January 2015

1-3-15 7:49am Sat. (1)

      I wrote a few pages up the river yesterday but I’m not sure if it should be added to It Won’t Work. It is about Emerson Davinsky considers ‘annoyances,’ another word for ‘distractions.’ Annoyances are everything that takes him from worker organizing, tolerance, better living conditions, and collective decision-making. Racism, religion, sexism, capitalism, homosexuality, vegetarianism, and militarism are all anti-progressive. In chapter one, “He Stole the Book,” Emerson confronts those capitalistic, racist, and religious dividers from progressive in meeting up with the closed factories and poverty of Lawrence, the Christian boys who ostracized him, and Tyrone the camper. It Won’t Work because most people in the world are obstructionist, in poverty and unable to see the big picture, or bourgeois supporters of the ruling class, and most of the ‘progressive’ people he meets are only arrogant or self-righteous. Okay; I just added the pages to chapter one.  

1-6-15 8:30am Tues. (1)

  I checked my e-mail and then transcribed and freshened up a few more pages of "The Camping Trip." 

      The original thirty-five year old manuscript of "The Camping Trip" was twenty-six pages. After spacing it, changing the font type and size, and decreasing the extra wide margins to standard size, it will be much longer, perhaps fifty pages; I'm transcribing page sixteen and it has become page twenty-four! The story will find its resting place in the blog "Unpublished Rhyme" with the other poetry and prose I wrote before now. Some poems I wrote into a chapbook, End, I scanned and published as is but others I will re-type and freshen up. I think I will add photos of dilapidated and olden places along with the prose. 

     There is no substitute for new writing though; I do think Han River Poems are better and clearer and more structured than the old poems which were mostly 'tone' poems. My prose is more developed, too, with less repetition   of words and compound sentences. 

1-7-15 7:51am Wed. (1)

      Yesterday, I wrote three pages towards It Won’t Work about how Emerson gets a hold of a gun which he later uses to shoot Chen Shui-Bian in Taiwan. It needs some tweaking and plot placement, and reality check. For instance, when would it be possible to see criminals in Taiwan with guns? Also, would a person you know hold a locked box for you without knowing the content? I may be better off leaving the gun in the dropped ceiling of the bathroom of Emerson’s flat in Taipei. But how would he get back into the flat to retrieve it; and how many years later would it be leading up to the assassination attempt in 2008? Hi wife dies in the earthquake in 1999. He is married to her for twenty years; from 1979 until her “untimely” death. How long were they living in New York City? How long were they living in Taiwan? When did Emerson get the gun in New York City and when did he get the other gun in Taiwan? I have to sort this out.

      I just wrote an opinion piece about the KMT flag-raising in Washington DC a few days ago and the protest it provoked in Beijing. I added it to the Indydaiwan Facebook page and taIWWan blog, and then posted it to the davidtempleFDR and johnnyshortwave Facebook pages as well as responding to Jon who sent me the article from the UK Guardian and bcc-ing it to Robert Yenney.

1-9-15 9:02am Fri. (2)

      With the addition of “Taiwan on Drugs; Part Three” to It Won’t Work, Hon Char-Lai’s narration about how he met Emerson, and Emerson’s explaining how he found the pistol he stored with Hon Char-Lai and used to shoot Chen Shui-Bian, I added over ten pages of text to the novel. I have been giving some thought to the narration of the novel, getting some inspiration from The Poetics, Aesthetics, and Philosophy of Narrative, edited by Noel Carroll (a 1,540NT-$51 book I got for 70% discount [462NT- $15.40] at the Eslite clearance last month [it’s $40 on Amazon]) about whose voice to attribute the narration to; I gave it to Hon Char-Lai. Hon Char-Lai is named in Emerson’s will as the executor off his estate. Emerson is buried (death circumstances undetermined) in Taiwan by Hon, in 2012. I feel Emerson’s story, written from his sympathetic and inside know legible perspective, is suitable.

      I also decided not to bother bringing Emerson’s parasitic wife back to America with him; he escapes from her in Taiwan in 1989, she dies in the earthquake in 1999.  Emerson returns in 2004 to shoot Chen Shui-Bian and then returns to New York to end his teaching career (Ch. 14, “Rehearsals for Retirement”) find closure (Ch 15, “Occupied with Wall Street”) before retiring in Taiwan (Ch. 16, “Sunflowers and Umbrellas”) his final resting place, and the “Epilogue.” There are 161 pages now but a long way to go before it is finished. The final manuscript will probably be 300 pages.

      I gave the final approval to publish Han River Poems after Deni wouldn’t budge and make an additional five changes for free; I had them coming to me only making 19 additional corrections of the 25 I paid Outreach $25 for. I hope she at least puts back on the title page a listing for “Taichung Park” that they erroneously deleted on the second galley draft. 

1-14-15 9:01am Wed. (3)

      I haven’t written here since Sunday but in the meantime, I have written text for the novel and updated chapter. I wrote a piece yesterday linking Johnny Livewire with Emerson Davinsky as he moves from working behind a deli counter, to a cubicle in an office building, to a desk in front of a classroom. I’m getting evil thoughts again about combining It Won’t Work with Smoke No Fire. Anyway, the text I wrote yesterday could be used in Smoke No Fire independently. The pressure is economical; if I’m going to self-publish the novels it would be cheaper for me to write one long one instead of two shorter ones, but there is also an aesthetic reason: Emerson, the politico family man, is one dimensional without Johnny, the sexy, intoxicated artist. Both men are semi-autobiographical. If I intersperse the hard reality with the semi-fantasy, it may make it more interesting to read; like a Walter Mitty. I am again thinking of pulling together a third manuscript integrating the two novels.

