Three months ago today, I turned 60. What is 60? I know it’s twice 30. 30 years ago it was 1992 and Jeanette and I had moved back to the Belleville area from New Market. We had our two year old daughter Emily with us. Another 30 years on and we have three children and they’ve all graduated from University. Emily is married to Charlie. 60 is also 3 times 20. I turned 20 in my first year of University. Frank Sinatra played Ottawa on September 11th of that year. I would rather have been at that concert than have been at Trent in September. That’s a long story I won’t retell. Jeanette, my wife, and my diploma are the best things that ever happened to me at Trent.
This blahg got sidelined for a few months. I started writing this blahg in mid-October and now it’s December 23rd and I’m finally getting back to it. It’s been an incredibly busy few months so I think I will wrap up the general theme and get back to the point of things. When I started writing this two months ago I had plans to link it all to a poem I had written several years ago. Let me post that poem then comment on everything. This poem is from September 5, 1986:
to old one
I imagine one day
I’ll be old —
and knowin’ me
one day will be about
all I can hack —
so I’m writin’ this to my old self
not what I was
but what I’ll be
for that one day
I’m tellin’ myself
to be happy
bein’ old
’cause maybe by then
I’ll have deserved that
but now I can’t accord any dignity
in addressin’ my old self
and this’ll only make sense
later on
to an old man
but old one,
that’s you or I mean me,
yer ruptured youth
is writin’ to you here
’cause we’re two different persons
you and me
and you know things
I’ve yet to comprehend
and you’ve forgotten things
I’ve yet to live
but that’s ’cause
yer memory and you
are old old one
and there was a time
when I needed you
to talk to me
and tell me
how I got by things or
over ’em or
through ’em
but that’d be cheatin’
and I matured into that truth
but old one
young one
still needs you
’cause I need to know
I’m still gonna be me
but old me
and someone new to talk to
if only in my mind
when we’re one
so know yer youth
old one
and keep in touch
or get in touch
with this
young one
who needs not to know
you’re old old one
but old enough to remember being
young once
and writing to
yer old self
to hear if
you stayed
old
long enough
to receive this poem
written by
yer young one once
I wrote that poem more than 36 years ago. I wasn’t married. I didn’t have kids and I had yet to start any sort of career. I think I was struggling to find out who I would be. I imagined having the opportunity to talk to my old self and get reassurances I’d be okay or hints about what was to come and how to get through them. I never got the hints. I had to age through it all and figure it out for myself. There were some rough spots but I’m still here and happily married with 3 great children and a son in law (and 3 cats) so I must have fared well.
So why did I get sidelined? Well, my novel “Pippa’s Passing” has taken a great deal of my focus. I haven’t found a publisher so I’m trying to do some promotion by releasing chapters online to read at a few sites. My daughter Abbie has actually taken on this task. First, I asked her to design a book cover. I’m quite happy with it but Abbie is not as enthusiastic. She tends to draw other things and in different styles so she thinks this isn’t her best work. Here’s that cover, judge for yourself:
There’s a rationale behind the image on the cover but you have to read the book to understand. Here are links to sites where the first eight chapters have been posted. New chapters are posted Tuesday and Fridays:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/61632/pippas-passing
https://www.quotev.com/story/15375380/Pippas-Passing/1
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/634916/pippas-passing/
https://www.wattpad.com/story/328479978-pippa%27s-passing
I also decided I wanted to create audio podcast versions of each chapter. So far, I have completed 17 of the 20 chapters. It would have been too costly to hire voice talent so I decided I would be the voice of the narrator and main character, Jeff “Pink” Carter. This meant I had to find computer voices for all of the other characters. I’m happy with most of the computer voices but I’m a perfectionist and I’ve had to mix in sound effects and music. Elvis music features heavily in the entire book. Here is the completed chapter six “Revelations At The Avocado House:”
I’ll continue to work on these and hopefully will find some way and somewhere to post all of them online. I’m hoping this type of promotion might spark more interest in the book.
This will be my last blahg before Christmas 2022 and quite possibly my last blahg of this year. I have no Christmas messages this year other than the same one I quote liberally each year from Sinatra: “In this upcoming year, may we find peace in the world and peace among ourselves.” Oh, and read my book! Merry Christmas!
Tags: Elvis Presley, Pippa's Passing, Poetry, Scott Henderson. False Ducks