Wednesday, October 13, 2021

 

REMEMBERING ALEX BLACKBURN

 

 

A century ago, Robert Frost wrote his classic poem, “The Road Not Taken” and a generation of writers, myself included, lived by Frost’s credo, follow your heart.

Alex Blackburn, a distinguished professor and award-winning writer, asks us to think about Frost’s mystical road in his book The Fire Within: Reflections on the Literary Imagination.

Alex puts it like this --

Unless all roads lead to “planetization” there will be no forsaken road left to be sorry about.

In addition, Alex speaks, quite frankly, about how hard it is, on top of everything else, just to be a writer. He speaks of the hazards of writing, living, teaching, earning a living, and publishing:

 “When inflation crippled England in 1968, I, broke again after having written 600 godawful pages, returned to big-time teaching, as they say, only big time became full-time/part-time with no more time for writing, and still not enough time to earn a living…”

In The Fire Within Alex speaks heartfully of how, “…in serious writing, self-discovery, not self-expression, we need to surpass our real experience. This is the point where imagination comes into play.”

Alex then discusses Frank Waters, author of The Man Who Killed the Deer. Waters, Alex states, was a proponent of  “…a coming world of consciousness … a sense of embracing the totality of Earth.” Alex defines this mystical power as “a new kind of love.”

For those who find this a little ephemeral, Alex says, “It’s necessary to “take into account we are all in the same boat.”

The problem is, are we floating or sinking?

The Fire Within helps to explain that this question can be answered by helping others, by reaching out, by writing from the heart as well as the head. Maybe that is why Alex became a great teacher: he was always there for others, not just himself.

We need to hear this now more than ever. 

For, in my mind, in today’s world, the boat isn’t just floating or sinking, We are.

Thanks for pointing this out to me, Alex, old friend.

 

 

Thursday, September 30, 2021

 The UFO Story that wouldn't quit!





In 1978 I wrote a novel about scientists, investigators, theorists and adventurers who were trying to figure out why animals in Northern New Mexico were being mutilated. I decided to write a book based on interviews with "ufologists", Navajos, Pueblo people, ranchers, and researchers from Los Alamos.

The truth is, the mutilators were never found, never seen, and their crimes were so grotesque that I found it difficult to write book. 

The nonfiction, novelistic book (called Faction by reviewers) came out with Stackpole Publishers in 1980. It had a short shelf life and was soon sold out, but not reprinted. I believe the timing, the times were against it. It was too soon, so to say. Au courant, but not yet popular in the broader public arena.

Sometime later, in the early 1980s, I was asked to write another, fully updated, version of the original book that was called No Witness. In the years that followed the publication of this version, a film came out, Endangered Species. 

So, to make a long story endless, as we used to say, I did yet another iteration of the mutilation/UFO story in Northern New Mexico, adding in all that had happened since No Witness had appeared. I named this second book Stargazer. It was published by Lotus Press in 1988. Thirty years have gone by since then. Thanks to Santosh Krinksy of Lotus Press, Stargazer is still in print and available for purchase.



 online.https://www.facebook.com/LotusPress/photos/a.10150485693098390/10159602186983390/

https://www.amazon.com/Stargazer-Book-Hausman-Gerald-Paperback/dp/B011SJWYZA/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Stargazer+hausman&qid=1633022316&sr=8-1


It would seem the "mute stories" as they were called originally, are still out there. Ranchers yet complain about untoward, mystifying visitations from high-tech helicopters as well as UFOs. Witnesses have seen the UFOs as recently as only a few days ago, but only a few stargazers claim to have seen any "little green men."

