A Light Touch

Last week, I discussed the editing (or not) of Another Roadside Attraction.  I shared that with Tom, inviting him to chime in if he'd like. And chime he did. Quite passionately.  

 The Doubleday editor who handled Another Roadside Attraction was a young woman named Dorothy Pittman. Originally, a woman named Claudia something or other had been assigned to ARA, but she soon left to open a toy store in New Jersey with her husband.

In any case, only female hands touched my manuscript -- and they touched it lightly, indeed: so lightly, in fact, that it might be accurate to say that the book was virtually unedited. A few misspelled words, a couple of lapses in grammar, that was it. 

Any man who claims to have edited the book is a fraud and a liar, and I'd tell him so to his face.  

Tom Robbins

An apt beginning.

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Tales of the Wiley Peyote

In an interview back in the 70's, the editor of Tom Robbins' first novel, Another Roadside Attraction, seemed to claim that he had convinced the young author to remove scads of wordplay and gobs of writing pyrotechnics that didn't "work" in the novel. The thought was intriguing and disturbing.

Later Tom informed me that wasn't true. Nothing was removed and the novel retained his vision of it.

I felt ambivalent about it. First, it was good that he hadn't been forced to change his work. On the other hand, the idea of a lost stash of Robbins wordplay was an enticing thought. 

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Book Review: Anarcho Grow by T.A.Sedlack

Strange doings in Costa Rica. The novel opens with an American man named Ben who isn't who he says he is, doing something he's not supposed to be doing but we don't know what exactly. That is a mystery that is slowly revealed.

It's not a traditional mystery although its main character acts mysteriously for most of the novel. It's not a whodunit, so much as a what the heck are they doing or why are they doing it? Ben's motives are idealistic and he is a combination of innocence and guile. Like Plucky Purcell, he's not a criminal, he's an outlaw. For a good cause. Drugs are involved but not in the way you might think. This novel has a new take on pot smuggling.

I've been to Costa Rica and Sedlak's descriptions of people and place ring true and vivid. He circles the meaning of "Pura Vida" throughout the book, but I couldn't define it for you even now. Maybe that's the point.

I found I became a little unstuck in time because some chapters were from 2001 and some from 2006 and I had trouble following the shifts. The 2001 chapters were about when it all started-- the plan and the romance-- and the 2006 sections were "now".

The tension of the events is wound tight by the gradual closing in of CIA agents on the protagonist. It's a story of a man who came back one too many times to the scene of the "crime". Sedlak's novel has a heartbreakingly hopeful ending.

I enjoyed this very original story.

Leslie W. LePere designed the vibrant cover of Anarcho Grow. Aftrlifers will know him from the Tom Robbins novels he has illustrated.

Anarcho Grow by T. A. Sedlak, published by This Press Kills Fascists Publshing, 2010.

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A Gathering of Crete'ns.

Tom Robbins is going to Crete. No he's not going to intervene in the Greek financial crisis, he's going to Crete, Nebraska.

Legendary Novelist Tom Robbins To Lecture at Doane
Legendary American novelist Tom Robbins will speak and sign copies of his works, especially his latest novel, B Is for Beer, a children's book for adults and an adult book for children, Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in Heckman Auditorium on the Doane College campus in Crete.
(1014 Boswell Avenue Crete, NE 68333)

His talk, this year's lecture in the Lucille Cobb Lecture Series sponsored by the English department, is entitled "An Evening with Tom Robbins." It is free and open to the public.

More at Legendary Novelist Tom Robbins To Lecture at Doane

I hope one of the attendees will write us to share their impressions of the evening with The Aftrlife. aftrlife@gmail.com

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Anarcho Grow author on tour

T. A. Sedlak, an Aftrlifer, is out talking about his new novel in LA next week at Hemp Con Marijuana Show Los Angeles February 19-21.

Here are some future appearances:

39th Annual Anne Arbor Hash Bash April 3

AWP Conference in Denver April 7-10

Seattle Hemp Fest August 20-22

Portland Hemp Stalk September 11-12

Boston Freedom Rally September 25 (if they can move it from the 18th for Yom Kippur)

NORML National Conference September (Dates to be announced)

I'll be reviewing the novel soon. It's a suspenseful story of a unique "revolution."
Dale

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