The Fezziwig News by Stu Jenks

...The first draft of the novel is done!!!...

The first draft of the novel is done!!! It came in at 149,000 words, 552 pages in my document. Yeaaaa! I can't tell you how good it feels. The ending made me cry, as I hope it does you. (Last word in the novel, which won't change in revision: Sighs.) I want to jump right back to the beginning and start revisions, but Mary Ann suggests I take more than just a couple days off. OK. I'll take off three or four days. LOL. But then it's fixing this and revising that, then off to the editors. And I have ideas for the next novel in this series, too. I have some pretty great characters, I think, and I want to see what they will do next. But first things first. Get this novel to print.

One serious note: It took about a year to write this novel, but it almost didn't get done. With Mary and Pamela dying and all, I didn't work on it for about six weeks and it was so hard to get my momentum back. But I did. But it was difficult. If you are working on a novel or a large work, I recommend you plow through, even if the field is frozen. I've been told I'm very lucky to have gotten back on track.

Speaking of track, good luck to Danica Patrick tomorrow in the Daytona 500 and in the rest of Sprint Cup and Nationwide races this season. I might just have to go up to PHX next Saturday to watch her race.

By the way, did I mention I finished the freaking first draft of the novel?

Yeaaaaaaaaa!

"The Jenks in 1971"

"The Jenks in 1971" (c) ???, 1971 and Stu Jenks, 2012

Found this in my mother's wallet. Was taken at some photo studio in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1971. I was 16 or 17, Pamela was around 21, Dad was 49ish, and Mary was in her early 40's.

I put this up on the StuBlog primarily to show that my sister was once quite the pretty woman. Those horned-rimmed glasses though don't help my parents' looks, and sweet Jesus, did I have terrible teeth back then with the braces and such or what? Yikes. And my long hair just drove my Dad nuts. This was 1971 in the South, you know. And no, I don't know exactly why I decided to part my hair on the right, making a big blob of hairishness. My guess it was I knew if I parted it in the middle, my father and I would come to blows.

But wasn't Pamela a pretty girl?

And i did fiddle with this image a little, but I don't believe in photoshopping away the cracks and lost paper in old photos. They are the lovely scars of time in pictures. And yes, this once was a color photo. Guess it wasn't printed on archival paper (chuckles).

...this and that, from Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado...

I'm just going to put these images up on the StuBlog and say very little. Some are good, some not-so-good, some in-between. Some from last week, some from last year. Enjoy.

All images copyrighted by Stu Jenks, 2012.

And may tender arms keep you warm this winter.

...reflecting lots of silver light...

My sister, Pamela Jenks, had a 2011 datebook. Just a tiny red thing. Mostly, it contained times to take her pills or when she needed to go to chemo. Then there were those errands she needed to run that day and the all-important outcomes of Carolina basketball games, but on the rarest occasions, Pamela would write a few things that had left an impression upon her. And remember, she could hardly write at all, due to the huge lyphedema in her left arm.

Monday, May 16th, 2011:

"Stu takes me for a steak dinner. Buttery, tender, European rare fillet. Yum."

But the next night, while I slept upstair in our old house....

"4 a.m.: A big, fat, bright, shiny full moon, reflecting lots of silver light, with puffy clouds glowing by obscuring and revealing - gorgeous!"

She knew she was dying at this point. I wonder if she also knew I would later read these entries in a storage locker in Tucson, Arizona, a few days after Christmas, and cry. If not, she knows now.

Pamela was dead a month later.

Happy 4th day of Christmas, Pamela Jenks. I miss you as do others. May you be running with beagles in Paradise.

Now available, on the Apple IPad: The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010) and Bozo In Love

Been a long time coming for The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010).

Three editors, two proofreaders, two designers, four printers, and hours, days, weeks, months, years, lifetimes, (I know I'm overstating), of writing, traveling, shooting, editing, remembering, hiking, and more writing, shooting, and editing, but I'm not complaining. No, no, no.

And apologies for not having the dough right now, to print The Transpersonal Papers as a coffee-table book as I had originally planned. ($10,000, it would have cost. Maybe someday.) But you now can buy it, for $14.95, as an Ebook on the Apple IPad, and I expect it to be available within a couple days on the Nook and the Kindle as well.

