tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21801392024-03-07T15:36:26.551-06:00La Vista - Luis Alberto UrreaLuis Urrea's Online JournalUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger486125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-31394997112591253952011-05-27T13:36:00.002-05:002011-05-27T13:53:11.229-05:00Tick TockHello, Amigos. I have been busy with Facebook and twitter lately, waiting for the code-writer genius cadre to tighten all the bolts on the new website. Man, it's pretty! I have been promising this for a while, but we're days away. All new, all colorful, all kinds of neat things to look at. And, after a while, we'll be adding the Teresita/Saint of Cabora page with photos and songs and archival stuff like death certificates and citizenship papers and the bibliography. Scholars and term paper writers can have a field day. I'm so happy--we have downloaded reams of my drawings, cartoons, illustrations and even some paintings. I will be doing "Sketchbook Satuirday"--new art every week in the blog section. Yes! Will bring back the old "Writing Church" sessions on Sundays--where I'll answer any writing questions you have. That's usually a lively convo.<br /><br />I just returned from the BEA in NYC. (Book Expo America.) It was, as ever, a mad crush of a million book buyers, sellers, collectors, librarians, publishers, editors, publicists, costume-wearing characters, promoters, Twitterers, book-bloggers, reviewers, agents, freebie-hunters...oh, and writers. We were there, too. Lots and lots of writers. There was the occasional whiff of desperation, like a cheap cologne, in the air. You know: Amazon Publishing loomed in the corner like Darth Vader's Death Star! News of favorite bookstores dying seeped across the floor--our beloved Bookworks in Del Mar, for example. One dude told me my "legacy" publisher would be dead and gone in five years, and I'd better get to Kindling. Huh. Little, Brown? Gone? Ask Louisa May Alcott. They will prevail.<br /><br />I was thrilled, and worn out, by the event. As usual. Big doses of coffee helped. I wa slucky enough to be around when L,B unleashed the ARCs (gorgeous) of QUEEN OF AMERICA. I stood with my editor, Geoff Shandler. He smiled and said, "Now you'll see what it's like to man a booth at BEA!" Well, it's interesting. Lots of people at first picked it up, looked at it, and dropped it. But then, suddenly, the lines formed and we burned through every single copy! Hundreds gone! I sweated through my jacket. Yes! My kind of work!<br /><br />You can never tell if your book will do well or not. Many times, people asked me, "Does it stand alone, or do you have to read Hummingbird first?" So I can see that bit of info will be a big part of my task between now and December. Just to make sure people know it stands alone. HEY, PASS IT ON.<br /><br />Happy to be home, and happy we went. Super excited that we discovered the best first book, ever: Eowyn Ivey's THE SNOW CHILD. Just wait. Seriously, just wait till you read this one. Neil Gaiman fans? You're going to be hooked. And she's the nicest person out there. Psst--don't tell Eowyn, but I'm grabbing an Alaska cruise so I can hang out some more!<br /><br />OK. Watch this space. I'll let you know via FB and Twitter when this thang pops. Hope it knocks you out.<br /><br />Love, LUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-13337532269152528272011-04-17T14:15:00.002-05:002011-04-17T14:26:35.445-05:00How Bad Is It?Palm Sunday, 2011 -- Although the website is not done reconstructing yet--expect it before May--I had to post a commentary today. To all the <em>Into the Beautiful North</em> readers, especially. Do you recall the beach in the novel where Nayeli and Aunt Irma take everybody crab fishing? This is a real Sinaloa beach in a real Sinaloa community where we used to go back in the 70s and 80s. The beach community thereabouts is called Caimanero. Basically, "The Alligator Area." Makes a real impression on a teenaged boy. Last night, there was a quinceanera at Caimanero. You know, the fancy dress-up party/dance that celebrates a girl's fifteenth birthday. The kind of celebration Nayeli would have loved. Except, after midnight, the narcos showed up. Armed. And they opened fire. The massacred six teens at least and left them scattered in the sand. All along the route in Mexico where my novel takes place, there have been massacres, dismemberments, beheadings and kidnappings that lead to torture and often death. I have tried to sketch out a new horror novel based on the narco world, but guess what. They outstrip my worst imaginings every week. If you are interested and have a strong stomach, I recommend the heroic--and appalling--Mexican website blogdelnarco.com. I warn you: there is snuff fottage on display. But if you care to know how deadly the drug war is, right now, take a look. Say a prayer for the children.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-8776725900833146762011-03-02T10:23:00.004-06:002011-03-02T10:27:32.391-06:00New short story in Tin HouseTin House is one of the best literary magazines out there and if you're not a subscriber, you should be! The latest issue, just out this week, features my strange, mysterious short story called Chametla. You can read it on-line by clicking <a href="http://www.tinhouse.com/magazine/current-issue.html">here:</a> Click fiction, then my name. Enjoy!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-67387558801454636732011-03-01T12:36:00.001-06:002011-03-01T12:37:41.022-06:00New Nuevo NouveauThanks for your patience. The electro-gnomes are hammering and sanding madly: new website will be up before May. While you wait, won't you join us on Twitter? Twitter.com/Urrealism.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-13467911186951441392011-02-12T10:29:00.002-06:002011-02-12T10:31:30.154-06:00The Queen of America<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs3PwbqHtWFq5AJ_KEkkf63yeUTIlijDu40uAeNIg2B-PqKku16jE6cXdySplQmcFFP_WQ17puWZ3KmaCaj4ysB0VNBgz7pZXbMbFdqPJ-v-Oa5eL6eqSap2ietUhc73y900Tt/s1600/URREA_QueenofAmerica.