How to Beat the Doldums

I had an opportunity to work briefly with a sailor this year.  More of an adventurer, I’d say, than a sailor per se. Whatever he called himself, he liked to put his little craft into big water and see where it took him.

And boy, did he go places.  I hope I get a chance to tell you about it.

His story resonates with me because when I’m in balance, I picture going through life as being on a river, never knowing what’s around the bend.  

I didn’t know where my craft was headed when I put Blue Heron Book Works in the water in 2015.  I literally had no idea.

Sometimes when you’re rounding the bend, Shangri-La is waiting. 

My first Shangri-La was Larry James Neff who wrote BHBW’s first book, Rigger, about his time in the Bethlehem Steel Company. I was apprehensive when he handed me the manuscript, pretty sure I was going to hate it and then have to tell him that I hated it.

That’s the thing people don’t understand about editors and publishers.  No one wants to reject you, babe.  Bad writing puts us in a foul mood because we think you’re being sloppy and lazy because you never reread your first draft thinking the first thing out of your head was delivered to you on the mountaintop, dictated by God himself Almighty, and THEN we have to feel bad about ourselves because we’re making YOU feel bad by telling you this.

Sorry.

So, yeah, it’s about us, not you.

Isn’t everything?

But Larry’s book was aces. Encouraged, I was back on the river, looking for Rheingold.

Turns out, there’s lots of gold in the river. Lots of surprising stories. Makes me love my fellow man more than I am inclined to.  

The best part of this ride is meeting people I would never have met otherwise.

Here’s a secret: once you become a literary author, your circle becomes a little rarified consisting mostly of artists who are doing the same thing you’re doing—looking for the real to re-purpose—and academics who are running from the real.

Have you ever noticed that most first novels are fabulous and real, the second is about being a novelist?

The stories are on the river, waiting round the bend. Not at cocktail parties.

The best is when—and it’s not too often, but sometimes—there’s a crowd of cheering people who have been waiting for what you bring to them.

If I have a purpose in life, besides enjoying the hell out of it, it’s bringing those folks on board and traveling together.

Until they eventually disembark. 

I always wondered, if you love someone and they leave, does it leave a hole in your heart or does your heart just get bigger? 

We made lots of stops this year, picking up passengers who make us wonder how we would have survived if given the challenges they had.

We just launched Emily K. Whiting’s book, She is Charlotte.  If you know someone with a bigger heart and a clearer sense of self, I’d like to meet them.

Keenan Hudson, The Unspeakable Truth and Life Story  is a straightforward look at digging yourself out of an impossibly deep pit and thriving.

Coming up:  G. Bruce Boyer (the G stands for God) takes us on a lived history tour through American music in Riffs.

Coming up: an alphabet book by our favorite mime, Nate.

Coming up: Before You Go, by Linda Mancinelli, who shares her 30 years’ experience as a hospice nurse. Yes, it's joyful.

Coming up: Itch, The Art of Possibility by Harper St. Clair, a novel of art and love and what’s the difference?

Coming up: Eco-woman, by Fanny Barry who writes about Eco-Woman’s transformation into a superhero—our last chance to save the planet.

Coming up:  Warped World by Billy Ehrlacher. a hilarious novel about a young man who is on a mission to keep his favorite soap opera on the air.

Coming up: Memories of the Year 2000, by moi!  A graphic novel.  Didn’t know that about me, did you?

Coming up:  Cryptopia Vol. 1, part one of a five part series of novels by our genius editor-in-chief, Paul Heller.

Coming up:  Indestructible by Luis Moreno, a novel about a man who is fighting for custody of his kids.

I think I’m forgetting something.

Oh look, another bend in the river!