I explored the little green man theme in the following trilogy published by Speaking Volumes Publishers:

Evil Chasing Way  

https://www.amazon.com/Evil-Chasing-Star-Song-Book-ebook/dp/B075FK7NZB/ref=sr_1_2?crid=7LXUB0XPIJWY&dchild=1&keywords=evil+chasing+way&qid=1633022060&sprefix=Evil+Chasing+Way%2Caps%2C197&sr=8-2



Hand Thttps://www.amazon.com/Hand-Trembler-Star-Song-2/dp/1628158387/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1633022142&sr=8-2rembler



Sungazer

https://www.amazon.com/SUNGAZER-Star-Song-Gerald-Hausman/dp/1628159502/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1633022227&sr=8-2



NOTE: If you read and liked Stargazer, you can continue my own personal tales with the above three novels that explore true stories as told by such storytellers as Joogii, my oldest Navajo friend. We go back to the Sixties when we first started swapping "stories from outer and inner space."







Tuesday, April 7, 2020

My uncle, William Lauritzen, was an incredible artist. He did this portrait of Mark Twain in 1953. I remember seeing Bill's art on American Bandstand when I was growing up. And I also saw his fashion illustration in The New York Times. In this portrait you can see Twain's ironic, humorous and mischievous spirit. It's fitting, and for me, a great honor to place Bill's lifelike Twain here in connection with my book, NOT SINCE MARK TWAIN which is now free on Amazon.com.

Thursday, January 30, 2020


WHAT MAKES A BOOK STICK AROUND?


Authors who have been writing for a long time sometimes say, “Things were different back then.”

I always ask,"What was different?"

And the answer usually comes back: "The book business. The publishing industry. The way things were done."

Yesterday I received a book in the mail that was very special to me. It was edited by me nearly thirty years ago. But before that, it was discovered, so to say, in an abandoned building after Hurricane Andrew struck SW Florida in 1991. The book was a waterlogged copy of the original English edition of The Kebra Nagast.

One glance at the ruined volume told me that it was a find. A glorious and fantastic find. It was, first and foremost, a photocopy of Wallis Budge’s classic translation of the sacred book of Ethiopia, The Kebra Nagast, which means“The Glory of the Kings.”

What I held in my hands was an Ethiopic, early version of the Christian Bible, prior to the redacted passages, rewritten and bowdlerized, by the mindless minions of King James.

As I turned the hurricane furled pages, I saw something else. Almost as if a holy light was shining down on the poor battered book, there were calligraphed, marginal notes on each page. These, it became clear, were written by a mysterious Rastafarian named Sheldon. Obviously, he was also a scholar and his insights on each page were illuminating.

The book that came out of this sacred work was mostly edited by myself, and finally, years later, published by St Martin’s Press/Macmillan.

There were a number of Rastafarian elders and younger initiates who helped with the work including some members of the Marley family, especially Ziggy Marley who kindly wrote the introduction.

Yesterday, a new edition of this book showed up. The first paperback printing. Along with the proud feeling I had looking at the fresh, pristine volume, I also had a persistent question.

I asked myself, What makes a book survive for such a long time? 

Was it the sacred nature of The Kebra Nagast that gave it such longevity? Yet there are myriads of scholarly works that have not fared so well; books that are locked away in archival vaults and have not seen the light of day for centuries. What got this one into the light of day? One day of terrible catastrophic darkness -- a hurricane?

I thought of The Alchemist by Paul Coelho. That book took a long time to catch on and then, almost mystically, it took off and has now sold more than 250 million copies. By and large, it too is a sacred volume, offering a helping hand to humanity. A visionary book for sure.

Another wisdom work of great value is T.E. Lawrence's The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Thanks to publisher, Warren Lapine of Wilder Publications, it's back in print. A whole new generation may read it and get the same thrill I discovered when I was a college student. Among other things, Lawrence told the story of the Middle East, the wars and weathers of the vast desert he inhabited as a British soldier during World War I. He, of course, became the man he didn't wish to be: Lawrence of Arabia.

In 1975 I wrote a kind of oral narrative of the Navajo with the help of my long time friend, Jay Joogii DeGroat. Forty-five years later, the original book that I called Sitting on the Blue-Eyed Bear is still with us even though it has morphed into a number of other books. It gave birth to at least five other books, all of them celebrating Navajo mythology. From one I got five. How did this happen? 