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 207px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572841503926433490" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs3PwbqHtWFq5AJ_KEkkf63yeUTIlijDu40uAeNIg2B-PqKku16jE6cXdySplQmcFFP_WQ17puWZ3KmaCaj4ysB0VNBgz7pZXbMbFdqPJ-v-Oa5eL6eqSap2ietUhc73y900Tt/s320/URREA_QueenofAmerica.jpg" /></a><br /><div>Wanted you all to see the new cover of my sequel to The Hummingbird's Daughter. Titled The Queen of America, she's scheduled for Dec. 2011. I LOVE this cover! What do you think? </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-41866522537921160702011-01-28T13:50:00.001-06:002011-01-28T13:51:42.270-06:00COMING SOONWe are currently rebuilding luisurrea.com with an all-new design team. Thanks for your patience. We'll be back with fresh new features very soon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-45767730055583191062011-01-01T14:59:00.002-06:002011-01-01T15:14:31.455-06:001-1-11And so a new year begins. It was a big 2010 for us at Urrea World Headquarters. I can't even remember what all happened--did I really win an Edgar Award? Did I really get the National Hispanic Cultural Center Award? I know I finished Hummingbird's Daughter II (Queen of America), and we are in the editing process now. I know my graphic novel with Christopher CVardinale came out (MR. MENDOZA'S PAINTBRUSH). Cinderella and I went on book tour. We took the kids to Quintana Roo, Belize, Guatemala and Cozumel. Had soldiers point machine guns at us on a jungle road. Megan graduated high school and we lived in London for a month and scurried over to Paris 'cause ya gotta. And I toured and I toured and I toured.<br /><br /><br /><br />So. Now. Change.<br /><br /><br /><br />We have hired a pro web design artist to re-engineer this website. Our dear friend who has handled this for us can't do it right now. So there's a whole tech re-think and redesign. Hope you like it.<br /><br /><br /><br />Fewer peeps come here since the advent of Facebook and Twitter; we will be adding FB and Tweet feeds to the front page. The blog will still be here, and the archives will remain in place since I seem to have written you a couple of books' worth over the years. I have long promised a Teresita section--photos, documents, etc. Expect that, too.<br /><br /><br /><br />All kinds of whiz-bang gewgaws.<br /><br /><br /><br />Thank you for sticking with me all this time. I am starting my new book projects, adding poetry to the work list, writing many notebooks, thinking about Kindle books of cheap-o esoterica you fans might eb interested in. The first effort of 2011 is my story, "The Soutshide Raza Image Federation Corps of Discovery" in this month's ORION magazine. Or you can listen to me read it at orionmagazine.org. Or, if you're feeling iPoddy, you can pick it up on iTunes. I was lying abed when I recorded it. How louche. I tell my FB pals to imagine we're in the ol' sach and I'm reading you a naughty bedtime story. The second effort will be U of AZ's re-reissue of my beloved first novel, IN SEARCH OF SNOW. Between the old hardcover, the trade paperback, and AZ, there have now been four editions of this book. Unbelievable. I am CERTAIN, that since it appeared in 1994, it has racked up an astounding 103 readers! Yes!!! After that, a story in TIN HOUSE, and a story in SAN DIEGO NOIR. Keeping busy, y'all.<br /><br /><br /><br />I wish you a magical, powerful, unasailable, unflagging, clear-heart, healthy, well-fed, safe, yet daring, productive, poetic, romantic, sexual, spiritual, active, successful, stressless, astonishing year.<br /><br /><br /><br />MAKE 2011 JUST LIKE HEAVEN.<br /><br /><br /><br />XXX, LUnknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-89569472105914339732010-12-17T10:32:00.003-06:002010-12-17T10:38:52.267-06:00Need a Christmas gift?This afternoon, as part of its 2nd Annual Books are Great Gifts campaign, the Twitter literary community LitChat is sponsoring a charitable <a href="http://litchat.net/2nd-annual-books-are-great-gifts-campaign/2010bagg-book-auction/">book auction </a>featuring signed books from some of your favorite authors. Some you will know, others you SHOULD know. One you do know is me. I will send the winning bidder signed copies of The Hummingbird's Daughter, Into the Beautiful North and Mr.Mendoza's Paintbrush -- plus some cool swag from my treasure box. Sign in this afternoon and bid big!<br /><br />Thanks!<br /><br /><a href="http://litchat.net/2nd-annual-books-are-great-gifts-campaign/2010bagg-book-auction/">http://litchat.net/2nd-annual-books-are-great-gifts-campaign/2010bagg-book-auction/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-66248630823510168072010-12-08T14:28:00.002-06:002010-12-08T14:40:52.039-06:00LennonI've been reading so many thoughts about John Lennon and his art and life and death today. Seems that everyone recalls that bad day--like the day JFK was slaughtered. Where were you?<br /><br />I was in Tijuana. I was in a place called The Barrio of Shallow Graves. Great name for a neighborhood. Bad place to live.<br /><br />It was night. I have written about this before. There was a young girl whose face was covered with impetigo sores. She lived in a dirt canyon with no electricity or running water. There was a broken refrigerator at the top of the slope with a pile of human excrement inside, sitting on the shelf like some hideous dessert. Gang-bangers filled the dark alleys around the girl's house, and they had tried to explode our vehicle by putting a lit cherry bomb in the gas tank.<br /><br />I was working for Pastor Von in those days. Translator. Bringing words to the teeming, silenced peopel of the canyon. And medicine. It was pretty direct--the girl's scabs had to be broken through so the medicine could get into the face-mange that was disfiguring her. I held her as the missionaries scrubbed that bloddy patch on her face and broke her heart. It was torture, let's face it. She writhed and cried and begged me to stop them, but I held her against my chest and promised her it would be all right.<br /><br />Sure, we healed her. But was it all right? Did her world improve? Did her face? Maybe for a while. You do your best, and you hope. Right? Heal the sick, isn't that what the work is supposed to be? Feed the hungry? Clothe the naked? Comfort the widow? We were solid on every level, and her mother was a widow to boot. Covered on all the God-chores. My little task was also this: give voice to the voiceless.<br /><br />Got home stinking of poverty. I had that orphanage stink on me too--pee and dogs and spoiled food and hair oil. Baby shit. I'd be checking myself for lice later. But I walked in my door at midnight and a voice in the dark called out: "Did you hear about John Lennon?"<br /><br />That's where I was and what I was doing when I heard. The world did not get better. And later, when I went to see family in Sinaloa, I saw this painted on a wall: LENNON DON'T LET ME DOWN. It wasn't Lennon who failed.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-24461840229934225092010-12-01T15:43:00.002-06:002010-12-01T16:09:06.522-06:00That Was the Year That WasI'm leaving for Santa Fe soon. I know, I know--I said I was through for the year. But one more human rights event. Then I'll be done for 2010. What a year! Wow. How do you figure out a year where you started on Mayan pyramids and in Guatemalan caves with manatee skeletons stuck in the walls above your head, and book tours, and finishing Hummingbird II, and winning an Edgar Award and being named Distinguished Professor at your day job? Crazy, man. As my surfer buds used to say in San Diego: a for sure blow-mind.