February 2015

2-11-15

I rode the bike for the first time in a week yesterday after our trip to Cambodia, Taoyuan, and downtown Taichung. I read on, half a chapter, in One Hundred Years of Solitude and stopped; the book is as crazy as Alice in Wonderland. I also wrote a poem, a rare occurrence since I finished Han River Poems. I have pondered the point-of-view and tense in It Won’t Work and have decided to keep it in the third-person past. My fiction writing has all been towards that manuscript; I haven’t expanded Smoke No Fire in a few months but I have decided to keep the two works separate after considering combining them. I still haven’t moved forward on Cats Journey to Taiwan though I did some research for sidebars on cat traveling tips.

      One writing project I promoted was taIWWan blog. I mentioned it in response to a Taiwan News in English, a blog by fellow Taichung ex-pat, Courtney Donovan Smith, posting about the Sunflower fools who were indicted yesterday. I don’t bother commenting on meaningless bourgeois political news; only Taiwan labor news that affects workers here. My article about the “Stinking Fish” in Taiwan politics was about that; the dumb fuck-offs who shot their youthful wads are in deep shit for their naivety. The government will not help workers and a living wage cannot be gotten from the top-down; the dufuses who aren’t interested in organizing themselves into labor unions are wasting their breath and the ex-pat schmuck know-it-alls who write about politics help no one but themselves. I just report labor news here in taIWWan.

2-13-15 

      I copied the paragraph in the last journal entry about the 119 fools in the so-called Sunflower Movement protests, meaningless protests that got nowhere and helped no one except the police who could fine-tune their reactions to the next useless student demonstration. 

      I just added the last paragraph, too, to the taIWWan blog and Facebook post. No one will read it. No one will care. I may as well be jerking myself off.  My actual writings, not only in my head, are as real to anyone as my internal dialogue. Almost no one notices, anyway, even though I want to make a dent in reality. For now, I am entertaining myself. Maybe one day someone will notice and take heed. 

2-15-15

  I asked the I Ching if I should combine Smoke No Fire with It Won't Work and I was advised to stop thinking so much; do nothing but meditate, it said. I wrote three pages in a new thread with the sub-plot of Tony DeFibrillato; that is a new name I'm working on giving his character, thinking of a defibrillator. I want to compare him with Jerry Rubin who left the movement to become a stock broker ultimately being run over by a car on Wall Street. Though Emerson stays true to his revolutionary convictions, his high school friend capitulated to become a police officer and detective. Maybe I should call him Tony DeFibrillato

     The weather has been beautiful the past few days. I am sitting on the patio while writing this. I have resumed riding up the Han River after our return from Cambodia and extra nights in Taoyuan and downtown Taichung. I am bringing one book with me to read again when, for a few weeks, I had started bringing two and even three; my attention was getting dilated. One book is enough to read. 

     There have been over fifty hits on the opinion piece in the few days since I wrote "Sacrificial Sunflower Fools" in taIWWan and posted to English Taiwan News blog. There have even been about seven people who commented including Michael Turton who called my piece "high comedy." Everyone who commented is not ready to volunteer to help organize workers into unions.

      One clown who commented on the piece mistook me for a "Pan Blue" blogger until Turton put him straight. One guy insulted the Wobblies and used fear of violence to condemn labor organizing. Another turkey said unions are good but the Sunflower protesters are, too. Of the fifty plus hits, not more than twenty went back to the "Stinking Kettle of Fish" opinion piece I referred to which named some in the DPP responsible for co-opting the movement. I don't plan to respond to any comments. No one wrote to me directly. Two people liked the post including the author of the blog.

2-19-15

   I wrote a few more pages towards It Won't Work on the Tony thread, to be placed somewhere in the chapter "Burning Photos." In the manuscript, Emerson feels the backlash of Reganism in America and KMT neo-liberalism after martial law is lifted in Taiwan. He also ends his relationship with his abusive wife in 1989, just as I did, but he doesn't meet a "Leona" and he doesn't have children; he has open relationships with sister workers in the IWW and a few more dumb Taiwanese women. I am still thinking of taking parts from Smoke No Fire, the parts about the women Johnny Livewire had relationships with, and put them in It Won't Work. I want to make a "woman sandwich" with the vast no-fun and sexlessness of his married years 1979-1989 in between. I can even throw in the affair with Maureen as an eye-opener when he returns for his Bubby's funeral. Right now, there's not enough sexiness in It Won't Work and it won't work as a popular novel without it. 

