The big crash

Usual crash after the book wrap, no energy through the day, vegetating, but some reading, and in this case rereading the fine book on the 1968 election by Lawrence O'Donnell, PLAYING WITH FIRE, one of the best books of political reporting I've read.

Now for the creation of a new non-writing rhythm to my day ...

Repeat performance

One of the more moving aesthetic experiences I've had in the past ten years was listening to an actor, whose name I shamefully forget, read the Dos Passos USA trilogy, which I consider to be "the Great American Novel." I think it's time to do this again. Soon.

Back to normal

Harriet home safe and sound. Time, with book done, for new rhythm. What will it be?

A Great Writer at the 1968 Democratic Disaster

David Denby remembers the brilliant .political reporting of Norman Mailer.

Denby: 1968 was worse than now. We got through that. We'll get through Commander Bone Spur.

Feeling her age

Harriet on way home. Maybe her last such trip, she says, at 82 feeling her age, would rather stay at home. I hear her! Stillness rocks in old age.

Proof is fine, ordered books to send to select people who may be interested in issue of its theme.

Baseball

Rewatching, and greatly enjoying, the Ken Burns baseball documentary.

Harriet home this afternoon. Back to normal. Looking forward.

Hangin' in

Empty house with Harriet gone. Sketch and I are hanging in, more or less. Didn't do a fraction of the chores I wanted to do today. Try again tomorrow. Old age.

Headline of the day

1 month after court-mandated deadline, 528 immigrant families are still separated

Shameful. Read the story.

Mellow

Should be a mellow few days here alone with the dog, puttering, doing chores, listening to jazz, drinking iced coffee, feeling good about the book getting published, brooding about my marketing of it, which will begin in a week or two, and brooding about keeping busy now that the book is done.

But today, mainly, slow and mellow ... and baking bread, since I sent Harriet off with my last loaf.

Last Rights

Officially published.

Perspective

With the Crook In Chief tweeting his usual hot air as the legal system closes in on him, and all number of pundits explaining this and that, it's easy to overlook a more important headline today:

The Arctic's 'last bastion' of sea ice is breaking up for the first time on record

Nature gets the last word, always.

Today is the day

With a little luck, I can wrap up some book issues today and get them out of my mind. We'll see, but chances are good. Waiting, waiting, of course. But today some things are due.

Bachelor

Harriet going off with artist group to a cabin in the woods for a few days. I'll try to get some chores done around here while she's gone. Take advantage of a missing back seat driver ha ha.

Weather

Hot, smoky, miserable, surely unhealthy. Staying in as much as possible.

Worse than Watergate

Baking frenzy

Baked bread, baking rolls, baking scotch eggs, baking korean marinaded chicken wings and drumsticks ... a busy morning in the kitchen! While I wait, wait, wait, for a proof of book ...

Martial law

As the legal case against Trump's corruption closes in, the man by instinct is going to over-react. I have a prediction. Something will happen that will be outrageous enough to bring thousands of protesters onto the street, there will be some violence, and Trump will declare martial law. Then, perhaps, and only then, Congress might find its balls to defend the system. The system moves slowly but it is doing its job. Trump, however, is an habitual autocrat, unfit for office in our system of presumed checks and balances, and he ain't going down easy.

If things get REALLY bad, the man may take the money and run.

Cummings reading, 1949

A reading

For interested parties who missed it.

Song of the times

An important week

... with the proof of my book due to arrive.

Otherwise, feeling damn good for an old fart on the brink of planetary disaster. I expect to pass before the worst happens but I've already seen what is coming, as has anyone who still has eyesight. Man, LAST RIGHTS is very timely and, in Oregon, maybe even topical. The last thing I wrote that was considered "topical" was a great hit. Too much to ask of the gods, another hit before I go, but no biggie I am just very happy to get it out there. Not long now.

One of my readers really nailed what the book is and what I am as a novelist. Very gratifying. Another reader didn't get it at all. So goes reality.

Waiting for proof

Should arrive this week. If it's okay, and I expect it to be, then I can wrap this deal up. Eager to.

