I'm back online, thankfully - and working to catch up on everything.
* * * * *
Friday morning at butt o'clock I get on a plane for Boston. Saturday night and Sunday night I will be in the good company of my beloved E Street Band and a few thousand of their friends. It's the farthest I have traveled just for a concert (or two), and maybe it's not entirely rational to be doing this. But it feels right, these little pilgrimages to join the circus for a night or two. (I'm headed for Chicago in September, St. Louis in October, and Nashville in November -- and maybe, just maybe, Cleveland as well.)
And as this tour moves towards its inevitable end, so does work on my new manuscript. Tonight I had a flash of insight that I think will help me tie everything together a little bit more: a little clearer understanding of what I'm really writing about, behind all the spotlights and guitars and the trappings of character & plot, and why I'm really writing it. I feel like I'm on the verge of articulating something that will be the key, something that will bring this thing to closure.
I've been working on this puppy since the spring of last year, and part of me doesn't want it to be finished. It's been one of my favorite writing experiences ever. I console myself with the thought that I'll probably have to spend another year revising the thing before it's ready for prime time. :)
* * * * *
Cross your fingers, if you would, that Hurricane Bill takes a hard right turn and gives the East Coast a miss. There are a few powerful figures I would love to meet this coming weekend, but Bill ain't one of 'em.
* * * * *
By the way, if anyone has any great ideas for possible reading opportunities in Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville, or Cleveland, drop me an email and I'll give you the dates that I will be in those cities. I'd happily extend my Bruce-related visit by a day for the chance to do a reading. I should have more copies of my chapbook available by then (if you're waiting on one now, I hope to have 'em and get 'em sent out before I hit the road this week) and although I doubt I could sell enough to finance an extra night of hotel room, I'd love the opportunity to read and get a few copies out there.
* * * * *
None baby but the brave, no one baby but the brave...
2 comments:
Happy to see you're back from DSL purgatory. Gloomy place to be stuck in.
Actually, maybe the book you're working on doesn't have to end, or anyway not forever. Ten or eleven years after John Steinbeck wrote Cannery Row (book I really liked), he wrote Sweet Thursday (book I also really liked), more or less a sequel, which took place ten or eleven years after the first book, and featured several of the same characters in the same location.
I'm talking sequel, sequel, sequel! Anyway a notion, if you think the poem story might be one you could pick up and resume again somewhere down the road.
Word verification is "sands." Must mean something, no?
Poetry book sequels! Lyle that is a great idea :)
I love hearing how much you have enjoyed the writing experience of your project. I need to interject some love into some of my longer projects because I just keep getting overwhelmed by how long they are going and whether or not I'll ever be able to finish them!
Have fun on the tour de bruce :)
Post a Comment