     I've been thinking of adding a "Writer's Journal" to the in-progress on-line It Won't Work blog by taking journal entries such as the one above and consolidated them. Readers could get an insider’s look at the creation of a novel and what goes on in the mind of a novelist. Ha-ha! I'm even thinking of charging for the privilege on my website. Ha-ha-ha! I would add a "1" to the blog name and only give access after the buyer pays his fee. Right now, the blogs on It Won't Work and Smoke No Fire are not in the list at the back of Forgotten People of Taiwan and Han River Poems, nor have I promoted my website Readings and Ridings where it is displayed. The charge would be $5-8 or 200-300NT.  

2-21-15 

     My website, Readings and Ridings, is looking good. It is better than having a radio station in my head, though not many more people can see it out there. The fiction, poetry, and blogs I have written are real but, like my imaginary radio station, for my pleasure in the alone of my time; one must write for oneself.  If I had a friend to party with, or if I had a full-time job, my time would be bloated or stolen. 

      There are now nine pages of hand-written text on the 'Tony thread' for It Won't Work that I have to elaborate on and transcribe into the novel. Tony is a perfect example of the person who flakes away from progressive ideals; who gives up and becomes part of the problem. It's his kind, along with the obstructionist do-gooders within the movement that have helped the ruling class kill off progressive ideals (like environmentalism) and workers' power. Emerson Davinsky stays true to lofty goals but keeps his individualism.

      I wrote a few more pages on the “Tony Thread” in It Won’t Work and embellished and transcribed four pages into the manuscript late this afternoon while Leona was out with her Tainan friend.

2-22-15

    I lifted another scene from Smoke No Fire and placed it in It Won't Work; the scene about Johnny (now Emerson) renting an apartment near Brooklyn College. Instead of Johnny travelling to college by bus from Borough Park to rent an apartment, Emerson takes the IRT from his Mom's apartment where they live in Gramercy Park.  Emerson studies at Brooklyn College for the Mandarin classes, I Ching, and t'ai chi lessons of Prof. Wade. He doesn't go to Kingsborough or get involved with music but he "borrows" Johnny Shortwave's girlfriends. I could leave Smoke No Fire intact for now. It keeps its music and drugs. Emerson only smokes some pot and drinks beer; he doesn't get carried away like Johnny. I think I will lift Johnny's high school and early college job at the delicatessen, too, but I have to change the location. He can work at a supermarket in Gramercy Park and transfer to one in Flatbush near Brooklyn College keeping his union membership. He meets a lot of women at the deli counter. In San Francisco he will be an off-the-books part-time house painter and work in the Hole in the Wall hot dog stand before going on welfare, just like Mr. Temple did, but he won't get involved with Cloud House or poetry. With the scenes I could lift, It Won't Work, already 190 pages, can be bolstered to 240 or more, with still more scenes to write. My first novel, when printed, will be well over 300 pages. 

     I can't wait to get to my second novel, my first science fiction historical novel, with time travel back to take care of the conquistadors and imperialists before they cause any damage in the New World, Asia, Middle East, and Africa! I can have a team of Toxic Avengers setting the world right before Armageddon, leaving the indigenous people alone to develop society collectively and respect nature.

2-23-15 

     I crossed the "200 page" threshold in It Won't Work with more borrowings from Smoke No Fire to come in addition to more political shenanigans encroaching on Emerson's endeavors. 

2-24-15

I spent a good four hours editing the It Won’t Work manuscript and updating it on the blog. Only readers who pay $5 on my website (and friends who request it) can read it. As with Smoke No Fire, it’s not even listed in the back of Han River Poems or Forgotten People of Taiwan; only Cats Journey to Taiwan and, ironically, the two published titles themselves, can be read, for free, if one buys the books. I’m not fooling myself; no one will be interested in reading my manuscripts besides me; I even removed the link for free viewing from my website. No one will pay $5 for the privilege of reading my novel under construction, or even when it is completed, but I am having fun setting up the company like it really matters. The infrastructure is there, and functional; $5 will, through Pay Pal, be deposited into out TD Bank account. Ha-ha! When I am ready, I may try to interest a publisher in buying the rights. 