<br /><br />It is becoming a habit to make lists at the end of the year. A habit for me, at least. I usually post all my travel dates. Fans seem to like to see what I'm listening to on ye olde iPod. Some fans like to know what poetry I'm reading. I can't even begin to remember the books I read this year.<br /><br />So as a wrap-up of this year, and a start to the Urrealist list-making season, I offer you the itinerary for 2010. I don't know what 2011 will hold. But I know it'll end with the book tour for Hummingbird II. (Title forthcoming soon.)<br /><br />January:<br /><br />New Orleans, Quintana Roo, Guatemala, Belize, Cozumel.<br />Chicago Book Group<br />Joliet Public Library, IL<br />Kennedy Jr High Faculty Reading Group, IL<br />Joliet Book Event, IL<br />Phoenix, AZ<br />Illinois Bilingual Ed Convention, Naperville<br /><br />February<br /><br />DePaul LAS Event, IL<br />Tucson Festival of the Book, AZ<br />UTexas PA<br />Fairfield CT One City One Book Events<br />Portland OR<br /><br />March<br /><br />Closing Event, Plainfield IL<br />Virginia<br />Yakima, WA<br /><br />May<br /><br />Event w Dave Eggers for Ragdale, IL<br />Glen Ellyn Book Event, IL<br />Albuquerque, NM<br /><br />June<br /><br />BOOK TOUR/B North Paperback:<br />June 15, Rockport, MA; June 16, So. Hadley, MA; June 17, Portsmouth, NH;<br />June 19th, Northshire Books, VT; June 21, Cambridge, MA; June 22, Dallas, then Houston,<br />TX; June 23, Austin, TX; June 24, San Antonio, TX; June 25, Marfa then Alpine, TX;<br />June 27, Santa Fe, NM; June 28, Albuquerque, NM; June 29, Denver, CO; July 1, Washington DC.<br /><br />July<br /><br />London<br />Reading, Mr. B's Emporium, Bath<br />France<br />Squaw Valley, CA<br /><br />August<br /><br />Squaw Valley, cont.<br /><br />September<br /><br />Brooklyn Book Festival<br />Laredo, TX, One Book One City events<br /><br />October<br /><br />North Carolina<br />Sacramento State, CA<br />Jeff Bezos Campfire Event, Santa Fe, NM<br /><br />November<br /><br />Northern Trust West Coast Lecture Tour:<br />La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, Palm Springs, Newport Beach, Las Vegas,<br />Santa barbara, Beverly Hills<br />David Taylor Book launch, Chicago<br /><br />December<br /><br />Santa Fe<br /><br />Keepin' busy.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-795592837886638202010-11-21T15:25:00.003-06:002010-11-21T15:33:55.086-06:00It Is FinishedI never thought I'd get here. The road was long and twisty, full of danger and heart-break. It hjas been 26 years--I have had an entire writing career while on this journey. Got a wife, divorced that wife, met my beloved, married again, got a family, moved all around the country. Yes, Hummingbird's Daughter II, the sequel, is done. the teresita Saga--my version of it--is finished.<br /><br />Others want to tell it; bless them. Some folks "channel" Teresita; go, baby. I have met several people who "are" Teresita; reincarnation apparently has gone condo--you can subdivide into many new age people; does it come with cable? Curanderas and medicine people often work with Teresita in their healings; I do not doubt them.<br /><br />Sandra Cisneros has been saying for years that she was going to write a Teresita book of her own. A helpful amazon.com reviewer says that Teresita was proven by the historical record to be a charlatan and a crook. I have the longest bibliography, I believe, ever accumulated about her and her times. I don't know what historical record the chappie is referring to. But it is no longer my worry.<br /><br />When I finished the book three days ago, I was simply...stunned. I sat there staring out the window. Not much time to bask (or fester)--I have too many projects left to finish before Christmas. And there are those poems. And those two new novels to write.<br /><br />But for now, it is finished. I am happy. Hope you will be, too. It'll be available in Fall 2011.<br /><br />Finally, I did a fun interview this weekend with a sublime little online lit journal. I hope you'll go over there and take a look if you like my stuff.<br /><br />usedfurniturereview.com.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-38140492744296277342010-10-29T13:22:00.002-05:002010-10-29T13:29:10.454-05:00The End of '10"You wander from room to room hunting for the diamond necklace that is already around your neck." -- Rumi<br /><br />The year is ending, and I am finishing the sequel to Hummingbird's Daughter. Yes! Done! And I am about to wander from a few more rooms to a few other rooms. Leaving for the last tour events for 2010. Good God, Y'all! As James Brown was heard to say.<br /><br />What a year. Anyway, will be sneaking around the west coast doing luncheonas and fab dinners. Sorry, but there are no big public events. Though maybe I'll see you in a hotel lobby or a beanery. I'll be in San Diego, Palm Springs, Newport Beach, Las Vegas, Santa Barbara and Beverly Hills. While out there, will have a fun time at CBS studios talking to some buds about TV ideas. Why not. Hollywood meetings are a way to waste time and have some laughs.<br /><br />Back in time to teach class and stagger into Thanksgiving. After that, sleep till Christmas.<br /><br />See you at Barney's Beanery--I'll be close to the window, eating an omelette.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-34806085093395893582010-10-10T15:43:00.002-05:002010-10-10T16:01:18.030-05:00Archive 3: Bath to StonehengeIn Bath Abbey, watching them tune<br />the grand piano for Rick Wakeman's concert.<br />Arches and buttresses pulling you up<br />almost against your will<br />toward heaven.<br /><br />Having spent yesterday underground in the old Roman baths,<br />it's particularly dense today to know this site was a pagan<br />place of worship and prayer before them, and now<br />it's a Christian church: this same prayer circle in this same marsh<br />generating steam and generating prayers since the dawn<br />of human time.<br />All that soul going out like a laser<br />forever.<br /><br />On a small patch of dry lawn, eating a Cornish pasty<br />with the pigeons. Laundry soap<br />in the city fountain. Jane Austin's house<br />down the road; though she hated Bath, the love her.<br /><br />On the road. A sign:<br />FRESH<br />PET MEAT<br />DAILY.<br /><br />Heading across the mystical countryside, we see Peter Gabriel's house.<br />And there's Solsbury Hill, where he climbed and decided to quit Genesis.<br />Thus, "I walked right out of the machinery." It's tall--no wonder<br />his heart was going BOOM BOOM BOOM.