COUNTING DOWN

Our fear of dying is so strong that we can only accept it if the whole world dies with us.
-Mark Goodin

So go on the human heart, go on through the dark
through the dead generation, that don’t need anyone…
-My Name Is God

The only hope for human civilization lies in a radical, abrupt, and probably violent transformation of that very civilization. Failing this, we all face—all humanity—within our lifetimes and the lifetimes of our children—a catastrophic collapse of the biosphere upon which human life depends.
-Roy Scranton

now that
the fight is over
we simply recede
under the dead brilliance of stars…
–2031

I’m spending more and more time in the War Room, pressed up against the desk and banging keys.  There’s tea on or cold coffee and it’s quiet as a tomb.  Typing at the wide, green window with my chucks on or shoes off and buck naked as my birthday.  I’ve passed endurances of loneliness to win this solitude and it’s everything I ever wanted.  I slept in this morning, past the 5, 6 and 7 alarms but after coffee and a hot bath I went through the manuscript for 2031.  Me and the homie Danielle are editing it for flow and readability.  I looked over the book file for No Comebacks in InDesign and sent a .pdf to Kinkos so I can get a look at the thing in real time.  I edited the author page for my own collection in InDesign and talked to Josh Britton at Snakes Will Eat You.  We’ve been collaborating for years and we like to work from the gut.  Ain’t too much hemming and hawing from either of us, just a yes or no and let’s keep it moving.  Publishing has got to be my favorite time of year.  There may be a better time for it than the Fall, when work and gigs and travel conflate and everything in the natural world is hunting and gathering for winter.  I’m thinking the dead seasons, between January and February and July and August, might be better for creative endeavor but they wouldn’t feel as good as when the leaves change, the light gets pale and I’m typing by the wide green window and getting words to page.  As soon as I meet with print guru Kevin Aurer tomorrow I’ll book flights–to PDX and PHL.  My goal is to sell 100 copies of 2031 and 100 of No Comebacks.  I just might have to pony up for some flights cross-country to do it.  We’ll have broadsides too and these and pre-sales should conflate with the launch of my Patreon in November.

I’ve been asked by my PR guru Maureen Ferguson to come up with a mission statement for the campaign.  Something to open up the avenues and ways for you to support me, Good Reader.  I took some hits on my rust belt jaunt this summer.  Getting to Columbus was harried and cost me too much money even if I’m forever glad I did.  That city will be part of my circuit now and I can think of inside or outside of fifteen people living there who’ll put a smile on my face and support me any time I can make it through.  Which is the point.  I’m asking for help with this thing.  I’m not really selling anything.  I’ll have plenty of gifts for you, bet, and plenty of things I just do and give away anyway, for the love and comradery and because death’s not getting any further away.  I need help taking this thing further and you’ll be lavished with gifts in addition to supporting the noble cause.  Can you help me?  Truth is by the time we launch I’ll already be in a better place.  Putting value on the things I normally and routinely do without financial consideration will help me plan.  I’m over 40 and 70% of the population will be gone in 12 years.  The good news about the worst news is I can plan now and I want to.  ADD or fear of death kept me shooting from the hip and never planning for tomorrow for decades of wasted youth.  Now that death is certain, no turning back, I know I’ve got to be exact, strike on target and keep moving.  That’s what it all comes down to, Good Reader.  I’ll need to write and publish at least 100 books a year for the next 5 and break into as many markets, that is, find as many cities offering Columbus and Philly levels of love as I can, by the middle of the next decade.  The beauty of Patreon is we’ll do it together.

That oughta do it and anyway explain why after working 2 jobs and over 40 hours plus time at the keys and consulting with Will Stenberg and Snakes Will Eat You I’m up and at it today, banging keys and tweaking timelines, drafting blogs and tempering my plea to you.  Help me down this savage road Good Reader.  We’ve got about 12 semi-comfortable years left here together and I’m doing what I’ve always done.  Art is striking back against the absurdity of death.  We can live forever in our work.  At least it’s fun to think so.  Requiescat In Pace motherfucker.

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READ THE COARSE GRIND, MY MONTHLY COLUMN ON THE CREATIVE LIFE, AT INTO THE VOID.

NO COMEBACKS BY WILL STENBERG WILL BE RELEASED THIS DECEMBER THROUGH YELLOW LARK PRESS.  JIM TRAINER WILL RELEASE 2031, HIS SIXTH FULL-LENGTH COLLECTION OF POETRY, THIS DECEMBER THROUGH YELLOW LARK PRESS. 
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPIES HERE.  

Stay tuned for news on these releases, readings and broadsides from each collection, designed by Snakes Will Eat You and letter pressed at the Austin Book Arts Center.  Also stay tuned for the launch of Jim Trainer’s Patreon!