Q: How many books did you write in the 12 months between March 2005 and February 2006?

A: Assuming I finish READFEST 2006 by the end of February, I wrote 18 books.

1. POSTCARDS FROM POINT AND SHOOT: AN IMMOBILIZED HERO NOVEL
2. VOCATION AND CAREER IN CONFLICT: AN ANTI-MEMOIR
3. LOG OF A BIG HAT
4. IN REAL TIME: WRITING, PUBLISHING, AND SELLING BOOKS ALONG THE REDNECK RIVIERA
5. RIDING FOR THE BRAND
6. A SUMMING UP: WHAT I'VE DONE SO FAR, AND THE CONDITIONS I DID IT UNDER
7. FLORIDA'S FORGOTTEN COAST
8. FLORIDA'S EMERALD COAST
9. SPIRIT OF THE SUWANNEE MUSIC PARK
10. INSIDE UNDERGROUND WRITING: TWO ZINE FESTS, A HOOTENANNY, AND A SIDE-TRIP TO PARADISE GARDEN, WITH A DEATH IN THE FAMILY, IN BETWEEN
11. THE COLLEGE OF HARD KNOCKS
12. OLD FART IN SPACE
13. RACE, SEX, AND WORKING FOR A LIVING: A THREE-RING CIRCUS
14. EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
15. EDUCATION
16. HONORS AND AWARDS
17. I DRIVE TO FAIRHOPE, ALABAMA
18. READFEST 2006

Q: What events did you go to?

A: I was busy. I went to:

1. Other Words, a conference of literary magazines, independent publishers, and writers, in Tallahassee sponsored by the Literary Arts Coalition.
2. Homegrown Powwow, in the yard of Big Chief and Swamp Rose, in Hiland Park.
3. Visit Larry and Hazel in New Orleans on the Greyhound bus. Meet Aaron Neville at WWOZ.
4. Drive to Live Oak and visit Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park.
5. Philly Zine Fest. I was on a panel.
6. Book Release Party at the Medusa Lounge, in Philadelphia.
7. Memorial Service for Edna Lee Saunders, in Redmond, Washington.
8. Zine-A-Polooza, in Atlanta. I was on a panel.
9. Everett Brothers Music Barn, Suwanee, Georgia, to hear Owen play with David Davis and the Warrior River Boys.
10. Paradise Garden (closed to public--let in by Rev. Col. Tommy Littleton).
11. Folk Fest 2005 in Atlanta. I share a booth with Big Chief.
12. Gulf Coast Writers and Storytellers Conference. I am a presenter.
13. Oktoberfest, a street fair in Panama City.
14. Books-A-Million, in Panama City. I sign books with Pottersville Press authors.
15. Page and Palette bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama. I sign books.
16. booksALIVE 2006! at Gulf Coast Community College. I have a booth as a local writer.
17. Went to The Red Bar in Grayton Beach to hear Dread Clampitt play most Sundays.
18. Brenda made a six-layer cake for Jennifer and Balder's wedding. Family came in from out of town.
19. Went to hear The Lewis Family in Springfield at a church. Little Roy loves Owen.
20. Joe Bell Memorial Pick-In, in Andalusia, Alabama. Joe Bell was my age. 66.
21. Everglades Bluegrass Festival, in Ojus. I visit Delray Beach.
22. In addition, we had family from out of town at Thanksgiving and Christmas, prepared food and watched grandchildren. Also, Gerald and Del were with us, Hurricane Katrina evac, for four months.

Q: So you made good use of your time.

Where is your latest book for sale, locally.

A: You can't buy my book in Panama City.

The bookstores won't carry it and Cooper's News, on Harrison Avenue, went Tango Uniform (tits-sup). "We support our troops."

Q: What publicity have you gotten from the local media?

A: The Panama City News-Herald declined to review the book, or do a profile of me.

Likewise two local television stations.

Likewise the arts reporter for the public radio station at the junior college.

Q: No shit?

A: Honto des'.

Q: How do you sell it? How do you publicize it?

Q: It's available at Amazon.com, from the distributor, Out Your Backdoor, and from the publisher, LitVision Press. I sell it out of my musette bag, and at street fairs.

It's touted at the ULA web page. In addition to at the web pages of my distributor and publisher. And my web page.

The worldwide web is the short answer.

How do you sell a book that can't be bought in a bookstore and book reviewers do not review? Over the Internet.

Q: If that's not a banned book, I don't know what a banned book is.

A: It's not banned, it's published.

It's not unavailable, you just have to look for it.

You have to know about it, and go find it.

People who want to read the kind of books I write are willing to do that. They look.

They tell each other about me.

Q: So you're happy with the state of affairs?

A: Look what I got done.

Not having a book contract didn't slow me down.

Not being on Oprah didn't slow me down.

I am getting the books written, published, and out to readers.

I hear back from readers, think about what they have to say, and respond to their comments, in my books.

More or less immediately.

That's unprecedented.

That's something new under the sun.

You could have read every one of those 18 books online, as it was being written. And written to me about it. And felt like I listened to what you had to say about it.

That's like Holden Caulfield wanting to be able to call up a favorite author on the telephone.

That's like Sheri Martinelli wanting to fuck all modernist poets.

Q: You're a post-modernist poet. If not a poet-fucking poet.

A: I prefer "aging" poet. I might get it up again. You never know.

It's a relief not to have to fuck a different groupie every night.

Do you know what a bother that gets to be?

Some of them have grooming and hygiene issues.

"Over the hill" poet. I'm not dead, I've just slowed down a bit.

And my writing hasn't slowed down at all.

My barnstorming for poetry.

If I see a soap box, I get up on it.

I sound my barbaric yawp.

I'm just a rooster, crowing from his dung hill.

You might as well try to sneak the sun past a rooster as to shut me up.