<br /><br />We stop and walk through Lacock. Step back 700 years<br />in the town barn. See the house somebody in Harry Potter movies lives in.<br />The kids react; I don't know what they're talking about.<br /><br />St. Cyriac's church. A lovely old flower lady is arranging flowers. She tells us<br />tales of royal weddings. Prince Charles sat right there! No, there!<br />The greatest redunadant sign is on the wall:<br />PLEASE PUT MONEY<br />FOR FLOWERS IN THE CHURCH<br />IN THE CHURCH.<br />The flower lady tells us that anti-terorr sniffer dogs following Charles around<br />peed on the carpets.<br /><br />Sword marks from when Henry VIII<br />had religious symbols<br />cut down from the church<br />are still visible in the walls.<br />Chayo goes into the cemetery and picks and apple off a tree.<br /><br />Sheep!<br /><br />Thatched roofs!<br /><br />In the fields, a great white chalk horse<br />carved in the sod!<br /><br />And real white horses that look like<br />they're carved out of chalk!<br /><br />House sign:<br />SOD THE DOG<br />BEWARE<br />OF THE KIDS.<br /><br />Madonna's house is next door to Sting's house.<br />In golden fields of barley.<br />Chayo has never heard of Sting.<br />Tempus fugit.<br /><br />Cheddar cheese, my kids are delighted to learn,<br />comes from Cheddar.<br /><br />You're driving down the road, and suddenly it appears.<br />An apparition.<br /><br />Loving Stonehenge. Blind to tourists. Deaf to traffic.<br />Bitter wind.<br />Moody low clouds. <br />Crows circling the monoliths.<br />The mad endless loops of<br />squabbling Pink Floyd meadowlarks.<br /><br />Heinous gift store crowds--rubber Stonehenges.<br /><br />6,000 years of howling in the wind.<br /><br />Squadrons of crazy little brown mottled birds fuss in the clover<br />while I write at this forgotten bench.<br /><br />Everything around me has fallen<br />into an eerie time loop, and it keeps repeating:<br />this wind gust,<br />the small black cloud speeding by,<br />the ravens bowing to the stones,<br />the call of the lark repeating and repeating<br />exactly the same over and over and over....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-9860340292358831972010-09-25T11:37:00.002-05:002010-09-25T12:00:45.953-05:00Archive 2: Bath, UKLondon. Up at 6:00.<br />Daughters acting like they're<br />being martyred on Tower Hill.<br />More rain. Why do I love London rain?<br />Because it's so cool to say "London rain," no doubt.<br />One of those Donovan songs I'd listen to<br />in San Diego, where I'd never see London, where<br />I'd seldom see rain.<br /><br />Paddington Station.<br />Bought Chayo a Paddington Bear<br />at the last outlet in London registered directly<br />to the author. Paddington with his little hat.<br />The salesman said: "The author's a lovely man.<br />Eighty-some. But just like you--no lines<br />on his face. Me? I've got all the lines.<br />You and he--no lines!"<br /><br />Pigeons in the roof of the station<br />open their wings and drop like hang gliders<br />out of the light.<br />I share my Starbuck's skinny muffin<br />with a strutting reunion of rock doves.<br />Chayo says, "That pigeon's just chillin'."<br />For the rest of the trip, the big kids<br />will mock her relentlessly. "That train?<br />Just chillin'."<br /><br />Cinderella calls me "The pigeon lady."<br />Like one of those park bench pigeon feeders,<br />my molar suddenly falls out! Cursed crown!<br /><br />Herding five family members to the train car<br />is crazy stressful. And expensive. I'VE GOT<br />A GREAT BIG HOLE IN ME JAW!<br /><br />Screaming down the rails. All near the tracks is a mad blur.<br />You have to focus on the middle distance to see anything.<br />We blast into the country, startle suburbs, and back to the fields.<br />Great yellow meadows under heavy skies.<br />Scenic half-timbered houses on small rivers.<br />20 swans in a perfect triangle on black water.<br />Oil tanks behind ancient<br />arched stone bridges.<br /><br />Newspaper headline:<br />"England Is The Sickie Man of Europe."<br /><br />Rusting factories, graffiti mad walls<br />and then, horses.<br /><br />Every country house<br />in this rainlight<br />looks like a watercolor.<br /><br />Farmer and dog.<br /><br />Fields, wildflowers, smears of orange.<br /><br />Behind me, the businessman with the nasal voice<br />chats up the businesswoman with the strong perfume:<br /><br />"That's why," he says,<br />"I wouldn't want my nurse to be Sarah!<br />She's so bloody...she's<br />so in her head!<br />She'd do her job better<br />if she got a boyfriend.<br />She's lost weight, though.<br />Stopped drinking.<br />Riding her bike."<br />I'm thinking, GO SARAH.<br /><br />Foreground fields: dark.<br />Background fields: bright<br />as electric lights.<br /><br />"Molly's ex is posting Facebook messages about cricket.<br />Clearly, veiled threats to her."<br /><br />Our kids sleep or play video games. Nobody<br />looks out the window. Nobody's practicing mindfulness.<br />Nobody's listening. When you're a kid, you think<br />you already know. You think you'll be back<br />1,000,000 times. Why look?<br /><br />Good luck<br />with that.<br /><br />Conductor:<br />"We're pulling into Swindon five minutes early.<br />I reckon the train's running on Red Bull this morning."<br /><br />Businessman, earnestly:<br />"People<br />know me<br />and they like me."<br /><br />Far mauve hills.<br /><br />Sheep!<br />Little white<br />exclamation points.<br /><br />All these fields, and no Mexicanos<br />bent over with short hoes.<br /><br />Chippenham.<br /><br />"I went to her brother's stag party.<br />And I met some really fun guys there!"<br /><br />Lovely, lovely Bath.<br />Entering a stone and green-hill dream.<br /><br />[Summer 2010.]Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-46512610137375042892010-09-18T13:02:00.002-05:002010-09-18T13:09:16.889-05:00Archive: 1. Cussin'I fell in with Oglala Lakota brothers at Pine Ridge Reservation. This helped me through some of the most harrowing terrors of writing The Hummingbird's Daughter, and gave me a couple of my favorite short stories--not least of which is the NPR "Selected Shorts" perennial, "Bid Farewell to Her Many Horses."<br /><br />Better than all this, of course, if friendship. And of my friends, DuaneBrewer is the best cusser. Cussing is a fine art, and I enjoy it. I was told by an angry book club maven in Pasadena, "If you had used language in my house like you use in Hummingbird, you would have been punched in the mouth." My first thought was: wow, what a spiritual place your house was! All I could think to say to her was, "It isn't about your house, it's about somebody else's house."