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Sunday, December 30, 2007

SOOP OOP and New Blog

I lied. New blog a week early.

This blog has been prompted by a special occasion. Christmas, you ask? No. How about New Year’s? Sorry.

This blog has been prompted by my decision to take Stuck Outside of Phoenix out of print.

After four and a half years, it’s time for me to put the kibosh on this little number. Why, you ask? Why bring an end to a book that has meant so much to me, led to many positive reviews and is the launching pad of my publishing life?

The short answer is that I want to get Stuck, which I published through a company called iUniverse, on my own imprint, which is Defunct Press, at some later date.

If you’d like more details on this decision, you can get the whole story later this week at my new blog focusing on the business side of self-publishing, DIY, and surviving as an independent artist, a blog which is as yet unnamed. I hope to get the first blog up this Friday, and I will publish a link to it here when I do.

Life as an independent artist is a topic I care deeply about, I have lots of experience in, and I have opinions that differ greatly from current conventional wisdom. So, if you’re an writer, artist or musician who’s looking to move forward on the rocky road to creative independence, please swing by the new blog.

When it has a name. It doesn’t yet.

And for those of you who have come to appreciate your weekly Layin’ Down the Law blog, what does this new blog mean to you? It means you shouldn’t worry. The Layin’ Down the Law blog will continue unabated as the place where I wax on about Ghost Notes, Songs from Memory, all the fun stuff I have planned for 2008, and my zany past in the Refreshments and elsewhere. You’ll get it all--just minus the publishing talk. I like to think of this blog as my artist blog and the other as my business blog. Two distinct audiences, two blogs.

But back to Stuck.

So, what if you want a copy of Stuck? It still should be available at places like Amazon for a month of so. And you’ll be able to order it at my website while supplies last. I hope to re-release Stuck through Defunct Press at a later date, but it will be a new edition. If you want one of these first edition copies, you should probably get one now.

Next week, new year, new blog. Thanks for reading in 2007. I hope to keep you reading for a long time to come.

For those about to Proust, we salute you.

Art

7 comments:

Kevin J. Guhl said...

Happy New Year, Art! Glad you're back. I would be interested in your new blog because I'm someone that does my own creative projects but it's always secondary to my paying (but less satisfying) job and advice on how to change that balance would be welcome. Part of my problem is lack of time, part is laziness and part is a lack of knowledge. I actually didn't know you supported yourself as an independent artist. For some reason, I thought you were teaching. Anyway, I'll look forward to the link. And I'm glad I got my copy of Stuck (first edition) when I did, and signed. :)

BTW, for Christmas I got a DVD/VHS player that allows me to easily convert VHS to DVD. I haven't yet figured out how to make a DVD that's both playable in most players AND has chapter breaks, but I'm working on it. What I did do was start to convert some of the rare concerts and stuff I have on VHS to DVD, even if there's no chapters, just to get them in digital format before my tapes rot away. The first VHS tape I converted was this Refreshments show called "Taste of AZ" from January 1998. (I think that was the date.) It's about 50 minutes long and cuts off halfway through "Dolly," because the battery on the camcorder ran out, I presume. What's cool about the tape is that it has captured some songs that The Refreshments never recorded (or released, anyway; if you did record them, I'd like to know!). Those songs are "Easy," "Never Thought," and "Tell Yer Mama." The Peacemakers went on to record them but, no offense to them, their versions of "Easy" and "Tell Yer Mama" pale in comparison to the live Refreshments versions. "Easy" has awesome guitar licks that weren't replicated by the latter band, and "Tell Yer Mama" has a more rambunctious vibe that I prefer. The quality of the tape is very good, too. Long story short here, if you would like me to send you off a copy for old time's sake, let me know where to send it.

Best in 2008! Looks to be an exciting year for you!

Kevin
ironheart@earthlink.net

Art Edwards said...

Would love one, Kevin. Here's the address:

PO Box 3813
St. Charles, IL 60174

Thanks!

Art

Kevin J. Guhl said...

Cool, I'll get one of those off to you. Always fun to watch your younger self on stage, isn't it? :) I'll file the address because I know I have a couple other Refreshments vids in the cabinet that I'll get to. One has a bunch of fun stuff, including a video someone made synching old Godzilla movies to "Wheelie." It's no "Dark Side of the Moon" - Wizard of Oz, but some of the lyrics actually match what Godzilla's doing on screen.

Art Edwards said...

Great.

You can wait until you copy all of them if you want, but I'd love to see them.

Art

Neil said...

"Easy" has awesome guitar licks that weren't replicated by the latter band, and "Tell Yer Mama" has a more rambunctious vibe that I prefer."......

Viva El Blush ;)

Kevin J. Guhl said...

Steve Larson is the man.

That said, there's only one Brian Blush.

Kevin J. Guhl said...

Your disc's in the mail. I'll get to the other couple of tapes I have in the near future.