I apologize for being incommunicado for an uncharacteristically long time. Here are my reasons. You decide on how legit they are
I’m putting the finishing touches on my upcoming book (published by Book Baby and out sometime in April, knock on wood) Called “DEAD TO WRITES”, the book is comprised of two parts: a collection of my short stories and my translation of Karel Capek’s novella “Life & Work of Maestro Foltyn”) The stories seem to have an autobiographical flavor but they’re about 75% fiction. The remaining 25% is based on lived situations. “Maestro Foltyn” has been one of my favorite Capek’s works since I was a teenager and I’d been planning a translation all my life. Finally, last year - or perhaps 2021 - exasperated by the never-ending Corona clown show, I sat down and translated the slim work. Capek was not able to finish the book - it would have been at least twice as long had he lived. He passed away weeks before the Nazi occupation of Prague. At any rate, I am now furiously proofing the book and will announce the publishing date as soon as I have it. You will be able to buy a hard copy directly from me ($20 plus shipping) but the number of copies will be very limited. If unable to get a hard copy, “DEAD TO WRITES” will be available on Amazon/Kindle as well as B&N/NOOK and other digital retailers later this year for $2.99. The price will increase to $11.99 once we sell a certain amount of copies. I’ve been asked to record an audiobook and may yet do it but it’s a LOT of time and a lot of strain on the vocal cords, so I’m on the fence.
Reason number two for neglecting da Stack is spending time promoting my new album “VAGABOND GEORGE”. It’s a collection of my more pop/rock tunes recorded with various bands over the last decade. Most of it was recorded at the Full Sail recording studios in Orlando with top notch tracking and mixing engineers. I’ve been a lucky son-of-a-gun, having had the opportunity to work with such amazing pros. The album is on Spotify and all the other streaming services. Give it a listen, include it in your playlists, enjoy. No CD’s for the simple reason that the cost of manufacturing discs is impossible to recoup - to say nothing of actually turning a profit.
I turned 70 last week, a birthday that threw me into a vortex of anxiety. NO COMFORTING WORDS, please. They make it worse. We all must make our peace with the vagaries and insanities of of our existence on this planet in our own way. “I freaked out when I turned 50” or some such comment isn’t helpful. OTOH, if you wish to quote the bible, or better yet, Yeats or Shakespeare, feel free :)
Lastly, I am drained when it comes to writing about Covid, or Fauci or the schizophrenic adolescent who run our country. Not as much “run it” as “walk it” - walking straight into the maw of collectivist woke-ness, which begets Communism, which begets the gulag and re-education camps and show trials. I STILL see masked people in the supermarket. I still read about the governor of Illinois (or is it some other loony tune state?) extending the state of “emergency”, I still hear about colleges demanding five jabs and about gatherings in California demanding masks and a valid Covid “bumaga” (Soviet bureaucratic talk for “papers”). What can I write about that Lewis Carroll had not already described much better 150 years ago?
Love you all! Buy my book, listen to my album, read Camus, Dostoyevsky and Ionescu. I also recommend the brilliant satirical masterpiece by Jaroslav Hasek, “Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk During the World War” Make sure you get the full two-part Joyce/Sadlon translation. Most other renditions are dreck though they do include Josef Lada’s inimitable illustartions