<br /><br />In 1991, Duane unleashed my all-time favorite curse. A curse thunderous in its outrage, mad in its locution, hilarious in its funk. Damn! He was rockin'! I hope to quote it on my death-bed. It is a great American poem. He said:<br /><br />That guy<br />is a low-life<br />shit-lipped<br />mother-effin'<br />et up<br />dried out<br />box of Kentucky<br />Fried Chicken.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-54052894928088910612010-09-07T07:10:00.000-05:002010-09-07T07:18:09.706-05:00BrooklynAfter an epic summer of Book Tour USA, Family extended adventures in England and France, and the Squaw Valley writers' workshops, I am coming out of my summer hibernation. Man, I got home in time to see Megan off to college, to suffer through another birthday, and to start teaching again. Other than that--nothing. No workouts, not gardening, just a month of stunned vegetating. Oh, yeah--there was that one small thing of writing more of the Hummingbird's Daughter sequel.<br /><br />This coming weekend, I'll be in Brooklyn, at the Brooklyn book festival. I'll be doing two panels, though both are slated against various super-duper-stars. I won't be mad at ya if I don't see ya!<br /><br />After that, I'ma head on down to Laredo, and to a local gig, and out to a mysterious event in Santa Fe that I can tell you about after it's over (not open to the public--sorry), and to a week in California in November. That'll be just about the right time to leave Chi for CA, by the way. Stuff like that.<br /><br />I'll keep you posted.<br /><br />See you in New York and, oh Lord, don't let the bedbugs bite.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-68051774194828592772010-08-25T12:43:00.002-05:002010-08-25T13:34:02.606-05:00Teresita Psalms: Saint of Cabora TextsLots of readers/fans and a few scholars have written to me over the past year asking for some insight into thde background of my novel, THE HUMMINGBIRD'S DAUGHTER. (And, I suppose, its sequel, coming next year from Little, Brown.) Although I do have piles and stacks and shelves full of rsearch, and I suspect the longest Teresita Urrea bibliography ever compiled, I don't think that's what people are after. People want stories. Some want revelations of spiritual secrets, some want adventure, some want writing tips and some just want to hear juicy yarns. And lots of you want to hear my ghost stories! I'm that way, too. Gimme a story, man.<br /><br />I have suggested you check out the second volume of THE HUMMINGBIRD REVIEW (on stands and on the internet). It's a fine new lit journal. It has a long essay about all that stuff; I wrote it for a chapbook a few years ago. It's called "Haunted Arizona." You might like it.<br /><br />Here's somethimng dear to my heart for ya. Cinderella can tell you that, in the deepest darkest era of working on that book, in the Arizona heat in my sad little adobe after ghosts and boogies had chased me out of my original old barrio digs, my mind was so fried that I couldn't even read. Enter haiku. I could read haiku.<br /><br />So in honor of that salvation, I wrote a record of writing HUMMINGBIRD in haiku form. (OK--some of them were senryu...but why niggle?) It came out in the SONORA REVIEW, Vol. 56. For those of you who missed it, here it is.<br /><br />#<br /><br />SONORAN DESERT SUTRAS:<br />Notes on Writing The Hummingbird's Daughter in Tucson<br /><br />Despairing of God<br />I went to the desert<br />to seek my own saint.<br />#<br />Haunted adobe--<br />candelabra's melting stubs<br />wax that fell was black.<br />#<br />If I went downstairs,<br />heard kitchen racket overhead--<br />nobody else there.<br />#<br />Disembodied hand<br />tarantula-crawled across<br />white shee to my face.<br />#<br />Medicine woman<br />cooking her green tamales<br />held me when I wept.<br />#<br />My teacher too ke<br />to ask questions of the plants--<br />I felt like a child.<br />#<br />Halloween midnight<br />one wrecked car blocking the road--<br />single human leg.<br />#<br />One box Minute Rice--<br />one old cat, half dead, half blind--<br />abandoned to trust.<br />#<br />Yaqui funeral--<br />old man in his black coffin<br />colder than the moon.<br />#<br />First monsoon morning--<br />I finally saw miracles--<br />frogs leaped from the ground.<br />#<br />Female medium<br />insited spirits told her--<br />I'd signed questionnaire.<br />#<br />Tinajas Altas--<br />couldn't find any water,<br />someone left a can.<br />#<br />After the car wreck<br />100 trucks drove over<br />the children's clothing.<br />#<br />At old copper mine<br />pondering the day's lessons<br />coyotes stalked me.<br />#<br />The angry scholar<br />called to threaten a lawssuit<br />if I wrote the book.<br />#<br />She said we were twins<br />sepatared in heaven--<br />did I want to aprty?<br />#<br />The Hotel Congress<br />was still a holy vortex--<br />Dillinger slept there.<br />#<br />Down in Mexico<br />the curanderas fed me<br />bowls of green Jell-O.<br />#<br />Teresita's niece<br />wakes up on certain mornings<br />floating in the air.<br />#<br />Standing in graveyards<br />in Clifton, Arizona--<br />thought I might find her.<br />#<br />"I'm their worst nightmar!"<br />he said in his adobe--<br />"Liberal with guns!"<br />#<br />Medicine woman<br />said she missed grandmother's ghost<br />since it left with me.<br />#<br />The saint's grand-daughter<br />heals families in Phoenix--<br />danced for Dean Martin.<br />#<br />Holy woman said,<br />"In heaven you'll have a job!"<br />Shaking her finger.<br />#<br />When down to nothing<br />the spirits bring miracles--<br />one dollar Whopper.<br />#<br />Hiking Sheep Pen trail<br />vulture flew up behind me--<br />my shadow grew wings.<br />#<br />Mostly it was work<br />alone on old computer--<br />Nine Inch Nails at night.<br />#<br />I learned something there<br />From The Saint of Cabora--<br />Every day's sacred.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-40254061619437360592010-08-23T13:17:00.002-05:002010-08-23T13:26:17.334-05:00Recent PublicationsORION<br /><br />Chip Blake and his staff continue to make brilliant art with their magazine, ORION. I am excited to be in the September/October 2010 issue. be sure to pick it up. Not just for my small contribution.<br /><br />The cover says "Luis Urrea's Border Patrol." (Warning to my Chi-town homeboy, Carl--there's a shout-out to you in there, brother. Well, to your story.) It's not really MY Border Patrol, it's David Taylor's. His powerfukl book of USBP photos, WORKING THE LINE is coming out now. I wrote the text. Hence, the ORION feature.<br /><br />I am happy to say that I also give big props to my hero, Sheriff Ogden of Yuma.<br /><br />Look, that's good stuff, but my other Chi homeboy, mad Jon Lowenstein ahs a kille pohot feature as well, and a long story by TC Boyle. Delights on every page. Get it!