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.

 

 

 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."