Point and Shoot, FL (YU)—Sometimes Scrib interviewed himself, in the standard Q & A format.
Q: What genre do you write in?
A: I call it ANIIA. Areas not interested in agenting.
Poetry, autobiographical fiction, anecdotes and ravings.
Q: Why would an agent not be interested in agenting those areas.
A: Publishers aren’t interested in publishing them.
Q: Well, that’s kind of contrary, isn’t it? Kind of precious.
What are you—an injustice collector?
A: Just a writer.
Q: No, you’re a publisher, too. A, ha ha, self-publisher.
That’s another area no one wants to agent.
Blogs.
Material that has already appeared on the worldwide web.
Recycled material.
Yesterday’s news.
It’s old news before it’s news.
A: Poetry is news that stays news.
Q: Who said that? Ezra Pound. He ended up in an insane asylum.
A: Great poets die in pots of steaming shit.
Q: Who said that? Charles Bukowksi.
Charles Bukowski never wrote on the worldwide web.
A: I’m not Charles Bukowski. I’m me. Cacoëthes Scribendi.
I was influenced by Bukowski.
But I was also influenced by jazz musicians like Rahsaan Roland Kirk.
Who said, “Anything you have to do, you have to go on and do yourself.”
Charles Mingus. Who said, “Bird’s not dead, he’s hiding out. And he’ll be back with some new shit that will scare everyone to death.”
Charlie Parker. Who said, “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out your horn.”
Thelonious Monk. Who said, “The music is on the horn. Play it or throw it away.”
Ornette Coleman. Who said, “Once I found out I could make a mistake, I knew I was on to something.”
Q: You can’t get there from here.
A: Well, go back to the barns and we’ll start over.
I’m getting the word right on the page and the pages out to readers.
Q: In dribs and drabs. And you don’t get paid for it.
A: I don’t have to get paid for it to do it. Therefore, why give up control of it, for money?
Q: Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one.
A: I own The Daily By-Catch.
I make JOURNAL OF A SMALL-TOWN CRANK the way I think it should be made.
Q: Know, ye, that our prayers are answered, for whatever happens, that’s the answer.
A: Exactly.
I write to find out.
I go and see for myself, report back what I find.
We’re exploring new territory here. New ground.
Terra incognita.