I took stock of where I stood in what series.
I am halfway through a three-book
series. November 2005 - April 2006. Underground Writer Makes Good.
Book I. Employment History. November 1 - November 25. 45,000 words. Marriage, the death of parents, the birth of children. Jobs. From laborer in a feldspar mine to senior information development specialist, Lucent Technologies. Born, died, in-the-service. Like Trollope's chronicles. Begin editing anthology Adventures in the Underground for Postcards From Pottersville series from Pottersville Press. Sign books at a table at Books-A-Million with three Pottersville Press authors. Relatives come to town for Balder and Jennifer's wedding. Gerald and Del are already here, staying with us, Hurricane Katrina evac from Slidell, Louisiana. Brenda bakes a six-layer wedding cake. I do a drop-in, meet-the-author event at a fan's house. I schedule a book-signing at Page and Palette in Fairhope, Alabama, for January.
Book II. Education. November 26 - December 21, 2005. 51,000 words. Public school, military training, industrial schools. University, graduate school, the College of Hard Knocks. Gerald and Del go to Mobile for Thanksgiving. They hope to have a FEMA trailer set up in their yard in Slidell. We eat Thanksgiving dinner at The Lake Place restaurant, and have their signature crab bisque soup. Brenda cooks a turkey the next day. Jodi eats with us and tells us about her trip to Paris. We watch a Korean movie, Oldboy. Gerald and Del come back a day early. Their FEMA trailer will be on site within 20 days. Might as well stay here for Christmas and New Years. We go to see the Seaside Rep production of Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, starring Craige Hoover, directed by Laley Lippard. The last production we saw was Laley Lippard as Sylvia, directed by Craige Hoover. Teance Selfridge, who was Patsy Cline's pal Louise, in Always...Patsy Cline, is painting sets. Sam Bush sits in with Electric Dread at a private party. Sam and Balder tear it up. Brenda tapes Oprah on Letterman for Del. "You're so beautiful, your career's so hot." "You're so beautiful, your career's so hot." A love fest. I revise EMPLOYMENT HISTORY, making it a memoir, in the first person, taking out the dates, the query letters, some of the questions for the anthology. Like Charles Willeford, writing Something About a Soldier as a novel, then deciding it is autobiography, and changing the names back to the names of real people.
Book III. Honors and Awards. December 23 - January 6. 29,000 words. Attaboys and gotchas. Del flies to California to visit her grandchildren for Christmas. Gerald hears he has a FEMA trailer being hooked up in his yard. I send Dan Roth the first three pages of HONORS AND AWARDS. 2007 is the 50th reunion of our high school Class of '57. The Class of '57 had its dreams.
Book I. I Drive to Fairhope, Alabama. January 6 - January 16. 21,000 words. I drive to Fairhope, Alabama, to sign books at Page and Palette Bookstore. In planning what this book will be like I see that it is followed by I DRIVE TO OJUS.
Book II. I Drive to Ojus. January 18 - February 28. In progress. I decide to write a book for my 50th [high school] class reunion, next year. As research, I plan to drive down to the Everglades Bluegrass Festival, hosted by the South Florida Bluegrass Association, and held at Ives Estates Optimist Club, off Ives Dairy Road, in Ojus, Florida. The book is mainly prose vignettes about how I went from loving bebop to loving dawg music, and how I became a vernacular writer instead of becoming a mainstream writer. An explanation to my classmates. An accounting of my stewardship. There are also some poems, essays, letters to friends. We go to see the Lewis Family at a church on Transmitter Road. Little Roy loves Owen. I attend booksALIVE 2006! and have a book-signing table, at Gulf Coast Community College. Brenda and I attend a Joe Bell Memorial Pick-in in Andalusia, Alabama. Joe Bell was 66. My age. His kids grew up with our kids. At bluegrass festivals. See that READFEST 2006 combines with BLUE-COLLAR REDNECK and the next book, UNTITLED, to form the three-book series Underground Writer Makes Good. Like Angela's Ashes, 'Tis, and Teacher Man. Butcher Shop Press asks to see a manuscript of poems from The Daily Bulletin.
Projected. March, April. UNTITLED is my 275th book. I drive to Fairhope for a street fair in front of Page and Palette Bookstore. Is that a rotation or a repetition? I think of Binx Bolling tooling down to the coast in his little sports car. My Last Ditch Attempt (LDA) grant is running out. I am being erased. I start looking for a job. How does that translate into Underground Writer Makes Good? I embrace my fate. Last year was my best year yet. And the books of Underground Writer Makes Good are good books.