<br /><br /><br />THE HUMMINGBIRD REVIEW<br /><br />While I'm at it, I'd like to direct your attention to THE HUMMINGBIRD REVIEW. A lit journal. Their excellent second issue is on the stands now, or you can look them up on the internet.<br /><br />HUMMINGBIRD'S DAUGHTER fans have asked me many many times, via this blog, Facebook and Twitter, as well as by that endles stream of emails, to tell 'em some scerets about the mystical/ghostly research-and-experience process of writing that book. And its sequel...coming soon...not telling you the title yet! OK. It's in HUMMINGBIRD REVIEW. It's called "Haunted Arizona." It's a start. Check it out.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-14224459598170754282010-08-19T12:50:00.002-05:002010-08-19T13:21:18.960-05:00Book Tour Texas Pt. 2It's hard to believe I'm doing Italian translation work<br />on Hummingbird's daughter via iPhone with Rome<br />from a speeding car in Texas.<br /><br />Low clouds only 7 stories<br />above the plain.<br /><br />90 to Hondo:<br />There is a novel in every hovel.<br /><br />Appropriate or what:<br />ZZ Top in Hondo.<br />FM!<br /><br />Pro-Ag warehouse,<br />roof peeled off & curling<br />aluminum wave.<br /><br />Seco Creek, Live Oak Creek, pretty pretty Texas:<br />every little town graced with gardens<br />of highway sunflowers. Squirrel Creek.<br />400 hundred miles of love & freedom.<br /><br />Corn<br />blackbirds<br />East Elm Creek.<br /><br />#<br /><br />One corn field<br />five<br />Border Patrol trucks.<br /><br />Sign:<br />DO THE WEB-WORM WHOMP.<br /><br />Border patrol check point<br />surrounded by<br />white goats.<br /><br />Weirdness: radio's turned off<br />yet chattering with electric blips and stutters--<br />morse code from the UFOs.<br /><br />Call Art Bell! At 11:11, the radio<br />sends another CIA message.<br /><br />Valverde.<br /><br />I'm worried:<br />Adult Store porn shop--<br />the sign is a giant pair<br />of scissors.<br /><br />Onto N 277.<br /><br />#<br /><br />Del Rio sun-beat & hard:<br />superbikers<br />blat.<br /><br />BORDER PATROL<br />FIREARMS TRAINING<br />near<br />LAKE AMISTAD.<br />And<br />DRIVE FRIENDLY.<br />But<br />DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS.<br /><br />Landscape<br />makes the water<br />look like acid<br />baths.<br /><br />Inspction station catches us.<br />We are suddenly suspects.<br />Dogs swarm the car, sniffing.<br />Cindy all tongue-tied<br />in the face of interrogation.<br />USBP guys rising out of the desert scrub<br />on ATVs, RoboCop helmets on their heads.<br /><br />The whole time the dog sniffs our trunk,<br />smilin' Agent Perez<br />is sniffing our psyches.<br /><br />We are freed and escape<br />down Seminole Canyon.<br /><br />Pecos River gorge.<br />Giant smear of sun baked blood,<br />six vultures.<br />Every few miles, another vulture<br />just chillin'.<br /><br />Osman Canyon: USBP everywhere. White trucks<br />on the hills like tiny glaciers.<br /><br />"I put Glee on the ipod for Chayo,"<br />Cindy lies. I click to<br />The Sex Pistols.<br />BP agents beside the road,<br />cutting the drag--those tires<br />on a dirt road, just like Devil's Highway.<br />I feel cocky.<br /><br />Prairie Creek.<br /><br />Abandoned silver trailer<br />looking like a sardine cane<br />packed with ghosts in oil.<br /><br />Dryden, Texas.<br />Perfectly named.<br /><br />#<br /><br />Vulture party<br />bowing formally<br />to a freshly killed deer.<br /><br />Big Bend ahead--watching for pterodactyls.<br /><br />We pass a semi & a deer<br />jackrabbits in front of us both--<br />followed by a buzzard, clearly calculating<br />the angles.<br /><br />Now a bird<br />dives for the windshield.<br /><br />Outbreak of Animal Suicides:<br />Thousands Flee.<br /><br />OOPS.<br /><br />Cindy just bew past a Texas State Trooper going<br />over 80.<br />And<br /><br />he pulls a u-turn.<br /><br />#<br /><br />Trooper Turman had the scary trooper sunglasses.<br />The scary trooper campaign hat.<br />The scary big ol' gun in a squeaky holster.<br />He walked up to us looking ten feet tall.<br />I found myself inexplicably schmoozing him: "Sorry, man.<br />I'm on book tour--trying to get to Marfa for a radio interview!"<br /><br />BOOK TOUR, he said. WHAT KIND OF BOOK.<br /><br />"Novel. I write all kinds of books." Cindy's looking at me<br />like I've taken drugs. I'm leaning over her to talk out the window.<br />"I wrote a book about the Border Patrol."<br /><br />Trooper Turman bends at the waist and peers in at me.<br /><br />WERE YOU EVER A BORDER PATROL AGENT, he asks.<br /><br />"Ha! No way! I had to train with them, though! Those boys<br />gave me a hard time!" I'm squealing like a gerbil right now.<br /><br />HUH.<br /><br />He takes Cindy's license and walks back to his car.<br /><br />"You're talking about books with the trooper," she accuses.<br />I'm all proud of myself. Then I notice<br />a huge dragonfly hovering outside my window,<br />watching us. I suddenly know<br />God is on our side.<br /><br />I'M GOING TO LET YOU OFF WITH A WARNING<br />THIS TIME<br />BUT WATCH IT<br />Trooper Turman reluctantly announces.<br />LET ME GO WRITE IT UP.<br />He gets back in his car.<br />"He loves us," I say.<br />I realize I have a copy of Into the Beautiful North<br />in the trunk and decide we must give it to him.<br />"Are you bribing him?" my bride wants to know.<br />"No! He already let us off. I'm thanking him."<br /><br />Trooper Turman sits in his scary car and watches us<br />with bemusement on his face as we frantically dig into the trunk<br />and go through our bags. Is he wondering if we have a shotgun?<br />I find the book!<br />Yay!<br /><br />I march back to his car and tap on the window.<br />I comes down slowly and he stares up at me.<br /><br />YES?<br /><br />"Here's my new book," I say. "I'd like you to have it."<br />He stares. He almost smiles.<br />SIR, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THAT.<br />"You didn't have to be so kind, either," I reply.<br />I borrow his pen so I can sign it.<br /><br />He takes it and looks at it.<br />THANK YOU.<br />"You're welcome."<br />He turns it over and looks at my picture.<br />Then he shouts:<br /><br />YOU'RE HISPANIC?!?<br /><br />#<br /><br />We sped off into the water-puddle mirages<br />on the two-lane blacktop.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-11941022923012953332010-08-18T15:08:00.003-05:002010-08-18T15:42:52.485-05:00Random Book Tour Dispatch: Texas in June Pt. 1"Me and Cinderella, put it all together,<br />We can drive it home<br />With one headlight." --The Wallflowers<br /><br />#<br /><br />Up at 4:00, leaving Boston before sunrise.<br /><br />Grind, grind, grind. Get to Dallas, and Ronnie<br />drives us to Dallas Morning News offices--<br />reporters watch the World Cup over my shoulder<br />as I try to answer their questions.