Wow, moving swiftly through the rewrite of The Porn Writer. Already done with Chapter 22 and only four more chapters to go. I don't know how this will be received by women agents, and women agents are the majority of literary agents these days. It's full of long passages of pornography that the old porn writer is writing in despair of any success in more literary fields and the pornography of his primarily sexual encounters with Cora, a victim of incest. But the novel is about sexual addiction from a man's point of view, rather than from a woman's point of view, even though everything I put in the novel about Cora I learned from women who were victims of incest. Don't worry, Cora is not based on any real woman. She's a conglomerate. Though I treat my hero, Frank, very unkindly, I'm trying to make the point that when a victim of abuse hooks up with a victim of abuse, it's a dance they do for which they both are responsible, even though our society is always quick to blame the male because he's physically stronger.
Also, the Spring 2015 issue of 4x2 is in my hands and, as always, the book itself is well made and interesting and the poetry of Klipschutz and Michael Hannon is sterling silver. Here's a sample of Hannon's work:
THE MUSE
I don't go to her, she comes to me,
red with unspeakable crimes, and her hair is a black wind
annihilating worlds to get at the door in my bed.
It takes forever to get her clothes off,
and I don't have forever.
Not much to say from this rabbit, except that I'm dashing my way through The Porn Writer and am already, in two weeks, 16 chapters into the rewrite. So far, I'm not disappointed by what I wrote and find this novel as authentic as my poetry in Gray House By Cold Mountain. Don't know if modern people still have the sexual hangups those in my generation had. I know, so far, every word in The Porn Writer is true to what I felt, thought and did in those times. Confused and bombarded at every hand by every headline, book and magazine, movie and words of others, I was having a very hard time of it. Don't know if the ending will be upbeat or whether it will allow my protagonist, Frank, to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Or if that light will be the headlight of a freight train.
I've got five queries out to agents for Ghoul World but am wandering if the title is quite what it ought to be?
Can't tell you how much this 77 year old writer is enjoying the rewriting of his novel, The Porn Writer, once known as The Porno Writer. I wrote the novel when I lived on Cannon Street in Spokane, Washington. That period in my life was when I also wrote all the poetry that is now included in Gray House By Cold Mountain which is probably the most authentic poetry I've ever written. So far, I've already rewritten 11 chapters, nearly 100 pages, in a week and a half of work. Everything about this novel thrills me and carries me forward. I'm excited to rediscover all I put into it. For some damn, probably fearful, reason, I put the novel aside, finished but discarded for some reason. As I slowly rediscover this novel, I'm excited at how it deals with the many issues I faced in my own recovery from alcoholism and also worked through my issues with women. The style and subject matter is a shocker for the timid, but how else can the timid, as I was timid, deal with sexual matters except by exploring them unabashedly and forthrightly?
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| PORN |
I could only stand one day without something to write at. I'm now rewriting an old novel about a guy who turns to writing porn as a way to get published since he's a flop in so many other ways. His writing and the new romance in his life with a mysterious woman lead him into a situation he doesn't expect. Yes, I've put real porn in it, but even the porn [you can easily see, if you've ever read porn] is not the kind of porn that porn dogs want. He's a flop even when writing porn. Only he doesn't know it. My wife doesn't like this novel, The Porn Writer, because of the porn in it. She fears, I fear, that it might get published. Then, her family would know what an outrageous nut she's happily married to. I'm kind of interested, also, in what a traditional publisher would do with The Porn Writer.
Today is all happiness and joy. Two great things happened today. Just now, I finished the last rewrite of the novel, Ghoul World. Last night, anticipating the completion, I had already dispatched inquiries with ten page samples to three agents. One of them came back immediately. A form letter that the agent is too busy to look at inquiries at this time.
Today, an hour before I completed the rewrite, I departed the doctor's office with the knowledge that my enlarged prostate is probably not cancerous at this time. The PSA test revealed a smaller number than last time. Though still above normal range, my PSA declined from 6.1 back down to 5.5. It appears my numbers, when graphed, create a sawtooth, up and down, with a small increasing average. Plus my doctor put a blessed digit up my behind and proclaimed he could find no nodules or bumps on my prostate. Somehow, that digi-check and proclamation is more reassuring than bare numbers.
Two interesting events, coming up for me later this year. August 25th, I'll be a featured poet at Barnes & Noble's "Last Tuesday" poetry event, hosted by David Hill. I'll be reading material from my more modest book, Tenderfoot, created from my poetry thesis. Then June 20th, a Saturday, I'll be selling both my poetry books at a Book Fair at Gallery 360 in Vancouver. Their gallery is right on the edge of the the Farmers Market and gets some spill over on Saturdays from the market.
Today, Easter Sunday, I finished page 311 of final rewrite of about 400 pages. Spent 3 hours to rewrite 5 or 6 pages today. It was a big transition scene. PI Charley Manning meets up with Doctor Cable Christiansen at the Biotric Research facility in the nation of ___________ . Leaving it blank as I don't want to tell readers too much. Ran into the old memory problem. That's why I took so long to make so few pages of progress today. The two ghouls had to exchange a lot of information as they were strangers to each other. This necessitated a long chapter with lots of details. Found I'd put in the same detail in several different ways so had to go over and over and condense, cut and paste, but, by gosh and by golly, I'm getting near the end.