My conclusion is that, aside from pure luck, books survive because someone, somewhere, wants them. There is a need. And somehow that need is fulfilled at a particular time when it sheds light on a particular event or period of time.

An author friend of mine, David Kherdian, said to me,“Books only go out to come back in.” 

We are living in a time when books go out and come in in such rapid order that we almost can't see them appearing or disappearing. A writer I know said, "You never know. You might write a whole book and what survives, years later, is a single memorable line."

In that case I am profoundly fortunate. The second incarnation of The Blue-Eyed Bear contained this quotable line:“We humans fear the beast within the wolf because we do not understand the beast within ourselves.”

I wouldn't mind seeing that on my gravestone.

And may that line go far and wide to educate the likes of presidents, poets, pirates, parrots, paupers, and pretenders so that we can each embrace all that is holy within and without for-I-ver and I-ver, as Sheldon once said in the margins of The Kebra Nagast.

We may never figure out exactly what makes a book stick around. But we can surely surmise why a single line outlasts another. It refuses to go away. What is sacred is not scared or scarred. It is something that shines. That stays as Sheldon said it should.

Friday, October 27, 2017

Yesterday I was asked  "How did you write this book?"

In point of fact, I wrote it by hand, then I typed it on a typewriter, then I used my computer. But even then I wasn't done with the book. This one had the longest gestation of any novel I've ever written. I started writing it in 1978. I finished writing it in 2016.

I think the reason it took so long to complete is that I wanted answers to some of the questions I had asked in the first draft. It took a good many years for those answers to come to fruition. I had a lot of help from my Navajo, life-long friend, Jay (Joogii) Degroat. He, more than anyone, kept me on my toes and kept the story going, little by little, while I took copious notes and added them to the novel.

Anne Hillerman wrote that the story kept her up with the lights on at night. She said, "If you're hungry for a book to keep you up past bedtime -- with all the lights on -- this tale is for you ... this is New Mexico's own X File anchored in Hausman's elegant prose and finely tuned descriptions of the Southwestern landscape."

Peter Eichstaedt wrote, "... then he draws deep from his well of knowledge of Navajo story and culture. (Think Tony Hillerman on steroids.) This is more than a novel. It's an experience you won't forget and it will leave you hungry for more."

I feel that I have done what my karma commanded as a witness to some of the mysterious events of our hemisphere -- ghosts, werewolves, bizarre animal mutilations "extraterrestrials and crafty coyotes" as Peter has written. Maybe the weirdest moment in the book, for me, anyway, was when I was trapped in a fissure in the Grand Canyon. I found myself swimming in stone, not knowing if I was conscious or dreaming. The Supai man who saved me was amused. As if such a thing happened all the time.

Maybe so, maybe so. The next two novels are in the works, and if I get trapped in stone, I hope it will be between the front and back cover ... buried in words.


Sunday, August 6, 2017















FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PAUL ANNACONE SHARES PATHWAY TO SUCCESS, INCLUDING INSIGHTS FROM CAREER WORKING WITH FEDERER, SAMPRAS,
IN NEW BOOK COACHING FOR LIFE

Tennis Coach Explains the Process of Pursuing Greatness

NEW YORK (AUG. 7, 2017) – After his own career as a tennis professional, Paul Annacone, author of the new book Coaching for Life, became coach for such greats as Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Tim Henman and others. His eye-opening, autobiographical book explains how each one of us can attain a level of excellence. He uses tennis as a metaphor, as well as a guide, to teach how we can strive toward a goal and overcome the obstacles.

          Annacone comments, “I am often asked, What makes the great so great? What can we learn from their level of excellence?  I answer these and many more in Coaching for Life. The anecdotes are taken directly from the tennis court, and they are presented in a step-by-step way that can help anyone in any walk of life, regardless of the challenges. You can achieve success, the book points out, but you have to follow certain procedures. As I say in the book, the will to win is nothing without the will to prepare.”
          The secrets to success Annacone weaves through Coaching for Life are not about tennis, but rather about the process-oriented journey he has experienced firsthand with some of the most successful players in the game’s storied history. Annacone explains the ability of masters like Federer and Sampras to keep perspective and clarity of purpose in spite of the worst kinds of adversity on the court.

