rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

i see the promiseland has dropped, step by step im getting there

 MONDAY

a shot from promiseland, supposed to be me in performance, i look like some hindu deity dont i

okay i was off on off on all weekend about whether to send rest for the weary off or polish it one more time, decided one more weekend wont hurt, after 10 years whats one more weekend for a cleaner, richer work

finally opened it up yesterday and realized its not about the last 10 pages, i need to do one more readthru of whole thing - last one took about 3 weeks, which means novel is cleaner, this one should easily be 3 days or less

was reading article this morn in washpost about black preachers exhorting blacks to vote in the name of struggle, took me back to the civilrights days, voting rights struggle and all, what we went thru to get the vote these kids just dont realize, the dues we paid to be able to vote -

article say Rev Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist sounding the warhorn, so is Rickydoc:

"Go to the polls Tuesday in the name of our ancestors," Warnock said to cheering listeners who rose to their feet. "Know that your ballot is a blood-stained ballot. This is a sacred obligation."

a luta continua

 

 

SUNDAY ADDENDUM: ive decided im going to send it off monday, whatever i dont get done today dont get done, im tired of it, i want it off my plate

also promseland been sold to brazil - looking for paying gigs on the college circuit now, bhm and mlk day, anybody interested email me, [email protected], working up a performance based on promiseland and mlk now

SUNDAY

dont know what to do with myself, used to being invested in that novel, ive pulled up those last 10 pages and fiddled with them some but its basically a done deal, think ima hold onto it a week and next weekend woodshed fiddle with that endgame, just try to enrich it somehow, just to make myself feel gooder about it

im preparing myself mentally to expose it now, to show it to people, its just been me and it for 10 years now
now im about to let the outside world judge it, look here, this is my soul, tell me what you think

this is the moment when you put it all on the line, i am about to acutely embarrass myself, and i cant take disapproval, interesting that its different from previous novel launches, back then i didnt have a constituency

to care about, now i dont want to disappoint all the folk who have continued to believe in me during the lean
years, now im worried about my constituency, now im worried about my legacy, its a lot more fraught now

before i was just too dumb and uninformed to know how fraught it was, to launch a novel into the world

ohwell, if you not willing to pay the freight get out of the arena, make room for somebody who is

ima take advantage of this breath between works to get my life back in order, its pretty much fallen apart
if it aint essential it aint been done, i got to use this unleashed energy to stablize my life

it wont be long before i am invested in another book, in fact i think ima do a rewrite of mojo rising 1st: plan
to update my memoir every 10 years, i got ideas to do to that book will make it something i will be proud of

and it shouldnt take more than a couple of months, i could do it now, in fact thats what i might do
use nov and dec to do a rewrite of mojo rising, in prep for its paperback publication

i can invest a measely two months make that a worthy book, (right rick, a project never takes the time
you initially invest, it always takes more than you could have possibly imagined, but i think i will gamble)

that way i can let the novel get cold while its hopefully making the industry rounds, pick it up with an

increased personal clarity, whatever, first thing i got to do is the lookat read/endgame enrichment for rest
next weekend and then rest/stabliize for a couple of weeks,

look like the mojo rising revision might only have a month, cool, cause i dont want to invest but so much in a rewrite anyway, what i really want to get to is my holybook, the hoodoo book of flowers, the great black book of generations - thats my next big one

on promisedland, i was convinced being listed ya on amazon was ok, the publisher was not, they are having it changed, its interesting because we had that discussion at start of project and explicitly rejected it

i got to start working on a presentation for readings, they are, specially for bhm and mlk day

also im going to do shortstories now, write them, study them as artform, since its the coin of the mfa realm and what im most often advising students in, its time to master the form, o i been attentive because its what i do, but you know me, i want to be the best i can be when it come to helping young writers

and lord knows i just dont have another novel in me, shortstories about all i can handle now

all my love

rdoc

 

SATURDAY 1:24  done deal  -  time to go collapse for a minute
ima send it off monday, good lord willing and the creek dont rise

SATURDAY 12:51 10 pages and counting, think i will have to take a break, woreout tired - also i think when i am thru i will do a redpen of the last 20 pages sometime this weekend, that will perhaps satisfy this need in me to refine my endgame on gp

SATURDAY 10:59

18 pages and counting, encountering some wierd psychological resistance, each page getting harder to work,
harder to hang in there, to focus - basically fear trying to cripple me - i will not have it, i will not be defeated