 2-26-15  

        Facebook has spit my taIWWan page back to me after making it a business/organization account a few months ago and severing my ties to the 775 people who liked me. TaIWWan is now linked to my DavidtempleFDR Facebook page where I can access all the likes personally again. I also was asked if I wanted to tie in a website to my Facebook pages and I did add www.readingsandridfings.jimdo.com. I have many Facebook pages, some I never use. Here's the list:

1. johnnyshortwave@hotmail.com

2. davidtempleFDR@hotmail.com

    a. taIWWan

    b. Union Community

    c. Education Emancipation Organization

3. indydaiwan@yahoo.com

     That is 6 Facebook pages I have in addition to 14 blogs and 2 novels under construction! If I didn't have a life outside the seat in front of a computer, I could keep busy all day being a 'forwarder' (as Arlen calls himself) or smart-ass commentator.

2-27-15

The taIWWan posting of three pages from George Kerr's Formosa Betrayed about the incident that started the massacre called 228 has garnished 41 views so far; the 228 holiday is tomorrow. I put it on the blog and on Taiwan News in English Facebook as well as my own Facebook pages. It might yet reach the 56 views for the "Sunflower Fools" post I gave similar boost. 

Publishers Hiring Book Readers to Flag Sensitivity

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-publishers-hiring-book-readers-to-flag-sensitivity-20170215-story.html

Ethics of Metempsychosis and Time-Travel

2-17-17 

      I wrote five more pages towards the chapter “Taking Care of Hitler” in A Western Metempsychosis. In it, the four time-travelers are at a beer hall in Germany (I have to decide what city) and they are speaking (in English or German?) about their plans from within the bodies of their German hosts; their hosts keep their life skills and connections, but the time- travelers have taken over their concerns and motivations and added to their intelligence.

     However. if their acquired trans-migratory intelligence isn’t as developed as their own, their own intelligence trumps their takers'. For example, in the case of Leon transmigrating into Tuane, both men were of the same intelligence; Leon had nothing to add to Tuane but ambition and misogyny. Before Leon entered Tuane, Tuane was a hen-pecked wimp; he turned into a belligerent male chauvinist. But since Leon wasn’t any better in school subjects than Tuane, he had nothing to back up Tuane’s new ambition which is why Tuane had to lie about his religious commitments to the Mormon Elder and fabricate his education credentials to get a dean’s position at the college in Taiwan. His only self-education was reading the daily newspaper. Leon, who also rejected education, couldn’t augment Tuane in that way. Tuane succumbed to his shortcomings, couldn’t keep up the charade, and finally contemplated suicide, or was it Leon within whose ambition was thwarted that drove Tuane back to Craters of the Moon? Tuane on his own wouldn’t even have the guts to take his own life.

It was Leon who wanted out of Tuane, but where was Leon to go? I will have to change the plot by making Leon return to the cave, sip more met fluid, and grab a park ranger who goes to investigate. Leon cannot just pop out of Tuane and materialize from nothing; his body long gone he needs a new body to continue living outside of Tuane. Maybe he can ‘jump’ into a visitor to his cave; I have to decide. I like the premise that the spirit can only exit at the host’s darkest hour, or on the verge of death.

Willpower from without will encourage the four German hosts to ingest the time dust and follow the plan of the time-traveling back to pre-Nazi Germany, guests within their minds, but as in the case of Leon, Earl, Peg, and Gail who entered the Germans in Arizona , the four will have to leave their place and time, never to return. They, too, will go down as missing to their neighbors, family, friends, colleagues, and employers. They can keep up contact with their contemporaries only while living in the same time period, as Leon could contact Earl, when deja-vu inspired him, as when he wrote to learn of his succumbing to cancer from Peg, but in another time before their own time, it would be lunatic to do so as no pre-existing person would recognize him. 

There must be a devastating event for all four German hosts to succumb to if the time-traveling heroes hope to re-migrate when their purpose is completed; those are my rules. The prospect of death or the ‘darkest hour’ is the only way out, unless the hosts willingly become the vehicles, as Tuane was for fifteen years, at the start of the novel. 

