I am the one who put myself on this weekly schedule to begin with, so forgive me for taking a week off. It was to help me stay on task. I figure I’ve done fairly well getting a first draft of DOG PEOPLE out to you in weekly installments, even if the meat and spuds of the story haven’t quite materialized yet. Who is this character? What is his real name? Why so many lapses in chronology? The past, the present, the now. I really am all over the place and I am enjoying my exploration of this impossible form.
I have some new characters to introduce before I get to the main story of the tormented lovers. Don’t we all?!
Anyway, Dog People is quite a serious puppy. Pun over-intended. Dad jokes for life. The last four installments of this ongoing novel project were all posted before I left for Alaska one month and some change ago. I had written the majority of this first draft on my recent trip to Paris. The Alaska tour is a beautiful and exhausting chunk of my life each Summer. I love it so much, but it is truly impossible to get much prose writing done when the sun is up for so long and there are so many outdoor activities to participate in. (Not just fishing!) I don’t even bring my laptop up there. I work on poetry and tunes and such, perhaps film a few things. I mostly travel and eat and fish and play and sleep. I cannot convey how much I truly love it and the people up there who are my dear friends. I feel very fortunate to have them in my life these days.
My daughter was there for two weeks and we had ourselves quite the blast. She is responsible for selling the merchandise at the shows and then we get in as much Alaska as we can during the days. We were able to go “flightseeing” in McCarthy, Alaska, which is a stunning place that not even many Alaskans have been to. Glaciers, mountains, bears, old mines, and a truly remote village that seems to bring in some amazing people. Looking at it from up above on a bluebird sky day with zero wind was a dream.
Now, about Dog People….of which there are so many in Alaska. Up there, dogs are more than second class citizens. They are part of the community. They helped settle the state. There are some of the happiest dogs in the world up there, living their best dog lives.
So, I shall continue with Dog People next week. I needed a week of sloth and binging television after that trip. I still haven’t quite come out of the fog of Alaska yet. Putin and Trump came and went and life goes on. I pray for peace. That’s really all I want out of that situation. I have little respect for either of those scoundrels and so I can only hope they want peace for humankind
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All the best to you and yours and I hope you are able to find a cool spot to read a book or work on a poem, story, song, painting. I feel lucky to live a creative life, even though the hustle is real, and I’m already feeling the pressure of how to conduct next year’s work, when I will have a new album called “fIREHORSE” out and about. I guess it’s time to get back to work.
Much love from Tim E. in Tennessee
