future projects and the arc of the middle ages

I was reading up on my health statistics when I encountered a breakdown that gave a range of ages for the various "ages" of a person...their definition of "middle age" was 40-64. Okay, that means the dead middle of middle-aged is 52. Two and half years off, and that's just fine. I can now rib my older brother, though, that he has reached his peak and it's all downhill from here.

Rough night. I kept getting the sense of something being wrong. Sometimes my intuition comes true, sometimes it is just I am not feeling well. I always hope for the latter. But, for a guy like me who always keeps a clean leotard with a big "S" on the chest hanging in his closet, the notion of there being something wrong that I can't fix, or at least jump in front of a bus, trying, is disturbing on such a fundamental level. I probably didn't really fall asleep until after 2..and for someone with my internal alarm clock, that means 3-4 hours of sleep, which I can function on, but if I am coming down with something, to quote the great Chico Marx "Thassa no good."

The question came up yesterday...okay, I've got "The Morgantown Suite" and the Appalachian Education Initiative's "Art&Soul" rolling out in June, "The Compleat Panther Cycle" in July and at least one high-profile talk in August. So, what happens the next morning?

I'm falling back on my knowledge of Japanese management methods. A Japanese company doesn't just have a one-year and a five-year plan for their business, they'll have a fifty year plan, even a 100-year plan. Yes, those are more vague, but it gives them a general direction to head in.

I have to stay adaptable. What if "Morgantown..." takes off and "Panther..." lands with a clunk? What if I change my base of operations? Relationship status? And what about Naomi? (Shout out to "The Electric Company's 'Love of Chair'")

Publication projects will take precedence over speaking engagements. Always. Despite well intentioned but ultimately silly efforts to turn poetry into spoken word, that just ended with the genre being overrun with frustrated actors. The one night I visited the Nuyorican I was aghast with the insipid quality of the "poetry" being performed that night. Some great performances, some nice songs and stories, but almost nil on the poetry. What next, bored college professors, competitive novel readings?

The AEI has indicated, in the past, an interest in having artitst profiled in "Art & Soul" tour to promote the book and arts...I have promised them that I will do what I can, and I plan to stick by that.

If I am going to remain in WV, either the consultancy that we're working on needs to fly, OR I have to get into one of the artist in residence programs. I have paperwork that Meghan at ArtsMon gave me...someplace...curious criteria they have, I need to file this month in order to meet their criteria...strange timing pattern they have with how many "things" you've done in the last two years. If J.D. Salinger himself came out of retirement and couldn't show ten events in the last two years, he would not qualify for such a program. Ah, I love the smell of bureaucracy in the morning...it smells like...stagnation and exclusion.

Okay, rough sketch. Hiatus after "Panther..." for about 9 months. Interlace marketing efforts for existing books with edits on next two books...one of children's poetry (caught you with that one, hm?) and the memoir "Wings as Oft Leathery as Feathery"...I've laid down the narrative on that one, I now have to carefully, surgically, insert poems that were written in and about situations described in the book, to enhance the overall effect. The kid's book of poetry will launch in probably March of 2006 (a traditional month for my releases) and the memoir...September 2006, to catch the Christmas gift giving crowd.

I'd love to know where things stand with the book I edited for "x"...since, in theory, I am getting a byline when she gets it published (of course, since, according to legend, there is strong motive for all bridges to burn, it would not surprise me to see it surface, under a pen name, with no linkage back to me. I wouldn't blame her...but it would be pretty damn insulting and dishonest. Good thing I keep meticulous records anymore (something she taught me, they will be useful when the memoir comes out, as provability may be an issue in some of the things I say.)

Okay...we have 2006 in the bag. All edits should actually be wrapped for that year by January...by that time I'll have a greater sense of my base. If I'm back in CA, I complete one of my screenplays and start pimping that..."The Prince of Love", "Critical Radius" and "Syntax" are all nearing completion (damn, I had forgotten what a workoholic I could be)...I share cedit on the first one, and that one will rise or fall more based on how the co-author and I are cooperating, Of course, being the complete control freak I am, I've already cast all three screenplays in my mind. Sometime I'll outlien them all, and the casts, for you.

Some things never change.

2007: Another "nuclear" book like "The Compleat Panther Cycles" (let's see, this will be my 11th book...someone get me a drink. Tentatively, a collection of nothing but either the sweetly romantic or the darkest erotic works...maybe ven one book split in half...or a two-book set..."Leathery" and "Feathery"...yeah, I like that (subject to change as I wake up or fall in/out of love/lust) with both books coming out on the same date...hmmm, Valentine's Day 2007...sets it up as gift and still in position for the summer reading crowd.

Okay, have some editing to do...an avatar's work is never done.