Month: October 2023

Still going to be all right

I was reminded the other day that it’s going to be all right was released on October 18 of last year. Despite the horrors going on around the world on a regular basis, I still believe that’s true, which makes me either a damn fool or wise beyond my years. You are always welcome to part with a handful of your hard-earned dollars, read the book and decide for yourself, and if you do I will be grateful beyond words.

What struck me about this anniversary is that a full year has passed since I added to my little pile of books by Warren Bluhm and that, with less than three months left, 2023 is so far the first year in five years that I have not published a new book.

The technological advances of the last 15 years have made book publishing practical and inexpensive for everyman and everywoman, a fact that has brought well-deserved disruption to the traditional book industry. For better or for worse, gatekeepers no longer stand between the author and the reader, decreeing what content is worthy to be seen by the world. Yes, a lot of bad books have been unleashed on the world, but you know what? Even the gatekeepers let some awful stuff get out, and there are legendary stories about how they held back some brilliant work for too long.

At the moment warrenbluhm.com has 22 books out in the print-on-demand and ebook world. I wrote 12 of them and edited the other 10 — six books in the Roger Mifflin Collection, three short editions of historical essays, and the 1930s “boys adventure” Air Monster. My to-do list includes setting up a Shopify page so that you don’t have to search for me via Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Kobo or all the other places where my stuff is out there.

That to-do list also includes firing up the assembly line again. I’m in no position to make any announcements yet, but the next five quarters ought to add some titles to the stable, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise. You will be among the first to know, and thank you for stopping by to check.

I love reading, and I love people who love reading, and I enjoy sharing that love. So happy anniversary to my latest book, and stay tuned to hear what’s next.

Waiting for tomorrow to come

The story as I remember it — and I mean that literally because I’m not consulting a search engine, I’m telling you my memory — is that Bruce Springsteen toiled and toiled over his album Human Touch for a very long time, it may even have been years but it definitely was many months.

On the day he declared the album ready to send off to the record company, he breathed a great sigh of relief and started writing, and over the next two weeks he came up with all of the songs for another album, which he banged together and called Lucky Town.

And that’s how and why Springsteen released two albums on the same day in (OK this time I’m checking with DuckDuckGo) 1992.

Here’s the bottom line for me, though: To me Lucky Town — the burst of creative energy — is far superior to Human Touch — the carefully crafted, meticulously produced but ultimately heartless album in comparison. 

The creative impulse wants to dance. It reaches its zenith when it is flying and having fun. Just hearing the facts of their creation convinces me that Lucky Town was destined to be a better album. 

And now that I did check with the search engine, I see my memory got some of the facts askew, but the bottom line is Springsteen pulled teeth to get Human Touch completed, and Lucky Town was a romp, and that (to me) is why Lucky Town is the better album. Those were just better days.

This week’s war

So another war is thrust into our consciousness and sides are chosen. There is our side and the wrong side and how dare you?

More indiscriminate slaughter of innocents who have no dispute with you — why? What is the point of all this? Where does it end? WHEN does it end?

The only winners are the weapons makers who profit from haters buying their wares. Everyone dies, but the manufacturers feed their families. What a business: Build things that are designed to destroy themselves and anyone in their path, and so there is an endless need to replenish the supply.

I am on the side that beats swords into plowshares, the side with a God who declares we should love one another including our supposed enemies.

I remember a meme from my youth, before memes were called memes: “What if they gave a war and nobody came?” We’re still waiting for the answer, because eager young people still flock to join the new war, and the rest of us root from the sidelines, offering money, weapons, aid and comfort to the killers.

Please don’t ask me to take sides or declare my solidarity. I stand with the peacemakers. I stand with anyone and everyone who shouts, “Enough is enough.” I stand with anyone who, upon hearing that they’re giving a war, refuses to come.