The only occurrence of such a 'disaster' would be a public accident where some survive and others not. For example, I could put my characters on the Hindenburg or Titanic, send them back to America, and let history take its course. Just before the fatal moment, the time-travelers would ingest met dust, grab a suitable survivor, and make it out alive to complete their mission. Their hosts could then even survive without them; the shock of thinking they will die is sufficient for proto-transmigration. 

Ethically, I wouldn’t want to ‘kill’ the hosts after they had helped the heroes by unwittingly donating their bodies, leaving their own time periods. If any German character-host has cognitive dissonance, such as through nightmares or sleepless depression, I have to let him or her go.

My plot rules preclude carrying any non-organic material out of its time frame. The ‘time’ and ‘met’ dust passes through, though, because it is organic and bears Leon’s touch, just as his clothes. Paper books could ‘theoretically’ be transported through time, but every millimeter of every page must bear the DNA of the time-traveler; not a likely prospect. Only a page, such as a map, in extreme circumstance, might possibly be transported. These are the rules that I, as writer, must be consistent about.

     Any and all time travel and transmigration is limited to the supply of ‘time’ and ‘met’ dust Leon has synthesized from the pool in Craters of the Moon and taken with him. Though the pools of magic liquid may be there historically, how would a traveler from 1492 travel from Europe to Idaho? Leon’s last reasonable chance to replenish his stock would be when he returns from Europe in the 1920’s; then, at least they could take a steam engine train out West before heading by ship to San Salvador from Miami or Key West. 

‘Body snatching’ transition to mental only

2-16-17

In the sci-fi novel, the transition from the host body to the original corporal being is problematic. Leon enters Tuane and shrivels up on the roadside, but when Tuane returns to the spot of his metempsychosis at Craters of the Moon, whose body does Leon transition into if his original body is defunct? As it is written now, his ‘ghost’ leaves Tuane’s body and materializes in the seat next to Tuane in the pick-up truck. His mind has aged and so has his body fifteen years after initial transmigration; when he returns to his older brother, he looks and feels like his brother’s father. Perhaps I can adapt the ‘body snatching’ transition to mental only since the original body disintegrates upon exiting it; that way, the character still has time to live limited to his/her mental age, no matter what the age of the body entered may be. For example, if 41 year old Leon enters 34 year-old Hitler in 1923, Hitler’s mental age would become 41. This would create a new problem since the spirit (soul) has been called ageless; how could it age? How could it die? If 21 year-old Peg enter 47 year-old Rosa Luxemburg in 1918 does Rosa’s brain become 21 or remain 47? Of course, it is my fantasy novel to do with what I wish, but I at least must be consistent if not scientifically accurate; in matters of the soul, there is no accuracy, anyway. Only the flesh has an observable outcome. The brain is flesh but it is not the brain transmigrating; only the thoughts, knowledge, and sentiments.

      In any event, I am considering having my team of four time-travelers go back to 1918 once they arrive in Germany and influence the chain of events after WW I that resulted in the holocaust. If the spirit of Luxemburg can guide Hitler, not only will the holocaust be averted but Germany will have its socialist revolution inspiring Europe with Russia, make Stalin obsolete, and with China, defeat the fascist tendency of the United States, perhaps even spreading socialism to the American shores and around the world which will have been spared European Colonialism and annihilation of its indigenous by the next jump back in time to neutralize Christopher Columbus. African and Native American culture would flourish and a respect for nature, organic socialism, would prevail by the time Europeans can reach foreign shores. How far back could my time travelers go to protect the Golden Age of Islamic culture from the Genghis Khan’s Hordes and Pope Urban II’s Crusades? Could idolatry become cultural, not religious and monotheism prevail with no need for a first or second coming of Christ?

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. 

Kaohsiung Writing Potlick

8-22-16

I will make plans to visit Kaohsiung this Sunday to attend the Writers’ Workshop being re-started there. Perhaps I will go down by Taiwan Railroad to enjoy the landscape while it’s still light outside, and return by HSR in the night, twice the price and twice as fast. 

8-25-16

I’m all clear to go to Kaohsiung this Sunday for what John Nipper called “Next  Writer’s Workshop Potluck” (sic). Leona will help me buy a Taiwan Railroad ticket down and a HSR ticket back. It will take almost three hours to go down on a pleasant daylight trip, and a little more than an hour to return in the dark.