Meanwhile, Han River is almost published. I haven’t worked on Cats Journey to Taiwan in weeks. A fourth idea for a manuscript is Unpublished Rhyme, a collection of chapbooks and older material. I am almost finished dusting off and transcribing “The Camping Trip.” Ironically, a copy of the only story I ever had published, “The Rape,” in Brooklyn College’s Riverrun ’77, may be lost forever thanks to Hurricane Sandy. It doesn’t matter as I am not so absorbed with my own written work. I read a good fifteen hours a week, fiction and non-fiction, three or four books at a time. 

1-16-15 8:06am Fri. (2)

      Now I have a website (www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com) with introductions of my creative writing on it, links to the blogs, cover photos, and videos. There is even a store where you can purchase two books or access them, plus three more, on the internet, for free. I may change the address of the website to davidbarrytemple.jimdo or davidtemple.jimdo.

1-18-15 9:14am Sun. (2)

      I sat on a bench out between the HSR and Taiwan Railroad overpasses and read a few pages in two books I brought: The Poetics, Aesthetics, and Philosophy of Narrative and One Hundred Years of Solitude which I’d picked up again after putting it down in confusion a few months ago. I’m glad I took it back because, after reading the back blurb, I hit on the chapter on page 186 (chapters unnamed or numbered) where it started to make sense. It inspired to write five pages towards It Won’t Work fleshing out the balloon paint-bomb drone fantasy I always had in the IWW.

     

 I woke up passed four and edited and added text to the hand-written pages I’d written along the bike path. It Won’t Work has a new five-page thread illustrating one of the antics Emerson added to the IWW mix; I want to write about all of the innovations he added and the resistance he had to them all. In fact, It Won’t Work is a testament to the obstruction Emerson experiences throughout his life to his excellent progressive ideas, until he finally decides to take matters into he own hands with his assassination attempt of Chen Shui-Bien.   

     

      The editing of the five additional pages in It Won’t Work went into the evening. I had some lamb and duck Leona had brought back from the luncheon and watched a little TV.

      I received notice that Han River Poems was published yesterday. I immediately secured my three books as part of the $400 Outskirts Press package (plus $99 for an e-book format and $15 for twenty-five additional edits beyond the twenty-five free edits they gifted me) and ordered thirty copies more to be delivered to 1210 Ave Y. I sent an announcement of the book to everyone I have on Johnnyshortwave’s mail list. So far, only Robert Yenney and Hilary responded. I will do more promotion of the book and try to make back the money I invested in self- publishing it. Meanwhile, I’m still considering getting an agent to help me find a publisher for my novel. I still want to do more promotion of Forgotten People of Taiwan and now have a nifty website, Readings & Ridings, to expose and hawk my creative writing.

1-21-15 7:43am Wed. (3)

      I’ve noticed that lately I haven’t been writing in the journal every day as I had been last year. I have been doing other things on the computer many mornings and by the time I am finished, I’m ready to take a bike ride. Mostly I’ve been setting up my new website or doing promotion for the Han River Poems book release. 

I got one interest in the Han River Poems book from a reader in Taiwan through the Facebook pages I’ve joined and nine responses (all positive) from “friends” I’ve IM’s on the davidtempleFDR Facebook page; I’ve sent IM’s to about fifty “friends,” the list up to the letter “L.” Red Room “liked” the link and so did “Penpen Bugtong Takipsilim” and four others from “Pentasi B World Friendship Poetry,” the Facebook page that gives me the most feedback!

 1-26-15 7:57am Mon. (1)

I posted a poem yesterday to my blog and writing Facebook pages I am a member of. I got one ‘like’ so far with a reach of a few hundred people. 20% of the FDR friends I sent Facebook IM’s to responded to the announcement of the Han River Poems. After my novels are published, they will suffer the same fate, no matter how good or bad they are; no one will know about them outside of my fickle FDR friends and loyal close friends and family. If I am serious about becoming a professional writer, I need an agent to hawk my works for me, or I must limp along doing it myself. I could contact publishers myself with my writing and hope they see some profit in selling and promoting it. 

1-27-15 8:46am Tues. (1)

      I didn’t write anything yesterday besides the journal. I did get over twenty hits on the Han River blog for “There is a Secret” which I transcribed and added on Sunday. I wrote a soliloquy from Eupheus Crutch, the Jim Crutchfield character in Smoke No Fire, in which he tries to cajole the flimsy quorum in Ft. Greene Park to endorse his reinventing Fr. Haggerty’s wheel of industrial organization; when we refused to endorse it and threatened to pan it, he withdrew the motion, clown that he was. I want to introduce all the clowns, creeps, and sick puppies Emerson had to deal with in the IWW; it was clear evidence to their impotency, what propelled him to lone wolf status when the best chance for a better world through the IWW grass root unionism petered out. It happened with the teachers union and the independence movement of Taiwan. At least Emerson wasn’t consumed by it and overcame them all to enjoy a rich retirement; very autobiographical.

1-31-15 8:45am Sat. (4)

      I wrote an episode in It Won’t Work in the present tense to see how it would sound, an episode about Emerson transitioning from Taiwan to New York and then Brooklyn; from part-time teaching at SCS, the deli counter, and then the circulation dept. at Bill Communication until his teaching career begins. In the semi-autobiographical plot, it follows my real life (minus children) from 1981 to 1984, and will lead back to Taiwan until he separates from his wife in 1989 and returns to New York alone to be a full-fledged unmarried activist, to live at his mom’s apartment until he returns to Taiwan for good in 2012 after he retires and his mom passes away. I changed the tense to past in the manuscript after doing some research on Google about some authors opinions. I’ve added twelve pages this week and now have 177 pages in the can.