SATURDAY

okay, im going for the gold this weekend, ima just brutalize my way to the end, i want to be thru

old literary running buddy of mine - terry mcmillan, is in the city today for her new novel, really really wanted to run down there and jack her up

tmac been dissing me lately, over the years she has stopped forwarding her contact info, i got what everybody else got now, when i call the old numbers she never call back, when i contact her over on

facebook she never respond, and im like aint this nothing, i know tmac dont think ima let her cut me loose

me and tmac go all the way back, but its like that sometime when one literary companero get more success than their peers, you get a new set of friends and colleagues sometime, i been guilty of that myself but never your core buddies - success dont come between core buddies because we all realize what a fickle finger of literary fate that is and success aint got nothing to do w/power - ima forgive tmac

anybody else i would put her on my extensive shitlist, cause most of the litworld has written me off

they are all on my i will show you list, my fuck you too list, and i cant wait until they try to act like we still cool
after this novel come out and its clear im back in the game folk will be sucking up and my attitude will be

polite enough but inside it will be fuck you too, stepped on my face when i was down and out, fuck you

but tmac one of the few folk on this planet i love unconditionally, she will start returning my calls and

such when my new books come out, thats the way it works with some folk, im just
not going to hold that against her, she is who she is and i love her unconditionally

(this all of course assumes my novel will be a blowout success and not die on the vine like all the others have)

o i really really wanted to go down and get in her face and ask her tmac what the fuck do you think you
doing, quit acting a damn fool, give me your current contact info and return my calls when i call you,

and she would have been all effusive and toughgirl loving cause her heart is right, she just got that
defensive wall up these days and has lost perspective, would have been good to see her

would have took me back to our cub days, the stories i could tell (and did in mojo rising)

but i got to clock these pages, thats the strong move, a 10 hour drive to the city for
20 minutes of pleasure against finishing my novel, thats not even a real contest

i am about 25 pages from being thru, and its just about having the brute discipline to just sit here at
the sacred desk going over this text sentence by sentence, word by word and its decent text so

its not like i got to stop and figure things out, its just painstaking word by word slogging thru the narrative mud, the poetry draft, after doing it for the last 3 weeks i am really really wore out and tired of this novel, my brain is tired, my soul is weary, cause a novel entail a lot of soul wrestling you know

people ask me why are you always tired, all you do is sit there, and i tell them i been wrestling with my soul and im very tired

but now the thought of actually being thru w/this thing got a holt of me, im going for broke dear regulators, im betting the jook tonight

now that im in the endgame i got a concern that im just ignoring, endgame is where you want your novel to shine and i would love to be taking the endgame to higher deeper ground and i hate doing a draft that dont take the novel to a new level,

other day i gave my boy ayinde extensive feedback on his novel and he was like cool, i will have a draft done by december and i very delicately told him you wont have a chapter done by december  -  you try to inject a little reality into a students aspirations without discouraging them, i wanted to tell him it would be about 2 or 3 years before this novel is ready if you lucky but i couldnt bring myself to do that to him

i told him what you talking about man is what i call a nip and tuck

when you do a real draft you want to break the novel down, rebuild it, take it to another level, take it deeper
you do not want to nip a sentence here, tuck a word there and call it a draft, unless of course it is

the poetry draft - okay rick, this is what you been training for all your life, this day, this very
moment, lets do it, focus rick, focus, discipline, perserverence - you can do this

FRIDAY

30 pages and counting - im in my endgame now and i fear its not as powerful as i need it to be but i cant worry about that now, im on micronarrative now, word by word and sentence by sentence, aint got time for the big picture this go around, it would stop my flow

so anyway, my i see the promisedland is out, well almost out, its up online, books will be available next month,

what happen was i did that state dept tour of india right, and they were treating me like i was some kind of literary guru,

im still in recovery from that, another reason to get this novel done cause i want to be treated like that all the time

so anyway tara press asked me to do my storytelling thing in conjunction with bengali artist manu, on martin luther kings life,

so i strive right to capture the complexity of king in it, so they tell me its up for pre order on amazon, so i go to check and its listed for grade 9 through 12 and im like wtf, i did not write that book for the kiddies, i wrote that book for the generations, i call myself going deep

call myself being subversive, i see what the industry thinks of my threat potential - ya - thats cool, they welcome to purchase a copy too

by nature of a dialogue over on facebook i am now very cool w/being marketed to ya w/that book, im told that is a very hot market, and its not like it makes the book any less what i intended, im am now pleased w/ya interest - just a greater disbursement of my vision

karen lafreay simpson commented that if its truly the generations you want to speak to thats exactly what the ya market is, i couldnt argue with that

either way i fear it will be another collectors item instead of a commercially viable book, do me a favor and get a copy will you, boost me up

 