I just looked at it on my new IPad. The photos, text and design look grand.

And as an extra surprise, Bozo In Love is now up on IBooks too, ($9.95), as well as the rest of my catalog: Flame Spirals, Hoop Dancing, and Dementia Blues, on IBooks, Nook and Kindle.

Just in time for Christmas.

And don't worry. All but The Transpersonal Papers can still be bought as a book book through Fezziwig Press. I have plenty. Just go to www.fezziwigpressonline.com, for the hardbounds and paperbacks, but go to ITunes, today, (and Kindle and Nook, soon) for the ebooks.

Heavy sigh from my third story apartment balcony. I look out onto the Tucson city lights in the valley below. Cold, dry air embraces me. I inhale deeply. Exhale.

A very good night in the desert.

Think I'll make a cup of coffee with egg nog and play some Angry Birds on my new IPad.

Time to celebrate.

 

"Juniper Bozo Angel"

"Juniper Bozo Angel, Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks

A new Bozo image, taken this afternoon in a light drizzle, near a high road below Mt. Wrightson. And not to brag but mostly to clarify, this is not an image made from sandwiched negatives. Everything you see is on one digital neg. I just made the blacks blacker and the reds redder.

A Bozo Angel for my deceased family, Stuart, Mary and Pamela. Thanks for walking beside me in the rain today.

And Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

"Prayer For Pamela Jenks"

7:42 p.m., WaveLab Studios, Tucson, Arizona.

It's been an amazing day of mixing, texturing, and fiddlling at WaveLab. Eight hours straight. A very good day. Six pieces done.

Working on the last mix of the day. "Prayer For Pamela Jenks", a sea shanty with harmonium and ocean waves for my deceased sister. It sounds like her. A strong angry sea, a strong voice. Pamela Jenks.

Maybe it's because I'm tired, but I think "Pamela Jenks" may be the best mix of the day.

"The Empty Kitchen Chair"

"The Empty Kitchen Chair: Raleigh, N.C. & Haw River, N.C." (c) 2011 Stu Jenks

It's been a month since the Amherst House sold. This is the last photo I took of the place before leaving town.

Word is the new owner has cut down every tree on the property, for no particularly good reason. I didn't like the man before I heard this. I like him even less now.

Before leaving the Triangle Area, I stopped the Penske truck at the Haw River Bridge on U.S. 64, east of Pittsboro. A few friends and I used to visit the Haw pretty often, near that bridge, during our college days at Carolina. I've walked along The Haw, a few times, in the past few months. When much around me has changed, The Haw is not one of them.

I carried a 50-pound river stone away from the Haw, back in 1977, to use in a sculpture. Toting a old kitchen chair into the forest, in 2011, was much easier.

Saw no eagles that day. Did, however, find a nice place to sit for a while.

[Contemporary Art Note: To view this little piece as I intended, drag and drop the two empty chair images onto your desktop, placing the house photo on the left and the Haw photo on the right, so the energies move outside of the frame.

Guess I need to print and frame it at some point, but not today. I need hit the desert soon, and smell the wet creasote from yesterday's rain.

A raven's outside my window, calling for me to come. I will obey.]

"Sonoita Hills Hoop Dance"

"Sonoita Hills Hoop Dance, Arizona" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks

[Alternate Title: "Three Waiting For The Fourth: For Stuart, Mary, and Pamela"]

I bought myself a very big 57th birthday present: Two days in Wavelab Studios, having Craig Schumacher and his crew, remix and mastered my new album "Less Than A Dozen Prayers." Eight sonic prayers are already done. We may even record a couple new prayers, next week, as well.

Thanks, everyone, good and evil, light and dark ,and all the shades inbetween, for being in my life.

I'm happy to have been born.

I'm happy to still be alive.

"To The East, God & Humanness..."

Coming to the top of a graveyard bench, in a cemetery probably not near you. (except for y'all, Glenn & Brad.)

P.S. We caught the typo in 'Courage', so don't worry.

P.P.S. In Jackson, Tenn. right now. Plan on taking some blue highways to Memphis today.