Blessings

Now and again I am overwhelmed by my sense of personal good fortune. This is one of those times. They come frequently. What amazes me is that I've been able to be a working serious non-commercial writer with very little popularity, at least in the last half of my career. That's when much of my income came from teaching. Before that, I was lucky to survive on grants and for-hire gigs and a decade (1980s) of popularity. But most of my time has been devoted to my art and craft, which is amazing to me. Good fortune. The blessings of the gods. A little help from my friends. (It also helped, in the last half of my career, that I eliminated a considerable bar bill from my obligations ha ha.)

Reading

I subscribe to two weekly periodicals: The New Yorker, which I get digitally on Monday; and The Guardian, which I get printed on Friday or Saturday. Since it came yesterday, I can start reading it this morning. Takes the week for me to read what interests me.

Still waiting ...

... before I can do the next step. Otherwise, sitting pretty. Eager to move on, however, get the book published, do some marketing, start a left brain project.

Mariners got creamed by the Dodgers last night. Every time they win themselves into a potentially great situation, someone beats the hell out of them. Ah, Mariners!

Twiddling my thumbs

Waiting to wrap up the book but the ball is no longer in my court, waiting for others to do their thing. Eager to be done. Have an idea for something to do next, more left brain and not emotionally taxing.

Third reader

Loved it. "Ending is stunning."

Proof

Getting an early proof to check the cover. Still changes in body, I'm sure. Waiting for more feedback.

Feedback

Second reader digs it, 3 great suggestions, easily embraced. Onward.

Etc.

A pretty significant change in the manuscript today. Occurred to me while cruising this morning with Sketch. Get a lot of ideas while cruising with the dog. He has editorial vibes, riding shotgun.

Still brooding about what the hell to do with my time when this book is done for good.

And on and on

More rewriting, more tweaking, this morning, all this before feedback. 

Boston Globe

BOSTON — A Boston newspaper is proposing a coordinated editorial response from publications across the U.S. to President Donald Trump’s frequent attacks on the news media.

“We are not the enemy of the people,” said Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor for the editorial page of The Boston Globe, referring to a characterization of journalists that Trump has used in the past. The president, who contends he has largely been covered unfairly by the press, also employs the term “fake news” often when describing the media.

The Globe has reached out to editorial boards nationwide to write and publish editorials on Thursday denouncing what the newspaper called a “dirty war against the free press.”

A great idea. Hope thousands do it.

Movie about Globe's SPOTLIGHT is one of my favorite recent films. Seen in three times, soon ready for a fourth. Feel good true story about investigative journalism.

Amazing Mariners

Sweep Houston there, 4 games, Diaz saves them all.

Possible cover

Hear, hear!

Jayson Werth Says 'Super Nerds' Are Killing Baseball: 'It's a Joke'

Read the article.

I've been calling it over-coaching.

Time on my hands

What to do when the novel is done? For some reason, music isn't grabbing me the way it has throughout my life. Maybe that will change.

I do NOT want a taxing writing project. An easy one, okay. This novel was too hard, I don't need to go through the mental and physical exhaustion again.

Time to REALLY be retired, be easier on myself.

But what to do? More complicated cooking projects? Help Harriet downsize? Just read more?

An interesting development

My first reader can't stand it and quit reading. This would have crushed me years ago but as an old man, with half a century of writing behind me, it doesn't bother me. It doesn't even surprise me. However, if all my readers feel this way, then I will be surprised and disappointed.

Now I can't wait to learn what they have to say.

Exhaustion

Still making tiny, tiny changes. Need to force myself to take a break and wait for reader feedback. Eager to finish up.

I may try an aggressive marketing campaign with Death With Dignity organizations.

Busy morning

In addition to reading the manuscript, I baked bread, started marinading turkey, mixed new buttermilk, took the dog on his morning walk. Only 9 a.m.  Well, I started at 5.

Process

Another reading this morning, over a dozen changes. At the level of: changing a purple dress to a green dress, changing a the to a; deletions or compression of repetitions; many stylistic changes.

But it is already different from what I mailed yesterday, in terms of writing, not story. I mainly am interested in feedback on story issues. 