Coaching for Life reveals Annacone’s gentle, yet forceful, paradigm for focus, intelligent planning, and following one’s own skill-set to success that rings true in this uncertain age of frenetic activity.

          Annacone played professionally for 11 years, reaching a career high ranking of No. 12 while winning three singles and 14 doubles titles. He then turned to coaching, spending over seven years with Sampras, three seasons with Federer, five years with Tim Henman and a season with Sloane Stephens. Both Federer and Sampras won Grand Slam titles and were ranked No. 1 in the world while working with Annacone. His coaching tenure also included time in the USTA High Performance Program and as Head Coach of Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association. Annacone has been a commentator and analyst with Tennis Channel since 2014.

          Coaching for Life is being published by IRIE Books and is on sale now online at www.iriebooks.com, www.paulannacone.com, www.amazon.com, www.bn.com and www.booksamillion.com. In addition, the book will be available during appearances and book signing events with Annacone during the upcoming Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati and the US Open in New York. Information about these appearances can be found at www.paulannacone.com.

To request cover art or an interview, please contact: Pete Holtermann (Pete@HolterMediaInc.com)

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Shadows That Stay Forever


This anthology, long in coming, was deeply desired by the many fans of Sci-fi-fantasy master, Roger Zelazny. Everything in its right time. But it seems a long time, to me, since Roger was here on this earth. And yet it also seems he was just here, just passing through, just a moment ago.

Time bends and sometimes we bend with it. Roger knew that all too well. He died June 14, 1995. Some months before he passed he phoned me to say he'd had a dream in which a bunch of characters came to him asking to be worked into a novel.

Anyone who has read the Amber novels knows that time bends in Roger's books. And, for a while on the phone, he bent my ear to a proposal. He wanted me to write a novel about the dream he'd just had.
It was a kind of detective story, in which the main character was a world weary martial artist whose specialty was ... he left that up to me.

I suggested a stick fighter because I had just returned from Jamaica and had seen one. If you've watched any of the old Errol Flynn films (the actor actually lived on the North Coast of Jamaica), you can imagine what a stick fighter does to protect himself. Basically, Robin and Little John. Parry and thrust, pound and pummel, all done with the grace and style of a dancer.

Roger went on to describe the main character as a kind of salvage expert, a guy like Travis McGee in John D. MacDonald's The Deep Blue Goodbye. It all sounded very exciting, this proposed novel, except that, unlike Wilderness which we had written together, Roger wanted me to write this one alone.

He also asked for a character who looked and acted like Sean Connery in Doctor No. He wanted this fellow to pop into the tale at odd, inventive moments. "Could he be a stick fighter, too?" I asked. He said, "Sure." I described how the Connery character might appear and disappear and he suggested that he just walk out of a cane field in formal attire, as if he were going to a high stakes game of baccarat.

Roger asked that the main guy, the salvage expert detective, be what he termed a flawed character. Someone between jobs, between affairs, between worlds. He might be a man of affairs with no affair, but with a flair for stick fighting. Then he caught me with his next comment: "How about an older man, or even an old man?" I laughed and said I knew one such in Kingston. A very urbane old guy who was actually the Queen's Magistrate. Roger chuckled. "Perfect," he said.

I never wrote it. I wanted to. But after he was gone in 1995, I turned to children's books about Jamaica and the editing of a number of books written by Bob Marley that came out under the Marley family imprint of Tuff Gong Books.

Long story short -- or rather long story long -- I was compelled to write Roger's tale when Warren Lapine and Trent Zelazny asked for a contribution to Shadows and Reflections. It came quickly, the story that was more than 15 years old and unwritten. Time bends. And I like to think Roger lent more than a helping hand. I like to think he's still here, don't you?