<br /><br />100 people at my luncheon talk.<br />One old woman had a Mexican-stroke and<br />raised a shaking finger at me and shouted<br />MEXI-KANZ! MEEEEXI-KAAAANZ!<br />Nobody likes immigration, lady, but I smuggle<br />illegal aliens all day in my luggage!<br />Nah, I didn't say that.<br />Limo saved me from the Wrath of the Queen<br />and rushed us to the airport.<br />We slept the 45 minutes to Houston--<br />did not awaken refreshed.<br /><br />Hertz only had shite cars. I stared at the hot<br />Camaros in the lot and wept. Only weird<br />little boxes w/ no GPS. "But," we argued,<br />"we're driving across Texas and into New Mexico!"<br />We were already so bedraggled that the awesome goddess,<br />Miss Loretta,<br />snuck us into a rockin' fat bidnessman Altima w<br />GPS and satellite radio.<br /><br />Straight to Brazos Books. 50 people. Signed many books.<br />Dragged over to the affable and frou-frou Zaza Hotel.<br />So arty it could have been made of chocolate and neon.<br />Too tired to love it.<br />Claw-foot bed!<br />Vibrators in the bedroom. Um....vibrators?<br />Fell 130 miles<br />into the bed<br />and slept<br />with no dreams.<br /><br />#<br /><br />Up. Out of bed. Aching.<br />Old man shower, feeling sorry<br />for my body.<br />Must rush to Austin.<br /><br />Ludacris<br />in the hotel lobby<br />laying the smack down on some<br />poor concert promoter--<br />his bodyguards<br />giving us the stink-eye.<br /><br />Toddle over to Murder By the Book<br />to sign copies of Phoenix Noir. (I<br />accidentally won an Edgar for my story,<br />"Amapola.")<br />Whole staff was watching<br />the world cup.<br /><br />Freeway. <br />Starbucks.<br />Freeway.<br /><br />ROAD PORN: we passed<br />a car-carrier with a new Camaro<br />perched nose-to-nose<br />with a new Challenger.<br /><br />Katy, Texas: I see<br />cows.<br /><br />Vulture circles over the freeway--<br />must have heard I was coming.<br /><br />Hawks hunt the fields<br />along TX 71.<br /><br />Fireworks stand: BUY 1,<br />GET 11 FREE!!!<br /><br />House in the trees was once<br />a gas station. Empty<br />pump stands in front yard<br />full of bushes. People<br />from my first novel<br />would definitely be living there.<br /><br />Rusty hearse in a field.<br /><br />Odd:<br />bridge in segments<br />for sale beside the highway.<br /><br />Wait.<br />Truck driving down the highway<br />with a friggin' stegasaurus<br />in the back.<br /><br />Bar sign: <br />CINDY'S GONE HOG WILD!<br />I nudge my bride.<br /><br />In love with<br />the little roadside sunflowers.<br /><br />As usual, super-tight schedule, weird LSD GPS--<br />poor English woman likes to deliver us to<br />flower shops, municipal baseball diamonds.<br />We drive 160 miles blind.<br />2 radio shows in Ausin chaos.<br /><br />Favorite Austin bumper sticker:<br />NOT A ZOMBIE.<br /><br />Arrived in our beloved Omni hotel.<br />Upgraded to the world's biggest<br />executive suite. Jacuzzi! I find<br />a washing machine in the closet.<br />Bring me LUNCH! AC. CNN.<br />4:30 is a Santa Fe NPR interview. 7:00 reading.<br /><br />I tweet that I love the Omni, and the Omni scares us<br />by tweeting back that they're happy we like it.<br />Be careful what you say!<br /><br />#<br /><br />McChrystal's melt-down, BP oil spill,<br />huge laughs radio interview then, oh no,<br />tornado sirens back in Illinois<br />and out little one crying in fear<br />on the phone.<br />Talk her through it.<br />Moments of utter helplessness.<br /><br />Good event at Book People.<br />Cousin Dave Duty brought his laptop<br />so we could do a slide show.<br />Only 20 peeps at the beginning,<br />but over 50 at the end. Shoppers<br />kept wandering upstairs to see<br />what all the laughter was about.<br /><br />Bought a book of Lucha Libre photos: I am nothing<br />if not cultured.<br /><br />#<br /><br />Couldn't sleep.<br /><br />Breakfast with Amanda Ayre Ward. Wild woman.<br />Oops! Got to go to San Antonio!<br /><br />It didn't take us long to reach--YAHOO--<br />Snake Farm. You bet:<br />I got a lovin' thang going on with a hot and depressed pig,<br />was flashed by a pervert monkey, held a pyton and<br />choked in the scent of burning hot doo-doo.<br />PS the monkey, when he was sure we were looking, made his nads<br />twitch and bounce.<br /><br />Biker couple in black leather chaps<br />in 96 degree cloud of humid crap-steam<br />sat at a picnic table eating ice cream<br />with little wooden spoons.<br /><br />#<br /><br />Twig Bookstore. Lots of cousins.<br />Lots of Teresita/Saint of Cabora family.<br />We adjourned to a taco shop<br />and had an instant family reunion.<br /><br />Hotel? Um. Our carpet was soaking wet.<br />Bathroom door was broken.<br />Found a wad of hair stuck to<br />the shower curtain.<br />Wow. Really? It's a nice chain, too.<br />But we were tired and decided to sleep.<br />Pinhead, in Hellraiser, threatens:<br />"Your Suffering Will Be Legendary,<br />Even In HELL!"<br />No comment.<br /><br />In the morning, big scary TX skies.<br /><br />A full day of driving ahead to get to Marfa and Alpine.<br />GPS dropped mescaline and thought Starbucks<br />was in Mexico.<br /><br />Bumper sticker:<br />PALIN/JINDAL 2012.<br /><br />Much coffee.<br />Hair metal on the radio.<br />It's our 100th honeymoon.<br /><br />I heart Texas.<br /><br />(Part 2 coming soon)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-18809973280169019592010-08-17T14:28:00.002-05:002010-08-17T14:31:57.946-05:00No really, this IS the last chance to vote!Please vote for Luis in One Book, One San Diego! Voting closes tomorrow and the one thing he'd love for his birthday, is the chance to celebrate in his hometown!<br />It's easy to vote and you don't have to live in San Diego. Click<a href="http://kpbs.org/one-book/"> here</a> or go to <a href="http://www.kpbs.org/one-book">www.kpbs.org/one-book</a> to register and make your choice.<br />Thanks for your support and enthusiasm. It means so much to both of us!<br />XOXO<br />CindyUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-83884419778528286082010-08-05T18:09:00.003-05:002010-08-05T18:11:47.314-05:00Arizona LamentationWe were happy here before they came.<br /><br />This was always Odin's garden,<br />a pure white place.<br />Cradle of Saxons,<br />birthplace of Norsemen.<br /><br />No Mexican was ever born here<br />until their racial hatred and envy<br />forced us to build a border fence.<br />But they kept coming.<br /><br />There were never Apache Villages here--<br />we never saw these Navajos, Papagos,<br />Yaquis. It's a lie. Until their wagons<br />kept coming and coming. And their soldiers.<br /><br />We worshipped at the great god's tree.