This was a “poop joke” genre poem. Really, all writers present were grown men and one grown woman, and still, everybody enjoyed a good poop joke. I say we never outgrow poop jokes. We just learn to appreciate that the whole world doesn’t revolve around poop jokes. As in, poop jokes aren’t the end-all be-all, that there are other subjects to breach, to speak about, to write about, and even to joke about … however, that writing poop jokes is not just for middle-schoolers! It can be for poets of well toned craftsmanship such as Michael Gilmore. Thanks you Michael! Great poetry as usual.

Headlining the reading was Richard Williams, reading a section from his new book Woman in the Tower, and also from his poetry collection, the secret book of god. No poop jokes here. This was all seriousness and soul searching. A man drives down a road, sees a tower. Then it’s not there anymore. He returns the next day, it is there once more. Inside the tower is a woman who tells him stories, parables and fairy tales. And this is the structure of Ric’s novel. I think Dalton Publishing says it best: “Woman in the Tower: Stories for the Wounded Child is a novel of fables told to a man in the throes of a life crisis. In a series of increasingly strange and challenging encounters he explores the mysteries of his own soul and that of the world and all its inhabitants.” (read full quote  here.) Ric introduced his reading by talking about classic fairy tales and folklore literature, and how it’s not always kind & nice. He explained that he was trying with this book, to recreate those classic tales, such as one would read in the Brothers Grimm. That’s exciting to me. When I was a kid, I would often get chided for reading books that weren’t considered serious enough, and that I should read more mature books. I have always loved fairy tales, and still do. I do not like nor appreciate what I call the disneyfication of fairy tales. I think it does a great disservice to all, and to folklore in particular. The fact that Ric is trying to create new fables, serious ones in the classic style, is in this day and age, rather brave. We too often, and unfortunately think of fables in the disneyfied sense, losing everything that fables are suppose to do. Ric, thanks you!

And of course, don’t forget to check out New Belleville Press books, Beer Songs for the Lonely, by F.K. Needles, and Neurotica by Elva Maxine Beach. You can purchase them at one or more of these wonderful retailers: Alibris.com & Authorsbookshop.com & Book People & Oat Willies & Sonny’s Vintage, those last three in Austin, TX & Left Bank Books, in St. Louis, MO.

That’s it for today! Have a beautiful and lovely day! Enjoy your life, eat some good food, and smile at your neighbor!

Francois Pointeau

PS: And Ric, thanks for the bit about Zeno’s paradox. Enjoyed that!

PSS: I figured out this newsletter’s official name: Doing Thursday on a Friday. Why? Because it looks like I am having problems getting this out on Thursdays consistently. And even when I do, I’m still changing stuff on Friday. And changing the publishing date to Fridays, would mean I wouldn’t get it out till Saturday. By that time, the week’s pretty much over, and we might as well start a new one. And I am definitely not a Beginning of the Week type of guy … what’s there to talk about? Last week? Last week’s already done and spoken for. The week to come? What can one know about that? Really? I need to stick to somewhere in the middle with a penchant for the  end. Thursdays are perfect.

SALA writers’ group newsletter

Hello Everybody!

On Friday, June 12th, SALA met at Cafe Caffeine as planned. We had a very productive meeting.

Present were Denny Bolton, Lester Morris, Gary Kent, & myself – Francois Pointeau – Gail Folkins made a very brief visit.

Until Gabrielle comes back, I volunteered to be the secretary & thus takes notes. Gabrielle! Hurry back! I don’t think I’m very good at this

So what I’ll attempt to do here, is give a more or less accurate description of what happened during our meeting. I’ll outline the major points covered. However, please realize that we didn’t go from point A to point B and then to point C … we kind of meandered around, eventually finding our way to a few answers, decisions, and realizations. We also listened to several entertaining tales by our friend Lester. Ask him about that special sacrificial rock in Stonehenge.

We wanted, at least I insisted on this, to figure out what SALA is about? To give ourselves a bit of direction, so that we all know what our goals are as an organization.

We came up with three principals:

1) Selling our members’ books;
2) A constant professional exchange of information;
3) And finally: Encouragement!

Denny, who’s been at the Farmer’s Market every single week, let us know that the peeps at the Market will no longer let us sell Go Local cards. This a bit of a problem. Go Local donates 20 cards per month that we can sell at 10 bucks a pop, and thus raise 200 buckaroos to pay for the booth at the market. The market costs $280 per month or $70 for two tents each week. Go Local will still donate 20 cards per month, but now we need to find a different place / venue to sale them.

Go Local’s myspace: www.myspace.com/golocalaustin
Denny, do they have a regular website?

Denny will not be going back to the Farmers’ Market until the fall. We will however keep receiving the GL cards. We should think of ways to sell these cards to raise funds for SALA.

Which brings me to the second major point of Friday’s meeting! Why do we need to raise funds?

Answer: So that we can keep the promise of our Three Principals!

We brainstormed on how we could sell our members’ books more effectively. I mentioned that throwing a party is always a good thing. If we bring all of our social resources together, we can probably throw a huge bash. Mixing mediums, as in having our books and us reading from our books, sure, but also live music, stand-up comics, performance artists, jugglers, et cetera, as well as refreshments such as beer, wine, and finger food. We thought that maybe having one big event per year would be a good idea. One huge SALA event that will become a yearly happening.

We need to raise funds so that we can organize events! So that we can continue to have a presence at the Farmers’ Market and / or other such venues where it costs MONEY to have a booth so that we can sell YOUR BOOKS.

We talked about possibly attaching ourselves to an existing festival, such as a movie or music festival that already has a following, and starting a small lit festival for and by SALA.

Anyway, that brings us to the next point: Monthly Dues! 5 bucks per month starting in July 2009. The money will go to organize events so that we can sell books.

We stressed the important point that we need to think OUTSIDE the box, here. What I’m trying to say: Ideas welcomed! Please comment! Write back! Send ideas!

Gary discussed his upcoming book: “Shadows and Light, Journeys With Outlaws In Revolutionary Hollywood” to be out July 15th with a big party at Book People, and an after-party at Gary’s place.

You can learn more about Gary here: http://www.garykentfilmmaker.com/ or about his publisher here: http://www.daltonpublishing.com/our_books/shadows-and-light/.\

Personally, I can’t wait to read Gary’s book!

Gary talked about his experience getting published. The journey with the small publisher, the distributor, and the frustrations thereof as well as the positive notes.

We need two more volunteers:

1) Treasurer – your duties would be to manage the money, collect the dues, deposit them into SALA account, balance the budget. You need to be able to ad and subtract and keep books for this position.
2) Event Organizer – your duties would be to … you figured it out: organize events! This calls for a social person with an ease in making connections, an attraction to organizing great parties, a knowledge of local venues, bands, et cetera.

Last but not least, we are going to buy a booth at the Texas Book Festival. That’s a cost of 600 dollars! Who wants to be at the Texas Book Festival? If ten of us go, that’s 60 dollars per person. If 20 of us go, that’s 30 bucks per person … and so on. Please send Denny an email on whether or not you’re interested.

Thanks!

Elva Maxine Beach on Cafe Caffeine

We recently had a very successful release party for NEUROTICA, by Elva Maxine Beach. NEUROTICA is our second book, and we’re so very proud! It’s now available both in soft and hard-cover editions.

Go visit Maxine’s website, http://elvamaxinebeach.com, where you may now check out one of her Cafe Caffeine performances, read her blog, or just say hello. You may also watch her performances on YouTube.

Search “Neurotikat” or go to:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=maxine+beach&search_type=&aq=f