Even without Surfline, we can live stream Maverick’s, Steamer Lane, and, haven’t tried it, maybe Riincon, Swamis… Shit! YouTube! Whoaa-a-minute… Okay, I’ll wait for the highlight reels. More Kai Lenny flippiing out, more gawker-crowded beaches, more mega-million dollar houses getting hosed; and I’m flipping between buoy reports, all while knowing why El Nino doesn’t send waves down the Strait. Angle, angle, angle. Not a secret. Still, hoping. The refraction off Canada theory? Not really a believer.

Here’s my dilemma: Publishing requires MONEY. Upfront money. My book of songs, short essays, and non-elitist (I’ve checked with elitists, and no) poetry, LOVE SONGS FOR CYNICS, is at the publisher/printer wiith a ‘check it out’ run of four books.
JIM ALLRED is my formatting/editing collaborator on this project, and with the book ‘out there,’ always a nervous time for a writer, partially because your baby has to stand on it’s own, partially because of all the other ways you have no control, no choice other than waiting; it turns out that Jim has some new ideas for changes when the proofs get back. The page, above, is one of them. I did draw the feather with some hope of matching the rearranged copy, but lack the skills. JJim has some other ideas to add more art to the book. I’m all for that.
BACK to the money issue. Is there a plan for selling the books? Kind of. I have some contacts in Port Townsend, shops that have sold cards and such of mine in the past. I’m semi-in to do a presentation at the City Public Library, and I have friends I plan on inviting who are actual (talented) singers. If they chose to do my original pieces or their own, I’d be thrilled to havve them.
Yes, I am aware poetry books, particularly self-published ones, are not fortune makers.
Yes, I have considered doing a Go Fund Me campaign, and I brought this up with Trish. “No. We don’t do that!” I have to say, I kind o agree. One of seven kids in a working class family, some do-gooder came around with food and such. My mother was appalled and emphatic. “No.”
It’s not all a pride versus vanity versus reality thing.
SO, I am willing to offer something: The book will be properly bound (not cardboard, probably card stock), printed on a lovely soft white paper at a size, like 5 by 7 (I’ll check), around 70 pages, and will retail for $20 American. My cost is around… you know… less; but the shipping… four books cost almost $20. More books, less per. Note my candor here. I can’t think of a good reason to sugar coat.
I have printed up a copy, one-sided, on my home printer. If it were to be done double-siided, the margins Jim built in would work. Put it in binder. If I did a limited, numbered, signed run of these… Investment opportuniity? Maybe. That requires faith. I did have a man give me a thousand dollars a couple of years ago, interest free, to persuade me to do more ORIGINAL ERWIN t shirts. I paid him back, a couple of shiirts as some sort of thanks.
Still figuring out how to swing this. MEANWHILE, I’m posting some of the artwork and some of the material on InstaGram at realsurfersdotnet
I’ll keep you posted, Maybe I’ll get a great winter paint job and I can back myself. I can be reached at erwin@realsurfers.net or, what the hell, call my home office at (360)765-3212. Leave a message.

Back cover- Words by Jim Allred


















