NEWSLETTER#1

-My People I Love You-

 

I’m back on shift this morning, at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless after doing 3,563 miles and reading everywhere from Brooklyn, NY to Worthington, OH.  The readings in Philly and Ohio were incredible–the kind of nights I’m in this gamble for. I’m happy to throw the dice doing what I love, whether the numbers come up win or bust, and I’m reaching out in that spirit, Good Reader and Subscriber.  It’s been good on the road and it’s been harried and rife and burdened with undue expense. I had a place to stay in every town I played. But I had to change my flight out to Saturday from Columbus to make a dinner party that beautiful poet Amy Turn Sharp and the wonderful folks in Columbus threw for me.  I wouldn’t need my rental so I paid to leave it there and just before I left Philly the PPA got me with a $300 parking ticket!  I sold out of all my copies of Love&Wages, and finished out the pressing (save for some rescues Kevin and I will attempt at the Austin Book Arts Center this Fall) and I sold 7 broadsides!  I sold some books online, too, and 1 EP to the talented Nikki Wonder in Columbus, Ohio.

I live for the road and know you got to take the hits you want to be in the ring.  I’m back in paradise, the ATX, and back on shift and grind. I’m launching a Patreon to assuage costs like the $700 gaffe I mentioned suffering this tour, and to keep my titles on shelves and in the public purview.  With only $5 or $10 a month from twenty to forty supporters I could put a solid couple of days in at the Office every month on top of the afterhours catch-as-catch-can shifts I already put in writing blogs and columns, typing poetry and penning letters.  Which is my intention. I’m planning on asking for your support and participation.  You’ll be able to contribute to the cause doing everything from sharing my work on social media to throwing me a $5er once a month and/or just buying one of my yearly titles or bi-monthly broadsides during their presale. 

Presales enable so much more than sales. Presales generate promotion and can speed along production. Presales empower you, Good Reader, to personalize your experience and support and even send me, Your Writer, on location to report back.  So that’s my dream, Good Reader&Subscriber. I wanna do what I always do: post 600 words every week at Going For The Throat, 6-1,200 at The Coarse Grind, pen 2 letters every week and self-publish 1 collection of poetry and prose and 6 broadsides every year.  I want to publish other authors and poets.  And I wanna take it on the road. Everywhere I’ve been again, in your thrall and at attention to the moments of this one and only life we have together.

I’ll be asking for your support because I can’t let another week go by without sending the Poem Of The Week because I’m trapped in a car rental kiosk in Philly with no WiFi hours before I have to read and wrap it, get on the J and Chinatown and head out on the PA Turnpike to Columbus in the morning.  This is where I’m at now and I couldn’t be happier or more proud of us because we did this. Us. If you’d like to pitch in starting right now, share this newsletter, with a few words, to your people on social media–just click one of the ‘Share’ buttons in the bottom left-hand corner. Ok, let’s get on to the Poem Of The Week, followed by a bit of housekeeping.

Love y’all.
Trainer
Austin TX

 

For Jim Trainer’s Poem Of The Week, please visit jimtrainer.net.