Tintinnabulation

I just received word from Reader Views that I am a semi-finalist for their literary contest, and yesterday I failed to reach that level for another contest. All interesting and exciting. A very good review appeared on Reader Views yesterday and then I was notified that it went big time and was on USA Today (online) and Reuters (online). I have no idea if this will affect sales but that would be very nice. A reviewer of Down to a Sunless Sea asked to read my opus, The i Tetralogy, and in essence she is telling me that I am blowing her out of her socks. That is the book that has my heart, soul and mind all intertwined together as I shout to the gods my unheard scream. One blogger in Malaysia asks to read my book and another in Alaska asked to read both my books; perhaps the tetralogy will snake its way into recognition. It is a very special book because I know it in my intuitive gut. It is my expression as a writer and Jew, and I cannot say which comes first. I was indelibly changed by very early anti-Semitic experiences in which I had to become the “defender of the faith.” I am grateful that my son has not had to deal with this except in those off-hand and subtle remarks that bastards make. He knows his response is different than mine. The way I learned to deal with anti-Semitism was to use a left hook and a right jab. You don’t reason with fascists.

OK, I’m feisty, but haven’t you gathered that by now if you have read my blogs. I am trying to stay focused as I near my end, trying to shave close, I think Thoreau said that, one of my favorites, or as he has been referred to in terms of his criticisms of our culture, a common scold. Isn’t it a shame that we don’t have a Dickens or someone of his satirical stature to take apart, to dissect, to debride this wooly mammoth of a culture as it trumpets its death knell?

So here is my five year plan: publish two more books, one historical fiction about a Chinese who sojourns in Gum Shan, Mountain of Gold, in California, the other a science fiction fantasy that deals with the awakening of intelligence, Freud and Khrishnamurti intermixed; follow up with a book of essays which may be my particular strength as I bring to bear my skills as a novelist into the language; perhaps another book of short stories; and an awkward attempt to write some poetry, the deepest of the literary arts. And then I croak. Bye the bye, the caption comes from Poe’s “The Tinnabulation of the Bells.” It will charm and chime your heart.