I invited David Wood, Darren Grant, and Michael Tron Smith from this area. I don’t think Darren has responded. David Wood took the liberty to forward the event on his and David Brandon’s Lost & Found Poetry Facebook page without indicating if he was going or not; Brandon didn’t comment, either. I IM’ed David Wood personally and he said he was busy at the restaurant Saturday. When I reminded him the event was for Sunday he could only cover his false excuse with a “I’ll see what I can do” and pre-empted a positive response using his new daughter as a back-up excuse. Michael Smith responded like Kaohsiung was on another planet but asked why we don’t make a poetry workshop here. I hit him up on the idea of collaboration and we will chat today at noon. No one contacted Taiwan Writers from Taipei to go, and I won’t, either; though they post my writings, no one in that group has contacted me. They seem like a clique. There won’t be any united Taiwan writers’ group gathering.

Leona’s sister, Shih-Ling (Celine) and niece, Shieh-Chi, will be coming up from Tainan today on Taiwan Railroad; her unemployed husband ‘must’ stay home and watch their son who can’t come because he has to go to work. Shih-Ling and Shieh-Chi will be here for an Italian dinner I am preparing tonight. They will sleep in the tea room until Sunday morning; four nights.

8-26-16

Leona has my tickets for Kaohsiung this Sunday. She had to wait for cancellations after midnight on Taiwan Railroad for my reservation. She reserved the return on HSR earlier in the day.


8-27-16
The Taipei Writers Facebook page, a group I became aware of and joined last week (I’m not sure if they’re the same people as Taiwan Writers Facebook page) has some kind of “Critique Meet” at a Mr. Brown Coffee in Taipei at 5pm this Sunday, too, but I don’t know anyone from them. I haven’t posted to their page, yet. At least I know Malcolm from Kaohsiung, on the phone, on line, and who I exchanged gu-zheng and Mac charger; I feel some affinity. I have followed John Nipper and the others’ posts.

I am excited about going alone to Kaohsiung tomorrow . It will be nice to meet Malcolm and some new English-speaking people interested in writing. It will be a long trip leaving the house at 1:00pm to get the train to Taichung Station for the T.C. Limited Express #123 at 2:17pm. Leona reminded me I have to go out swiping my Yo-Yo card and then come back onto the platform. It is scheduled to arrive at 4:50pm. I’ll have time to transfer to the subway and walk to Kala’s home. I’ll have to leave her home by 9:00pm to get the 9:40pm HSR in Zuo-Ying station. I will be at the potluck for three hours. HSR #1264 returns to Taichung at 10:28pm and then I have to transfer for the local Taiwan Rail to Tai-Yuan station. I won’t get home until around 11:30pm, about a six-hour journey for a three-hour potluck. The cost is around 1300NT-$41. I saved 321NT-$10 by taking Taiwan Rail down but lost 1 1/2 hours. Time isn’t money; the ride down will be nice; I will relax. If there is a next-time, I can cut the travel time to about four hours by taking HSR round-trip. It would be nice if someone accompanied me, but what of that. I have to do things by myself to do what I like, in Taiwan or New York.

8-28-16
I will make potato latkes this morning for the Kaohsiung Writers Workshop Potluck this evening, and even bring the open jar of Ikea apple sauce. I regret not buying the pouch of New Zealand sour cream at Jason's a few days ago but I didn't think of the latkes until I awoke this morning. The latkes are the nicest food I could bring; home-made, vegetarian (though not vegan with an egg) with kosher matzo meal. I can wrap it in paper plates so I don't have an empty dish to carry home.

Taipei Writers Group Critique Meet

9-6-16

I was invited to go to Critique Meet from Taipei Writers’ Group (432 members) this Sun. Sept. 11th. At 5:00pm. 402 people were invited, 5 are going, and 6, including me, maybe. My poem post from three days ago has had no views yet. One person (who replied that she is leaving Taiwan in a week) responded to my sharing of the 32nd Congress of Poets invitation I posted a week ago, I person liked “Taichung Rag-Picker” I posted Aug. 27th. “In February 2017, for the very first time, the TWG will be at the Taipei International Book Exhibition. TWG members are very excited to be participating in this 25th anniversary of the event. Come and find us in the International Section” it says on their Website. I’m hesitant to go because my impression is that they are uppity bourgeois ex-pats; not my kind. Leona was funny; stick with the group in Kaohsiung, she said. I do feel warmer towards them, especially since I corresponded with Malcolm and Kaya before I visited last week; I know no one from TWG, and no one is interested in going to the pro-independence 32nd Annual Congress of Poets. With 402 members, I wonder why. Only a few independent writers like me post there; the rest are ads for books TWG published or writing memes.

