THE WORLD OF NULL-M. September 1 - September 7. 21,000 words. Hurricane Fay dumps a lot of rain. We watch the Democratic National Convention. Hurricane Gustav is anticlimactic. Brenda and I go to the Gallery Above, to see Conversations Around a Coffin. Mike Lister asks me if I will speak at the Gulf Coast Writers Conference. I say I’d be glad to. I decide to speak on Writers Guides, and write a pamphlet, Writers Guides, to hand out. I think about writing a book called WAR STORIES next, and write a poem, "War Story." "The World of Null-M" is a how-to book for writers who don’t sell their work. How to keep going without quitting, selling out, or turning bitter.
WAR STORIES. September 8 - September 14. 13,000 words. Poems, prose vignettes, interviews, essays, letters. I see that "The World of Null-M" and "War Stories" combine to form BANNED BOOKS. I add the subtitle, "by Jack Saunders, the Swinette-Picker of American Letters." "War Stories" is like A Moveable Feast. My first year as a writer, in New Orleans and New Iberia, finding my seat. The place, the time, and how the weather was. What we ate and drank. What I read, what music I listened to. Art movies, paintings.
FIRED FOR BLOGGING; BOOK REJECTED: WRITING THE BLACK NOVEL AFTER 9-11. September 11 - September 15. 11,000 words. Writing at work, with an eye on the company. Writing about the company, at work. Writing dissent, the highest form of patriotism, in a time of silence. The Patriot Act. Speech codes. Thought control. Pink Floyd, where are you now that we need you? Hurricane Ike hits Texas. Go to Tupelo Theater in Wewa to see Octopus’s Garden: The Art of Heather Clements. Go by Chautauqua School to see Heather Parker’s mural, which she is varnishing.
PROPOSAL FOR BANNED BOOKS, BY JACK SAUNDERS, THE SWINETTE-PICKER OF AMERICAN LETTERS. 4,000 words.
THE PLATFORM. September 16 - September 21. 8,000 words. Go out to the junior college and flog my pamphlet. I change the name of BANNED BOOKS to READ BANNED BOOKS. My platform is, that’s it: a lecture at a writers conference and a self-published pamphlet. A bumper sticker that says, "I read banned books." A Vernacular Writer business card. Change name to I READ BANNED BOOKS. You do whatever you want. I add, AND SOMETIMES I WRITE THEM.
TIME TO WRITE. September 22 - September 26. 8,000 words. I think about the questions students asked at the writers conference. How do you get time to write until you start selling books? Or, how do you get good at it if you aren’t able to do it flat-out? Yes, that’s the question.
WORK HABITS: THE SEVEN KEYS TO BECOMING A HIGHLY PROLIFIC WRITER AND RESTORING MAGIC TO THE WORLD. September 29 - September 30. 3,000 words. I read John Leland’s Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road (They’re Not What You Think), and see that I READ BANNED BOOKS needs one more section. We watch the first Presidential Debate on television.