Paying Back the Arts (Monongahela)

A few years back, when on tour with my 4th book, "Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion", I called an arts advocacy group in Morgantown, West Virginia, where I'd grown up, to see if they'd hook me up with some local venues for readings.

I hadn't read in the area in forever, unless you count the one piece I'd read for Milton's funeral. About twenty years ago.

Anythewaywho...Meghan King-Johnson at Arts Monongahela set me up with The Blue Moose and 123 Pleasant Street and I enjoyed being back in semi-familiar turf. So much so that I wandered around town one day and wrote several peieces of appreciation. One about former business that had left town, their buildings still vacant, one about a particularly vivacious server at The Blue Moose, one about the Coliseum, and so on. I figured that down the road I'd do a book.

Well, three years later I did the book, complete with a cover from an old news photoraph from the local paper of me when I was 19 or so. Then I called Meghan and informed her I would be donating all proceeds, all royalties, to her organization.

Monday, January 30th, I drop off the first check, It feels good.

If you get a chance, check out their site at www.artsmon.org