Taiwan Writers Facebook page, with 604 members, where my 7 posts, with no likes, is 90% of the posts, is an enigma. Why are there many members and no readers


9-7-16
Leona bought my HSR round-trip ticket to Taipei (1260NT-$39.37) this Sunday. It leaves Taichung at 3:04pm and arrives in Taipei at 4:13pm. The Critique Meet of Taipei Writers Workshop begins at 5:00pm. The train back leaves Taipei at 9:56pm and returns to Taichung at 10:47pm, in time to catch the local train back home. I don’t know how long the meeting will be (the Kaohsiung Writing Potluck was three hours) but I will probably have time after the meeting to have dinner (perhaps with people there) or march around Taipei for a while. I changed my status from “maybe” to “going” but no one has welcomed me.

I wrote a private IM and public message on the Critique Meet Facebook page to the organizer, Patrick Whalen, whom I friended when joining the group a month ago, asking if there anything he wanted to tell me. He hasn’t responded yet but another person who confirmed going, Jenny Green, acknowledged my message and welcomed me. The other members who have confirmed they are going are Emily Brooks, Jeremy Bee, and Lacey Lengel Phelps. I sent Facebook friend requests to them. 

To promote my book Forgotten People of Taiwan, I posted the story “The Spy from Catchfools, China” on the Taipei Writers Group Facebook page along with the attractive photo of the Ami native and a link to the book page from Outskirts Press. The Facebook page guidelines permits anyone to promote their book once a month but the clowns in the clique skirt the rules by posting unnecessary calls for viewers to edit their blurbs or covers that they post, anyway. The TWG ignored my writing before they met me and there’s no reason why they will stop ignoring my work, but my fairy tale puts anything in their collection to shame for its relevance and bite, not to mention style and skill. Since their group has no friendship or relevance for me, I can only slap their faces in their clique shit and get a cheap thrill. But the first comment on my post was a dufus trolling, “What kind of shit is this?” I hope it draws more attention; nothing like a stupid remark to get pedestrians to turn their heads. My posting it to Kaohsiung Writing Workshop and my own Facebook are for my friends to read and enjoy. I won’t post it to 32^nd World Congress of Poets page because they wouldn’t understand, though they might agree and enjoy it if they did.

A month ago, after my first experience with the Taipei Writers Group, I had every intention of getting the knack of Dropbox writing critique, and submitting my writing for scrutiny and advice. The aloofness I felt from some of the Critique Meet participants didn't deter me. By mid-week, I decided not to go back ever; the situation would not be temporary. I asked Pat and Jenny to help show me how to use the Dropbox and then lost interest when there was no response. I learned how to add a piece I wrote but no one critiqued it. I read two pieces from my cohorts and even printed out one to comment on freehand because I didn't know how to add the little blue comment boxes on the right margin and I was afraid to delete others' material. I purchased a pre-ordered Adult Fairy Tales compiled from the group and self-published and, when released Sept. 30, read the first three stories on my Kindle. I didn't go to the book launch party that day because Taipei is two hours away door-to-door, $41, and no one personally invited me. 

I did get something out of the TWG experience to bring away with me. I introduced the Kaohsiung Writing Workshop to the format TWG used, though there is no inclination to copy it with a Dropbox; read aloud and on the spot critique are fine. I wrote a poem about the experience and posted it everywhere but TWG's Facebook page to not insult them, as the poem is an indictment, but the biggest point driven home is book cover art and robust promotion are the only ways to get noticed outside of a clique, and once a clique is formed, it's closed. I promoted my short story book to the TWG page with a nice photo and a link to a fairy tale I wrote, but the only comment I got was "What is this shit?" It went over KWW's heads, too.