THURSDAY

40 pages and counting - ima try to get this finished this weekend, all it call for is a brute discipline - step by step word by word sentence by sentence keep marching

interesting, had been concerned last 3rd would be roughest, but so far recent redpen is holding up, im marching thru,

clip of obama on daily show, stewart jacks obama up on presidential timidity, say some of the reforms seem to paper over a foundation that is corrupt, obama say had to get things done, in an emergency situation that cause me to have to work thru the process i was given, interesting interview, worth the 15 or so minutes

been reading this book blooms critical analysis gabriel marquez

and its got me envious of what 100 years of solltude did, ive always aspired to that scope but rest doesnt have it and i have to accept that, 100 years is out of my league, have to once again remind myself what aishah rahman told me when

in my impressionable youth i said i want to be the greatest novelist ever lived, she said thats not what you want, art

you want to sing your song the best you can sing it, that way you can appreciate other folk singing theirs

rest for the weary is the best song i got, best shot i got to give, whatever the judgment is ima live with it

WEDNESDAY

hello all, sorry i havent been on point, between schoolhouse and clocking pages i been underwater

im about 60 pages from closure now and moving well, i just got to stay focused, im bured in schoolhouse

manuscripts now, and thats so fraught, you want to give folk good empowering feedback, if you in any way conscientious its a very humbling space to be in - and very time consuming - but its a job i love, teaching young writers how to write, whenever i get to whining i remind myself of how fortuitous this is, that they pay me to do this, that this what i do for a living - ohwell, i got a couple of free hours before i check in w/the schoolhouse, let me try to clock some more pages, every page counts - im out

SUNDAY

VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN - as in faciliate somebody who wasnt going to, what did you think i meant

i am so buried in this novel, deeper i get in it the thicker the mud,

im woodshed buried now, weekend woodshed, past the halfway mark so im on the downstroke but its almost november and im still buried - how many times have i told folk im thru with this novel,

i feel like the democrats, dont matter how hard i work, i dont get nowhere, seems in fact
to be an inverse ratio - ok enuf whining rick, i been clocking about 10 pages a day

damn near 11 oclock and i have not yet made my daily 10, catch you on the flow, got to go

rod, thanks for that package, good looking out

rdoc

soldiering on

FRIDAY

poetry draft, the good stuff, but moving slow, all i got to do is clock
the hours, focus rick, discipline, patience - you know the drill

THURSDAY

babagriot ernest gaines and his wife, tending to the spirits

he has brought land on the plantations where he was born and is now tending the the slave graveyard that is there, says he no longer has anything

original to write so he is tending to the haints that have fed his work

wow, thats deep - babagriot gaines, still showing the way

 

WEDNESDAY

message left on anita hills machine saturday by justice thomas wife: "Good morning, Anita Hill, it's Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day."

thats kinda spooky and out of control isnt it, anita hill the only one in this routine w/any dignity, when i 1st
heard she had reached out to anita hill i thought she was the one apologizing, imagine my astoundment

to learn otherwise, must really be messing w/her head to generate this 20 years later, kinda sad

 

 

TUESDAY

i keep reading where obama and the dems depending on the black vote to come thru and im
like god help them - ima do what i can to move the black vote but i wouldnt bet 2 dollars on the

black vote - well, ima bet the 2 dollars but its strictly hail mary

i recall during katrina i positioned my blog as an info clearing house and i remember thinking how good it felt for a personal space to morph into an instrument in times of need, i might not move but one

or two votes but ima do my part, what little voice i got ima put to work for the cause, ima break cool -  im sounding the alarm, im beating the drum: 

let me start with the latest plea from barack: ima sign up for a day, jesus, i can give them a day

and look here dear regulators, early voting is always cool, it frees you up for election day, just in case

mid term it all comes down to get out the vote, thats all it is, get out the vote: boom badda

boom, calling all warriors, boom badda boom, this is rickydoc, meet me at the pass, showtime

 

Arthur --

Forget the "enthusiasm gap." Here's the real story about who is more fired up and ready to go -- just as our campaigns shift into GOTV (get-out-the-vote) mode.

Reports are coming in from across the country of record early voting turnout in key states like Ohio and Iowa -- with Democratic turnout far outpacing our opponents.

On Saturday, OFA volunteers reached out to more than 1 million voters in a single day -- levels we haven't seen since the closing days of the presidential campaign two years ago.

And on Sunday night, Barack and Michelle Obama spoke to more than 35,000 Ohioans about these final two weeks. It was the largest rally since the inauguration.

But none of that will be enough unless we continue building through the final days of this election.

Will you sign up to fill a crucial GOTV shift in the final four days of our Vote 2010 campaign?

