OUT OF THE BLUE: REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITING LIFE, THE PUBLISHING PROCESS, AND HOW SOME BOOKS JUST GROW, LIKE TOPSY. November 15 - December 11, 2003. 37,000 words. I start a new job. Continue writing GUY LIT: A MEMOIR. I embed it in OUT OF THE BLUE. I delete previous books from The Daily Bulletin, files from About, and cut down what I am posting at my web site. On the web site, I call the entries I do not post redacted, in parentheses. The hard-copy manuscript is a third longer than the online version. Brenda quits her job and goes on my health insurance, looks for a better job. She couldn't take a week off at Christmas, when Owen and Jean and Ella Blue will be here, because she didn't have enough seniority. And she couldn't go to The Red Bar on Sunday to see Balder play because she worked nights and Sundays. I send GUY LIT: A NOVEL to Livingston Press. I now consider GUY LIT: A NOVEL, BOTCHED BOOK: THE MOBY-DICK OF HOW-TO UNDERGROUND WRITER GUIDES, and GUY LIT: A MEMOIR three parts of a book called DAILY TYPEWRITING: BOOKS 232, 233, AND 234 OF JACK SAUNDERS' STACK. Also, I see that OUT OF THE BLUE is subtitled REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITING LIFE, THE PUBLISHING PROCESS, AND HOW SOME BOOKS JUST GROW, LIKE TOPSY. The third part, "Some Books Just Grow," is about how DAILY TYPEWRITING: BOOKS 232, 233, AND 234 OF JACK SAUNDERS' STACK grew. Brenda takes a job as a medical transcriptionist, at a place with good benefits and pleasant working conditions. We can start paying off the house, in January.
DISTANCE LEARNING. December 11 - December 21. 30,000 words. I continue working on GUY LIT: A MEMOIR. I send a copy of Root Doctor and Dread Clampitt to the Toussaint de l'Ouverture High School of the Arts and Social Justice, in the old post office, in Delray Beach. I was in a tribute to Anaïs Nin, A Book of Mirrors, with the co-founder, who wrote a book about her. I see that "Out of the Blue," "Distance Learning," and "A Legend of the Underground" are three parts of a single book, DIRECTOR'S CUT: AMERICAN LETTERS' SMOKING GUN. I dress up as Santa Claus for the Employee Children Christmas party. I am grinding the books out. I almost sent the manuscript of DISTANCE LEARNING to Larry and Hazel before I got the postcard thanking me for OUT OF THE BLUE.
A LEGEND OF THE UNDERGROUND. December 21, 2003 - January 4, 2004. 30,000 words. I collect the poems from OUT OF THE BLUE, DISTANCE LEARNING, and A LEGEND OF THE UNDERGROUND into a chapbook I call Redacted Poems, and send the manuscript to Bottle of Smoke Press. Some pictures of me in a Santa suit and me with Glori-Anne Gilbert, naked, on my lap. Compare and contrast. Compare The Daily Bulletin, the online version, to the print version of The Daily Bulletin and The Daily Grind after I went back to work and began redacting myself, in the online version. So as not to jeopardize my day job.
MINOR POET: A COUNTER-NARRATIVE TO WRITING SCHOOLS AND WRITER'S GUIDES. January 1 - January 18. 31,000 words. I rename GUY LIT: A NOVEL and GUY LIT: A MEMOIR GUY LIT, a book in three parts. "Book I--Why Aren't You At Work, Daddy?" "Book II--Daily Typewriting Forever: Something New Under the Sun," and "Book III--Memoirs of a Dutiful Son," and pitch the book to Russell Galen. I pitch DIRECTOR'S CUT to Bonnie Nadell. I see that "Minor Poet: A Counter-Narrative to Writing Schools and Writer's Programs," is Book I of a three-part book, THE KING OF DAILY TYPEWRITING, together with "Book II--Autobiographical Fiction, or The Fictional Autobiography: I Just Call It a Kunstlerroman" and "Book III--Jack the Raver: The Creative Nonfiction Bylined Column." I write and publish a pamphlet of poems called Art Brew: The Spent Effluent Collection, by analogy with Dr. Maya Angelou's Life Mosaic Collection for Hallmark Greeting Cards. I see that THE KING OF DAILY TYPEWRITING is followed by a third book, DREDGED. CHEWING UP THE SCENERY, and that all three books form the series The Art Brew School of Daily Typewriting Writing. I pitch the three-book series to an agent. The third book is about three trips to Ocean Springs, to the Walter Anderson Museum of Art. I buy The Art of Walter Anderson and Fortune's Favorite Child, a biography of Anderson. Brenda and I watch Sessions at West 54th, with John Prine and Iris Dement, and Daddy and Them.
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FICTION, OR THE FICTIONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY: I JUST CALL IT A KUNSTLERROMAN. January 19 - February 1. 30,000 words. I write agents and editors about The Art Brew School of Daily Typewriting Writing. I'm hearing back good things on pieces like the pamphlet Art Brew: The Spent Effluent Collection, from members of the Buzzard Cult, but the same old no reply or a rejection slip from editors and agents. That is, I am preaching to the choir. But I don't know how to find the editor or agent who is looking for what I do. I make up another pamphlet, Let's Get W*t, and send it out with Vasocongestion Blues and Art Brew: The Spent Effluent Collection. I see that THE KING OF DAILY TYPEWRITING is an expansion of the pamphlet Areas Not Interested in Agenting: Poetry, Autobiographical Fiction, Anecdotes and Ravings. What else would anybody want to write, and why wouldn't they combine all three in the same book, as I have done? Is it they who are crazy? I write and send out The Wardrobe Malfunction Program-Related Activities versus the Post-Rehearsal Decision to Have a Costume Reveal (compare The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster).