Fiscal policy

The U.S. national deficit grew by 20% ($75 billion) over the past year, according to the latest report by the Congressional Budge Office, partially due to Trump's tax cuts as well as increased national spending. (Axios)

The waiting begins

Mailed off 3 copies of book to readers, 2 in Portland, 1 in LA. Getting feedback.

I read it again. Dig it, stand by it, make a good movie, probably an arts film.

Damn hot day.

A long haul

When I became a writer, I was shocked at how physically exhausting it was. I expected a certain mental fatigue but the other caught me by surprise.

Both get more intense as you get older. So I very definitely want LAST RIGHTS to be my last novel. What writing I do will be shorter and easier, I hope. But CJ from the last novel kept haunting me. There was more to his story, he insisted. No more. I killed him off. Ha ha ha. Actually it is all quite organic and dramatic.

Now the waiting for feedback. Hate it. Eager now to see if anyone has change suggestions that I agree with, do them, get published, be done with it. The higher of the highs are now past. It's more business now.

Unless I throw everything away and start over. Ha ha ha. Not really funny.

Joy, postpartum, joy, postpartum

The roller coaster of completion of an important step in the process. Drafts going out to readers this week. Amazing, when all looked so hopeless a short time ago. Part Four may now be the strongest in the book.

I hope, really really REALLY hope, this is my last novel. TOO MUCH WORK. TOO EXHAUSTING, MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY. I'm too old for this shit.

Possible cover

The fun begins

Printed out the draft. Where is my red pen?

Amazing: I have a draft!

Sketch got me in high gear very early and as a result I finished the draft! Not presentable but done. Now to print it out, one more trip with the red pen, and I should have a presentable draft for feedback.
I'll print it today and get started tomorrow. I should be able to rewrite it in a week. This went more quickly than I expected, once I had outlined the closing chapters.

May it be smooth sailing ahead ...

Ah, Sketch

Dog work me at 330 to go out, so I just stayed up and wrote for an hour. Back to bed, then up to make the Sunday bagel run. And here I am.

Gift from the gods

Sometimes something falls into my lap that is so perfect, so right, that I wish I had thought of it. A gift from the gods. Thus I learned today that where my novel ends was the location of a very famous movie ending, which I can use in the storyline in a natural, organic way. Far out.

What a morning!

In bed for the past hour, I mentally outlined the closing chapters of the novel. Looking really good. Suddenly the light at the end of the tunnel is blinding.

Here then is a possible schedule: finish the draft next week, print it out, do a rewrite for the first PRESENTABLE draft, then find readers for feedback. The publisher is one, I have a few others, and I am hoping a retired Unitarian minister very much interested in the issue of the story will look at it. Also an actor friend who gave such good feedback on the last one.

There's a longshot I could publish on my birthday end of Oct but not going to rush it. But this year looks good. Maybe on Thanksgiving, which used to be my favorite holiday.

Slow but sure

Moving ahead, chapter by chapter, and nearing the climax now. A workable draft by the end of summer looks probable now, knock on my wooden head. Lots of rewriting to do but this draft is about the big picture and about the rhythm of the story. Looking good again.

Nixon v. Trump

Susan B. Glasser in The New Yorker:

Only three members of Nixon’s enemies list are still alive. (Ron Dellums, a former member of Congress particularly loathed by Nixon for his anti-war protests and militant civil-rights activism, died on Monday.) I called one of them, Morton Halperin, to ask what he thought of the proliferating Trump-Nixon comparisons. Halperin, who oversaw the writing of the Pentagon Papers and then served on Nixon’s National Security Council staff before breaking with him over the invasion of Cambodia, sued when he found out that Nixon had secretly taped him and others in the White House. Over the years, he has been one of Nixon’s proudest and most persistent enemies. So I was surprised when Halperin insisted, strongly, that Nixon wasn’t nearly as damaging to the institution of the Presidency as Trump has been. “He’s far worse than Nixon,” Halperin told me, “certainly as a threat to the country.”

Read the story. 