As the President said in Columbus,"there's no more important time to be out there knocking on doors, making phone calls, and helping voters get to the polls" than on the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before Election Day -- and on Election Day itself, November 2nd.

Supporters across the country will come together in the final days to help eke out every last vote we can -- from the grandmother who would like nothing more than to vote and just needs a ride, to that last call to convince a first-time voter from 2008 that he needs to get back to the polls this year.

And from New York to California, Alaska to Florida -- and everywhere in between -- there are key races that will need every ounce of energy you can spare.

Please sign up to help in the closing days of this campaign:

http://my.barackobama.com/ShiftGOTV

Thanks,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

 

SUNDAY

election heating up, im glad barack has abandoned putting all his energy into scolding the left
if that wasnt counterproductive i dont know what was, he hustling now, im sending money every

paycheck though i feel like soros who said hes not funding demos this year because he doesnt beleive
in standing in front of an avalanche, his word not mine, but struggle is struggle, it aint about winning, its

about struggle, its when times is hard that you dig in - like this novel

me and this novel i dont know what to say, im buried in narrative mud, im moving but its going to take

longer than the week i had hoped, schoolhouse takes so much, every year i get a little more ruthless

about my noveltime, mortality desperation kicking in, couple of things i been put on this planet to do,

one is this novel

two frustrations looming - i hear the democrats are depending on the black vote - god help them

and the independence vote for the southern sudan is jan 9th, 84 days and counting, feel like  me and george clooney only ones concerned

khartoum trying to derail it, the old armchair revolutionary will have to do what he can - keep a spotlight on it, maybe help the nascent institutions of the south, try lean on us gov and international community -

i got to do something - cause this one count, this one goes all the way back, this is the sudan - land of the blacks -  this the frontline

im out

rdoc

the dispensation: true power and the high hoodoo

THURSDAY

about halfway thru but im wading thru the mud now, once again, its a
matter of patience, focus and patience - god i so want to be thru

WEDNESDAY 3:09am

well, i have run up on my 1st thread need mending, where instead of one scene, have to fix a sequence of scenes, dont foresee a problem, couple of hours should do it, think ima take a break, get back on it fresh

WEDNESDAY   1:21am

okay, about a 3rd of the way thru, averaging between 7 and 58 pages a day - the literary life, got to love it

apparently of the 10 countries highest on hunger index, 9 are in subsahara africa, the other is haiti, i know ive said it before

but ima say it again - everywhere in the world that you got blackpeople they are on the bottom of their respective society, everywhere, cant blame everywhere on nobody but ourselves, somehow someway we must transform into strengths the weaknesses that have crippled us in global competition

was just thinking, there are certain precepts i repeat over and over every chance i get, that i want to be indelible parts of my legacy, all together id say they are the geas of rickydoc, lets say 9 of them, a good hoodoo number

1    awaken the sleeper, protect the weak, guide the strong

2    cast your vision young hoodoo as far as you can see, determine the challenges the tribe will face, prepare the tribal soul to meet them

3    if you truly understand the board of destiny young hoodoo, everybody on the planet work for you

4    i ask only that you be the great and glorious people you were meant to be, the illuminated children of the sun

5    got to get off the planet - meteors, sunspots, global warming, nuclear winters, accidents happen and one planet is not enough to ensure the survival of the species, need to spread out, increase the odds - i would you be a star faring people

6    guide and guardian of the tribal soul and destiny, of humanitys march into its ever greater self

7    i would you be masters of strategy, the key that opens all locks

8    when you come to the crossroads always take the highroad, always strive to be greater than you are

9    and when you need me you call me, i will come

i guess thats it, the geas of rickydoc, interesting the one i started w/didnt make the cut, ima fiddle with it, fiddle with the order, maybe revise, replace, etc - but right now i got to clock some pages, a good days work and i will be half done, poetry draft - god is good

rdoc

 

TUESDAY

okay, apparently 58 page day was a fluke, yesterday i got 7 pages - apparently this will be a long hard slog, what else is new

its times like this that i wish i were in truth the high hoodoo,

that i had the kind of cultural influence that say the pope or a grand ayatollah has

where folk trust me, trust my word, trust my vision

where i could say to blackfolk, everybody needs to vote november 2nd

and everybody does,

where i could say it is the geas of rickydoc that everybody in the world do x and they do

(well, at least a significant %)

unfortunately there is no chance of that in my lifetime, all i can try to do is set it up so that one of my descendents as high hoodoo will actually have that kind of power

thats what the hoodoo secret society thing is all about, thats why im trying to set up hoodoo as a prophetic tradition
one that is given a cultural dispensation to establish new ways, to break tradition when called for, also one that

is self renewing so it doesnt end up like the catholic church or some fundamentalist hotbed of fossilized institutionalization

but thats a small consolation for the frustration i feel at not having power in the real world

finish this novel rick and it will translate as a higher profile, as true power in the world - still neglible but when

you talking true power every little bit helps - im out

 