JACK THE RAVER: THE CREATIVE NONFICTION BYLINED COLUMN NOVEL. February 1 - February 28. 50,000 words. We have a review of the technical manual I am writing at work. The customer beats us up. It is my fault. I attend booksALIVE 2004!, where I meet Tom Piazza. I sent him Dread Clampitt and Root Doctor. I write Writing the Great American Novel on the Worldwide Web, and pitch it to George Vickery, for booksALIVE 2005! I knuckle down on my technical manual at work. I write a column, "Bartleby the Aviator," and start a collection of columns, F-LOG. I pitch the column to the Panama City News Herald.
THE MAN OF HUBRIS IS PUBLISHED BY THE GODS. March 1 - March 15. 28,000 words. I get my technical manual at work ready for a 90% in-process review (IPR), with digital photographs in place of line art.. I do a Person-in-the-Street (PITS) interview with myself. Wit's End Publishing asks to see BOTCHED BOOK. I take a Friday off and drive to Ocean Springs. Brenda's job as a medical transcriptionist falls through, but she gets a job with the same outfit, as auditor. Dread Clampitt cut a live CD at the Funky Blues Shack, Wrack & Ruin.
RETRENCHED: A SOLDIER IN THE TRANSITION TO A POST-COLD WAR ECONOMY. March 15 - March 31. 30,000 words.. My boss says the F word, at work. Furlough. I continue writing F-LOG columns, and start telling other bloggers about them, in hopes of getting them to link to The Daily Bulletin. Does F in F-LOG stand for furlough instead of fiction? For blogging at work? I give myself a Charlie White Award. "Mail art is probably the greatest left-hander we will ever know unless it was Charlie White of Chicago." I pitch an online casebook on The Art Brew School of Daily Typewriting Writing to Dalkey Archive Press and start writing glossary entries. Dread Clampitt play at SpringFest and Owen, Jean, and Ella visit with us, then go over to Live Oak for that. Owen and Balder cut a CD, The Saunders Brothers: Dog House Sessions. We go to Live Oak on Saturday, to hand over the dog, Sadie, whom we dog-sat with, for a couple of days. Hear the band, see friends.
PIE IN THE SKY, BYE AND BYE. April 1 - April 15. 30,000 words. I pitch a session on The Use of Weblogs in Literature to BloggerCon 2004. I finish writing F-LOG: THE FIRST DRAFT OF LITERATURE, the YU News Service columns. Redacted Poems comes back from Bottle of Smoke Press. I combine "F-Log" and "Redacted Poems," and will add "A Casebook On Crank-Lettres Confidential: The Art Brew School Of Daily Typewriting Writing," when it is finished, to form WHAT GENRE IS YOUR PARACHUTE? A NOVELLA ABOUT BLOGGING, A CHAPBOOK OF REDACTED POEMS, A CASEBOOK ON A ROMAN-FEUILLETON, PERHAPS MY CHEF D'OOVRAY, a one-volume condensation of, and introduction to, Crank-Lettres Confidential: The Art Brew School Of Daily Typewriting Writing, like The Hobbit is a condensation of, and introduction to, Lord of the Rings. Out of the blue, I am laid off. Oh, shit. I decide to send out F-LOG by itself, and change the name to SACKED, OR, LADY DON'T LET YOUR BLOG BITE ME. My employer pays me ten days separation pay, in lieu of two weeks notice. I have time at the house to do my taxes and wrap my book up. I don't hear back on "The Use of Weblogs in Literature." I guess they aren't really literature, they are chatter. Nattering nabobs of negativism. Maybe Spiro wasn't so bad. Compared to Cheney. No, wait. Brew combines the poetry pamphlets Blue Ball Blues, Redacted Poems, Art Brew: The Spent Effluent Collection, Let's Get W*t, The Wardrobe Malfunction Program-Related Activities versus the Post-Rehearsal Decision to Have a Costume Reveal (compare The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster), and the nonfiction pamphlet Writing the Great American Novel on the Worldwide Web, to form the short book PAMPHLETEER, he changes the name of SACKED, OR, LADY DON'T LET YOUR BLOG BITE ME to BLOGGER, and combines "Pamphleteer" (26,000 words) and "Blogger" (32,000 words) to form SACKED, the one-volume introduction to Crank-Lettres Confidential: The Art Brew School of Daily Typewriting Writing, rather than WHAT GENRE IS YOUR PARACHUTE.
CASEBOOK ON CRANK-LETTRES CONFIDENTIAL: THE ART BREW SCHOOL OF DAILY
TYPEWRITING WRITING. April 16 - April 25. 33,000 words. (Began writing glossary
entries in March.) Imagine if Bukowski had written a casebook on Henry Chinaski,
or remember when Theodore Roszak wrote "The Summa Popologica of Marshall McLuhan."
Think also of Conversations with Nelson Algren, or Conversations with
Claude Lévi-Strauss. Or Charles Bukowski: Sunlight Here I Am. Interviews
& Encounters, 1963 - 1993. I finish writing CASEBOOK and add it to SACKED,
with "Pamphleteer" and "Blogger." Not at the end of Crank-Lettres
Confidential.