Friday, October 28, 2016

Weekend Update 10/28/2016

Self Portrait 10/27/2016
So far this morning I've washed dishes, seen a good interview with David Crosby on Morning Joe and now we're waiting for Geri's visiting nurse, who will be followed by her physical therapist. Saturday, if life cooperates, I'll be part of Linda's Good Eggs: Arts Benefit For Ovarian Cancer Research in Erie, Pennsylvania, and then Sunday at noon I'll be giving my last Cleveland area reading/performance for the foreseeable future during Author Author at the Coffee Phix Cafe in South Euclid. Hopefully at some point this weekend I'll get to work on some Crisis Chronicles Press stuff before the Cleveland Clinic grind resumes on Monday. What are you up to, friends?

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

One More Chance

Cover art by Smith
Thanks to everyone who's bought a copy of my Poet's Haven Author Series chapbook, It Takes More Than CHANCE to Make Change. Publisher Vertigo Xi'an Xavier has just notified me that it's going into a new printing. So if you still haven't gotten your copy yet, you can now for a mere $6.  Just click here.

Monday, October 24, 2016

Getting my Phix: Last Call CLE 10/30/2016

I look forward to sharing poetry and maybe more this Sunday, October 30th, during Author Author at the Coffee Phix Cafe on Mayfield. The event features several authors and runs from 10 am to 3 pm. My hour begins at noon, and will be my final Cleveland-area performance for the foreseeable future.

The other authors, who will each also have an hour, are Mindy Carter, Abby McCarthy, Ericka Thornton, Mary R. Woldering and Alex Grayson.


Author Author happens every month with a different slate of writers at

Coffee Phix Cafe
4485 Mayfield Road
South Euclid, Ohio
coffeephixcafe.com 
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Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Uh, Day(s) in the Life

As many of you already know, my wife Geri is dealing with end-stage liver disease and going through the process of getting on a liver transplant list.  Part of the listing process requires being checked out and cleared by pretty much every type of doctor you can think of, and that for us means a lot of running back and forth to the Cleveland Clinic and other offices.  Today, for example, we got up at 6 am and barely had time to let our dog out and wolf down a cup of coffee before we headed into Cleveland for an early lab draw, followed by an appointment with a pulmonary specialist, followed by an appointment with a transplant surgeon, followed by a thorocentesis in which a third doctor drained 1300 ml of fluid from her lung. Now we're back home, shortly after 5 pm and I just got dinner cooking.

Yesterday, we were at the Clinic for hours attending a liver transplant informational seminar. Tomorrow, we'll be there again for an anesthesia clinic, dentistry appointment and maybe more.  This is our new status quo, and has been for some time.

I called off work Wednesday and Thursday last week, canceled my trip to Maryland over the weekend, and didn't get to see my dad and step-mom who were in town from West Virginia yesterday and today.  First things first.  So don't please feel bad if I haven't answered your message or published your book yet. I will, I promise.  Maybe I'll finish reading a friend's chapbook while I'm sitting in a doctor's office. Maybe I'll share a YouTube video or political article from my phone because that only takes a few minutes and that's all I can cobble together to focus on something other than liver transplant stuff.  Maybe I'll even watch part of an Indians game when I get home at night because I'm too drained to do much more. But I promise I will give you the attention you deserve as soon as I can.

Peace, love and poetry,
John

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Home This Weekend

I did not make it to the 10th annual Indie Lit Festival at Frostburg State University this weekend after all.  Crisis Chronicles Press was supposed to have a table at their book fair and I was supposed to participate in a panel on Sustainable Literary Communities.  But given my wife's current health and needs I chose to stay home with her.  Thanks to Dianne Borsenik for taking some of my press' books to the festival. Maybe I'll make the trek to Frostburg in 2017.

A sampler platter of Crisis Chronicles Press books at Indie Lit Fest
[photo by Dianne Borsenik]

Thursday, October 13, 2016

With Her or Wither

On our way home from the hospital yesterday we passed the elections office and decided to go in and cast our ballots on the first day of early voting. I've spent more time than you know reading all the news, facts, opinions and conspiracy theories, and I've made the decision that I believe, all things considered, is best for me, my family, the American people and the world. When we got home, as I was trying to get my wife inside and settled in, some guy who was driving down our street saw this sign in our lawn, stopped in front of our house and started screaming at us at the top of his lungs and in a menacing fashion, "Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!" 

The last I checked, sending someone to prison who hasn't been found guilty of a crime by a jury of his or her peers (after due process of law) is unconstitutional, un-American, inhumane and even criminal. This type of crap (and not just this, by any means) is precisely why I feel we must vote for Hillary Clinton and ensure the defeat of hatemongering bully Donald J. Trump. In a more perfect world and time, I might have voted for a third party candidate (as I've done in the past), though it sure wouldn't have been the Libertarian. But this isn't that world or time, especially as I live in the too-close-to-call swing state of Ohio. 

So the deed is done and I feel good that we gave our votes to Hillary Clinton, Ted Strickland, Marcy Kaptur and the Parma City School District. I don't call you names or try to bully you or scream at your house if we disagree, so I hope you will extend the same courtesy to me and my friends and family.

Peace, love and respect,
John

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Indie Lit Festval this month at Frostburg State University


Crisis Chronicles Press and I are pleased to be participating in the 10th annual Indie Lit Festval at Frostburg State University in Maryland this month.

The press will be part of the book fair, and I will share in a panel on Sustainable Literary Communities with George Guida, Jane Ormerod, and Dianne Borsenik.

For more details, please visit the Frostburg Center for Literary Arts website.