 

MONDAY

working to the soul of solomon burke today - (1940/2010)  - 21 children, 90 grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren, 44 album/cds - rest in peace

clocked 46 pages yesterday before i hit a rough patch

took a break, fixed the patch, kept clocking, passed out about page 58 - life is good - but one day does not a push make, today will tell the tale

 you know what i was pondering yesterday, the sheer arrogance of thinking you can write a novel worth reading,

it amazes me sometime that i have even attempted this, and i imagine folk reading my novel, peeking into my soul, fascinated or disdainful or disappointed - i remember back as a cub when i 1st realized i was actually good at this and might actually have a shot, be a literary man, a public figure, historical, the real thing, that the whole world, hell - all the generations, would be judging me

it almost cause me to quit, to step aside, one of the many psychological humps i have had to take as a wouldbe writer, one i thought i had long since mastered, interesting to have it rear up again as i move into closure on what i hope will be my masterpiece

ohwell, the path to literary mastery there are psychological humps every step of the way that keep folk from doing what they have to do to make this happen, my policy is any headset that keeps me from writing i just note it and ignore it, ima keep on pushing, if i dont make the cut ima die surprised

all my love

rdoc

 

SUNDAY

im in and clocking pages, poetry draft, looking good

moving at a decent clip but 1st half of novel always cleanest
best clock pages while the clocking is good, will hit the mud

soon enuf, right now i feel like a million dollars

been listening to the staple singers, to mavis and pops

o im deep in the mojo

im rickydoc

 

 

SATURDAY

somebody cover me, im going in

rdoc

-----------------------------

my last missive from barack

Arthur --

I come into this election with clear eyes.  I am proud of all we have achieved together, but I am mindful of all that remains to be done.

I know some out there are frustrated by the pace of our progress. I want you to know I'm frustrated, too. But with so much riding on the outcome of this election, I need everyone to get in this game.

Neither one of us is here because we thought it would be easy. Making change is hard. It's what we've said from the beginning. And we've got the lumps to show for it.

The fight this fall is as critical as any this movement has taken on together. And if we are serious about change, we need to fight as hard as we ever have.

The very special interests that have stood in the way of change at every turn want to put their conservative allies in control of Congress. And they're doing it with the help of billionaires and corporate special interests underwriting shadowy campaign ads.

If they succeed, they will not stop at making our work more difficult -- they will do their best to undo what you and I fought so hard to achieve.

That's why I need you today to help inspire someone new to get off the bench and make their first donation to our 2010 campaign.

Donate $45 -- and we will match it with a supporter who is ready to make a first-time donation of their own.

I know that sometimes it feels like we've come a long way from the hope and excitement of the inauguration, with its "Hope" posters and historic crowds on the National Mall.

I will never forget it. But it was never why we picked up this fight.

I didn't run for president because I wanted to do what would make me popular. And you didn't help elect me so I could read the polls and calculate how to keep myself in office.

You and I are in this because we believe in a simple idea -- that each and every one of us, working together, has the power to move this country forward. We believed that this was the moment to solve the challenges that the country had ignored for far too long.

That change happens only from the bottom up. That change happens only because of you.

So I need you to fight for it over the next 26 days. I need your time. I need your commitment. And I need your help to get your friends and neighbors involved.

If you bring in a new donor today, your $45 donation will become $90. And our Vote 2010 campaign will have twice the resources to make important investments like putting staff on the ground, providing materials for volunteers, and turning out millions of voters come Election Day.

Please pledge $45 today -- and help get another supporter into the game:

https://donate.barackobama.com/OctoberPledge

If we meet this test -- if you, like me, believe that change is not a spectator sport -- we will not just win this election. In the years that come, we can realize the change we are seeking -- and reclaim the American dream for this generation.

Thank you for being a part of it,

President Barack Obama

 

 

FRIDAY

fabric work by lauren ostis

doing ayindes manuscript, scheduled to be thru by saturday
i will then pick up my now cold novel and read it thru,

hopefully i dont run up on any passages i cant immediately fix, the cringe test
hopefully its nothing but polish, nothing but working the poetry

i cant wait, im just as scared as i can be, this read will determine
if this finally something i can be proud of, or does it still not work

god help me if it still does not work - my overwhelming fear is still not work

whatever, its showtime - by sunday latest im going off the grid