<br />We had something good here.<br />We had family values and clean sidewalks.<br />Until those savages kept coming, took our dream<br /><br />and colored it.<br /><br />AZ SB1070Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-31393857127919139582010-08-05T17:27:00.003-05:002010-08-05T17:32:11.113-05:00Last chance to vote!This is Cindy, hijacking Luis's blog before we head out for Squaw Valley in the morning.<br /><br />Into the Beautiful North is one of three finalists for San Diego's One Book program. Right now, Luis is trailing in the voting, which seems unbelievable for a local boy who's written a book all about San Diego and Tijuana and the people who have most inspired his work. So I'm thinking maybe not everybody knows to vote!<br /><br />Anybody can vote in this poll, you don't have to live in San Diego. Click <a href="http://kpbs.org/one-book/">here</a> or go to <a href="http://www.kpbs.org/one-book/">www.kpbs.org/one-book/</a> to vote. The voting closes Aug. 9 so you have just a few days left. If you've already voted, it's OK to vote again!<br /><br />All three books are incredibly worthy selections; KPBS and the San Diego Library did a great job of putting together a list. But we've had so much fun at one-city-one-book reads in other places, that we're really excited about the type of events we could put together if Luis comes home!<br /><br />Thanks for your help!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-55753035034471122162010-08-02T13:55:00.002-05:002010-08-02T14:26:50.572-05:00The Road Goes on Forever"I've been gone away so long..." Chris Whitley<br /><br />Three weeks of non-stop book tour, 48 hours to do laundry and pack, three weeks in England with a side trip to Paris. Home for ten days to try to work before going to Squaw Valley to turn my profoundly burned brain toward workshops...before my birthday...and school starting...and the Fall touring season kicks in. I've tried to keep some record of the journeys on Facebook and Twitter. Busy, busy, busy.<br /><br />I hope to post some tour goodies here. Some sketches and impressions. Those of you who have read this blog for a while know that I have this little prose-sketch style I like on the road. I call these "Wastelanders." Did about six books' worth this time. Don't worry, I won't bomb you with all of them.<br /><br />It was interesting, driving across Texas. My pally the Christian rock rebel Rick Elias is playing Marfa right now. I was there a few weeks ago. Small world. But when you're road dogs, you walk in each other's shadow. <br /><br />#<br /><br />We were slamming along the hiway from San Antonio to Alpine. All you big tea bag fans of SB 1070--if you feel the US aint guardin the border real good from friggin beaners, you ought to travel that hiway sometime. Dang. I haven't seen that many Border Patrol guys...ever. BP was everywhere. They were even cutting drags along the side of the hiway just like in Devil's Highway. They stopped us and set the sniffer dogs on the car to see if we had anything juicy. We didn't. White trucks like small glaciers on fried carmine desert peaks. Helicopters. Dudes in Terminator head gear appearing out of the bushes on ATVs.<br /><br />So, off we went, doing about 81, and a Texas State Trooper caught us. But somehow, instead of writing us a ticket, he ended up talking with us about books. It was a really great meeting, out there in the desert wind. The whole time this grace descended upon us, a huge dragonfly hovered outside my car window, staring. I was trying to watch it and the trooper at the same time. I felt like The Hummingbird's Daughter is still IN DA HOUSE.<br /><br /># <br /><br />Out beside the Pecos River, at the west end of the high bridge out there, we once stumbled upon an abandoned building. Motel? Gas station? Don't know. It was all amazing stuff--Cinderella and I were on our first big car trip then, and we parked on the Pecos bridge and walked out into the middle and kissed. Who says life can't be like a Joe Ely song?<br /><br />We were scared by the abandoned building. It was full of bones. Every room was one foot, two feet dep in big bones. There was a stained mattress in there. And panties spiked to the wall with huge nails. Gulp.<br /><br />We passed that wicked li'l joint again this year. But were were going like Mad Max and didn't stop this time. It was weirdly exhilarating to see it again, to wonder at its dark rich stinky bounty inside. When I got home, I looked up my old notes about it. You see, there was poetry and...stuff...on the walls. Here's what the walls said back in 1996:<br /><br />Bursack<br />Eric<br />Spytko<br /><br />66<br /><br />In Life The Living And The Dead<br />Dwell In One Another's Arms<br />Only the Sand's Shift<br />Between Them.<br />Time Is An Oasis.<br /><br />BULLDOGS.<br /><br />Travelers Come Past You<br />And Move Away.<br />But Nothing Changes.<br /><br />Viet-Nam.<br />3rd Here.<br /><br />Kill Dan.<br />USMC.<br /><br />When was I born?<br />Where did I come from?<br />Where am I going?<br />What am I?<br />"The Hopi Questions"<br /><br />Smith<br />Tae Kwon Do<br />Rules<br /><br />I'm Going Only<br />Where I<br />Desire<br /><br />Fast Eddie<br />Pony Boy<br />Szpytko<br /><br />I'll Chaneg Highways In a While<br />At The Crossroads<br />One more mile.<br />My path is lit by my own<br />FIRE.<br /><br />ON THE ROAD I HAVE<br />TAKEN,<br />ONE DAY WALKING, I AWAKEN<br />AMAZED TO SEE<br />WHERE I HAVE COME<br />WHERE I'M GOING<br />WHERE I FROM<br /><br />Headhuntasz<br /><br />#<br /><br />One more page of the American poem, etched in the night, somewhere out there, along the howling Pecos gorge, in a white room full of ghosts, torn panties, old blood, and bones. Glimpsed for a second, while pushing books like vaccuum cleaners upon strangers in the heat.<br /><br />Joes said it best: "The road goes on forever, the party never ends...."<br /><br />Love, LUnknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180139.post-62957873297252637842010-07-04T12:16:00.003-05:002010-07-04T12:20:02.063-05:00Post CardsTo everyone complaining about not getting the post-cards they wrote for: get in line, ya mugs! The cards went to fans at the events first, of course. We blew through about 500 of them. Now we're home for about one day. In fact, as I write, I'm home for two hours. Then we go to England for three weeks.<br /><br />I applaud your patience...because that's ALL I CAN DO. Even if we tried to have your cards printed and delivered and mailed to you, I couldn't do it in two hours. Or two days.<br /><br />But I have all your addresses. When we get back, the cards will go forth. <br /><br />If you haven't requested one, feel free. Just know it'll take a while.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1