August 3, 1959

59 years ago I joined the Army in Berkeley. Life-changing, as it turned out. I wasn't expecting that. I was expecting to pass time so I could figure out who the hell I was since at Cal Tech I learned I didn't really have the chops to be a "pure mathematician," which is what I had thought I was through high school. That's why I left with a B average.

 Berkeley was too much fun out of class in those days before the Free Speech Movement, so I stopped going. Looked like I'd be drafted so I joined.

My recruiter put me in the Security Agency because I had some college, this meant I took some special tests in Basic, I aced the language aptitude test and got sent to Monterey to study Russian for a year. I came out a linguist/spy with a high clearance and got sent to Germany.

My colleagues, by and large, were older, with MAs on PhD programs not wanting to get drafted. So they joined. No deferments in the humanities in those days. So I had all these big brothers whose interests were new to me -- history, literature, philosophy, political science -- and the Army broadened my education, revealed a talent for drinking with the big boys, and gave me a romantic notion of the writer. Quite a few of them wanted to be writers. Thomas Wolfe was a favorite then, just spill your guts out on paper and let some editor put it together. Writing as confession.

I came out as confused as ever but the seeds for change had been planted. I worked, I returned to college, I started a PhD program in American Lit, I ended up with an MFA in Playwriting.

I strange and long journey, that began 59 years ago to the day when a recruiter said, I think I'll put you in the Army Security Agency, I don't get too many guys that qualify.

Flash flood

New day

Today the draft takes off in its new direction, after fixing the issue and rewriting all the 100+ pages up to Part Four. I feel secure this is the fix. However, new issues might be ahead and likely are. But we go forward. That's the name of the game.

Listening to a new audible book, THE COMING STORM. It's weird, actually, with all these current political issues that, in a way, will be dwarfed when the shit hits the fan re climate change, as it surely will. It's like being invaded by aliens. Suddenly your differences are irrelevant compared to the mutual threat.

We are such a fucked up species. Astounding. Well, a xero sum universe: all this shit is what makes the masterpieces in the arts possible ha ha.

Why do I keep writing? Habit. And I don't know what else to do.

R.I.P. USA?

How we blew it

NY Times Magazine devotes entire issue to Nathaniel Rich's article on how we had a chance to save the planet 40 years ago: Losing Earth. Read it and weep.

Because in the decade that ran from 1979 to 1989, we had an excellent opportunity to solve the climate crisis. The world’s major powers came within several signatures of endorsing a binding, global framework to reduce carbon emissions — far closer than we’ve come since. During those years, the conditions for success could not have been more favorable. The obstacles we blame for our current inaction had yet to emerge. Almost nothing stood in our way — nothing except ourselves.

...

 That we came so close, as a civilization, to breaking our suicide pact with fossil fuels can be credited to the efforts of a handful of people, among them a hyperkinetic lobbyist and a guileless atmospheric physicist who, at great personal cost, tried to warn humanity of what was coming. They risked their careers in a painful, escalating campaign to solve the problem, first in scientific reports, later through conventional avenues of political persuasion and finally with a strategy of public shaming. Their efforts were shrewd, passionate, robust. And they failed. What follows is their story, and ours.

History lesson

How Republican Patriots Saved America During Watergate

These are the times that reveal character.

 In November 1972, Richard Nixon won a blowout victory, with 60.7% of the popular vote and a 520-to-17 Electoral College landslide.

But Nixon’s term ended prematurely, a mere 19 months after inauguration. In August 1974, he resigned to avoid impeachment for his role in supporting and then covering up a break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters. 

American democracy barely survived.

Read it. 

Two cultures

Man, these large boisterous crowds Prez Comrade draws, shouting fake news and the rest, are such an energetic endorsement of unreason and hate that I wonder what planet I am on. I realize they are a minority but I am not confident they will be so at the polls. It's a good time to be an old man. I wish I were a very old man. Skip the disaster and all that.

Everything depends on turnout.

Meanwhile, up to Part Four and ready for a fresh start at the ending. Looking pretty good for a draft, I think. Some of the most challenging writing I've ever faced is ahead. I hope I am up to the task. I feel better about it than I did a week ago.