As I write I’m in the middle of a road trip to perform poetry readings and conduct workshops in a couple of libraries and with a writing group.
The dates are spread over a couple of days, so I’m spending time in a little dog-box of a motel room, haunting cafe’s and the local library between commitments. Using the time to review and edit old material with a view to using it as my next published collection, (scheduled in my mind for early in 2020).
I’ve engaged in a bit of debate about what direction to go for the next collection.
I’m quite keen to move forward, with new work making into book form. I have collections of work that take me into the realm of fantasy, and to considerations of some aspects of space travel in a very me kind of way (ie not hard sci-fi). As well, I feel compelled to look at commencing publication of my long series of Bachelard derived poems into book form – a c series that might end up spanning several small volumes.
One of the tasks I am setting myself for these collections is to take complete control (with the help of friends) of the creative process. I want to produce the whole of these books without resorting to commissioned assistance.
I don’t know if I can manage that, but it is the challenge that is there for me to tackle.
Against this, I have two collections that have had a previous life in book form, which I’ve since allowed to lapse. These collections are my very first attempt – A Book of Evenings – which represents a very special moment for me because it was the first. Also, the collection Memoir of a Dog, which was designed and illustrated and put together generally by my wife Leanne, back a few years.
This latter collection is perhaps the last ‘memoir’ collection – alongside Small Town Kid and The New Asylum. Between the three, there isn’t much left in the life of yours truly that is worth speaking of, and perhaps it is too much at that.
The essence of the debate about which direction to take lies in the desirability of bringing the past up to date, versus forging ahead into the future with new work. The result has been that next year should see both the older collections resurrected, to clear the decks. Along the way I may engage in other publishing activity (e-books without paperback editions, for instance), but they will be the big projects.
I’m being long-winded, and apologize. The point of this post was to share the joy I’m experiencing, while on this sojourn of performance and isolation in the heart of the big city, in revising and re-reading A Book of Evenings.
This collection dates back to early writing discoveries, early explorations of voice and free verse rhythms. I recall how alive I felt to each idea that made itself available to be examined and written down as a story.
This collection also contains a little subset of poems that formed their own story (perhaps the equivalent of a novella) in the form of Tuesday Night at Emile’s, which was written as a single poem, but grew into the characters of the upright gentleman of fixed routine, emile, his preferred restaurateur, and a girl, a woman, who enters his life peripherally and throws it up in the air through the swinging to and fro of a foot clad in a red, heeled shoe.
I am taken with the story all over again and reminded of how and why I wrote it, its development and why I felt so proud of it at the time.
Nostalgia can be a trap, I think. But, gosh, I’m enjoying this little moment of it.
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Sounds intriguing. Is Tuesday Night at Emile’s available here on WP?
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It will be on WP for a short while. I usually take them down when I start work on a book. It is here: https://wp.me/p7yTr8-34a
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The creative process for an Indie is wide open, so follow your passion rather than some rational ‘I should’. It sounds to me as if the Evenings collection should be your next foray. Must admit, I’m intrigues by Emile and that red shoe. 😀
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I suspect I’ll go that way. You were next on my list, Andrea. Are you up for that cuppa this afternoon? I can wander your way, if so.
Maybe let me know by email where you’d like to meet if you’re available.
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So sorry to have missed you, Frank. The constellations did not align…and I didn’t check my messages. 😦
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Sometime you should compile a book about “Life in my back yard”, featuring that blue skink. 🙂
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I had some fun with that one, Christine. Nowhere near enough for a book, though.
The family of them are still on the property here. Every so often I’ll turn over a bit of tin or a rock or some such and there one will be.
Maybe all the critters on the backyard would add up to a collection. I’ll keep it in mind!
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Or just all the wild creatures you’ve written about in general. 🙂
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It’s a big back catalog and I’m keen to get to some of it. There have been some wild tales over the journey.
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I’m sure whatever collection you end up with will be well worth reading, Frank!
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Your excited enthusiasm shines through.
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Doing what I’ve worked toward for a very long time.
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Thank you for sharing for bit of nostalgia. I enjoyed it–and of course the push-pull of writing projects looking back and writing projects looking forward.
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It’s still a dilemma, Liz, but I’m determined to resolve it and push on with a new project this week.
Sometimes I can overthink these things.
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Yes, overthinking is easy to do.
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