Creek Running North

So much upheaval, and now a second book to write. 
Let’s all hope the blue funding fairy joins you and your muse in your new desert haunts.
[Aside: that’s a PAINTING of Zeke!?  Carl is a genius.]

I like the use of FAMILIAR.

Love the title but not sure about the subtitle. Does a book always need one ? I have no idea.

I am by no means an expert so please ignore this if this is irrelevant but the subtitle takes away the strength of the beautiful title for me. Makes it weaker somehow. Maybe that’s because I have followed you and Zeke so I read more into the title than others might but that’s my two pence worth.

Good luck with everything, Chris. I really wish you well in whatever you do.

Interesting how personal a title / sub title can be interpreted. I see the sub title as grounding to the title, a comfort in the hint of what’s to come.

Either way, it’s a stunning cover.

Wait, Zeke was your familiar? You’re a witch? Huh.

what’s that infernal BUZZING NOISE??!

Wait, Zeke was your familiar? You’re a witch?

The couches clothed in hair,
Your sad “stop typing” stare
Breath like a polar bear
It’s witchcraft

You whine and plead intense for it
I built all those rows of fence for it
With redwood planks, barbed wire and bamboo

‘cause it’s witchcraft, Zekie witchcraft
When we walk, my job is picking up poo

Where ever you start leading me
my heart with squirrels is treed in me
I fed you but you’re feeding me too

Sidewalks or in a ditch
I’m happy in my niche
there’s no nicer son of a bitch than you!

I don’t know whether to squee with delight (for the promise of that book and the glorious cover) or suppress a sniff (for the absent Zeke-ster himself).

I prefer daemon to familiar (see, e.g., Pullman’s His Dark Materials). It’s sexy, because it’s Greek, and it’s got that cool “ae” combo.

First poem ever to include the words, “my job is picking up poo.”

I think you’re probably right, Orange, though Katherine Lee Bates came close in the first of her two America To England sonnets, 1899:

Who would trust England, let him lift his eyes
To Nelson, columned o’er Trafalgar Square,
Her hieroglyph of duty, written where
The roar of traffic hushes to the skies;
Or mark, while Paul’s vast shadow softly lies
On Gordon’s statued sleep, how praise and prayer
Flush through the frank young faces clustering there
To con that kindred rune of sacrifice.
O England, no bland cloud-ship in the blue,
But rough oak plunging on o’er perilous jars
Of reef and ice, our faith will follow you
The more for tempest roar that strains your spars,
Your fate forever picking up the poo,
Your courses shapen by the eternal stars.

What a great idea!  And wow for Carl’s work.  He continues to impress.

Was I the only one to think the subtitle alluded to the doglike Canis subspecies name?

YES, DUH, Chris is a witch. HAVEN’T YOU BEEN READING THIS BLOG??!?!!??ZOMG

Oops I meant Chris/chris.

Oops I meant Chris/chris.

BWAH!

(I mean that in a purely transfigurative and representational way, indicating through the dialectic of shared internet discourse and formulations of representational behavior that the reader, here personafied under the pseudonym of “Rana,” produced a loud eruption of laughter in response to the absurdity and humor value of a transgressive comment presented in a way that contrasts with the original content of the post.)

(Gah.  I don’t know which is scarier, that I _can_ write like that, or that I just _did_.)

I can hardly wait!  Please let us know when and where we can buy this book.

great cover.  you’ve got a lot of content already.  whatcha waiting for?

Uploading the inside to Lulu as we speak.

I’ve updated the post to reflect the fact that I’m now waiting for my review copy from the printer. Whee!

And Devious Diva, I didn’t miss your feedback on the subtitle. Thanks for it: it’s not always easy to give negative feedback in a situation like this. I gave it some thought and wasn’t sure what to decide, frankly. But this is all kind of experimental. You have to live before you can live and learn, right?

The beauty of “familiar” is that it works as both a reference to the supernatural as well as the natural. Not to consign your life w/ Zeke to the commonplace, but there are few things more culturally familiar than the relationship between human and dog in all its mythological, historic, economic, and emotional ways.

Ron

Thanks for replying Chris. I had been feeling bad for being negative about the subtitle. Of course, it was just a personal opinion. Maybe a cultural reference that I missed.

Anyway, I can’t wait to buy the book. I am sure you will have a paypal option here.

This is so exciting. You’re the first blog friend who has written a book that I can’t wait to read.

This gives me hope that others will follow your example and write the books that I know are in them.

Thank you for being so inspiring.

W00T!