Debt, Paid in Full

When I was in junior high school, Mr. Henry drove into town from his farm every Saturday morning to pick up my best friend Jonathan, his brothers, and any others who wanted to spend their Saturday morning out doors.

We rode out the canopy road north of Tallahassee, Florida eating the sticky buns Mr. Henry had waiting and ended up at what appeared to be an infinite paradise. There was the branch (creek) down in the woods where we looked for minnows, sailed boats, and watched for snakes.

There was the old lime house piled high with bales of hay, fit for making tunnels or diving into from the rafters.

Jonathan's father, a doctor, had--from Mr. Henry's point of view--saved his life, and ever after he returned the favor the best way he knew how: providing hospitality and a weekly playground for his children and his children's friends.

My poem about this experience, "Debt, Paid in Full," appears in a new anthology called Forever Friends filled with outstanding poems and short stories by 46 of the writers on the Published Authors Network. The antholgy, edited by author Shelagh Watkins, is available from Mandinam Press and distributed via Lulu.

Mr. Henry and his farm was an ongoing pivotal childhood moment (as Dr. Phil might say).

Dear Publishers: Wise Up

A handwringing article in New York Magazine reminds us that publishers are throwing a lot of money away on books that don't sell. How? Exorbitant advances against royalties. And, the writers getting these advances don't have the standard line in their publishing contracts stating that if book sales don't support the advance, they have to pay the money back. Wise up, publishers, you're aiming for the icebergs.

Here are some recent examples...

** An August 2006 Bantam Book: Advance: $2 million for two books. Loss after first book: $851,500.

** Random House in October 2006: Advance: $8 million. Loss: $5.5 million.

** In January 2007, Harper: Advance: $1 millon. Loss: $655,750.

** Harper, May 2008: Advance: $1.5 million. Loss: $1.06 million.

Are these authors laughing all the way to the bank? Are the publishers worrying about the stupidity of throwing away this money?

Tell you what, if a publisher offers me this kind of money, I will decline and tell them to put half of that into marketing the book and they won't see red ink on the balance sheet. Should they force me to take it, I'll spend not a dime. I'd rather invest it and pay some or all of it back rather than spend money I don't deserve.

Copyright (c) 2008 by Malcolm R. Campbell

Ghostly Solitude is the Writer's Only Truth

"Writers are what they genuinely are only when they are at work in the silent and instinctual cell of ghostly solitude, and never when they are out industriously chatting on the terrace." -- Cynthia Ozick in "Writers, Visible and Invisible"

When you converse with a writer in a bar, subway, jail cell, battlefield, brothel or terrace, you're dreaming, drunk, on drugs, having a mystical experience, or at best talking to a holograph. The actual writer, to the extent he exists at all, is far away drinking words and solitude.

To varying degrees, writers are only fully present in their work.

To varying degrees, writers live only within their work and see terraces and grocery stores and service clubs and parties and writers clubs and even the all-powerful and quasi-divine Internet as sweet and/or addictive fictions.

God help the actual writer who steps into such fictions and believes--other than for research purposes--they are of any value to the work. Now he is doomed, for he is avoiding the work, running from it, saving himself from it, perhaps cursing it.

The terrace is a mirage, drugs, plateau, hell in disguise, a labyrinth of rationalisations, a cemetery where spirits prowl and make promises. Choose the euphimism of the day, but understand, the terrace is not work, not work in progress, not the cust of creation.

Writers are always learning, improving methods and practises, gathering facts, discovering connexions, and watching the world. These are all meaningful preludes to work as long as they do not become addictions; if they do, they are worse than the terrace for they appear to be rational parts of the process rather than the sly means through which writers escape that ghostly solitude.

The writer's first duty is acceptance of solitude. Anything else is not truth.

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Copyright (c) 2008 by Malcolm R. Campbell

Joseph Campbell Classic Back in Print

From the Joseph Campbell Foundation:

Last year, Joseph Campbell's signature work disappeared from store shelves across the United States. But now, the Hero drought is over: JCF and New World Library are proud to announce the new, long-awaited third edition of Joseph Campbell's classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces, available at bookstores (virtual and real) near you!

As relevant today as when it was first published, The Hero with a Thousand Faces continues to find new audiences in fields ranging from religion and anthropology to literature and film studies. The book has also profoundly influenced creative artists - including authors, songwriters, game designers, and filmmakers - and continues to inspire all those interested in the inherent human need to tell stories.

With additional images, an annotated bibliography, and updated formatting that integrates Campbell's fascinating footnotes into the text, this beautiful new edition will be a more enlightening, enjoyable experience, allowing readers new and old to come closer to Campbell's original vision.