This morning, I’ll be on K-104 for an interview. Tomorrow, on KTVE, Channel 10. I must get word of this book out.
I’ve been selling some copies of Red River Fever lately. Here are some endorsements of and reactions to my first novel, Red River Fever. I think they reveal why the themes of my novel will always be current and relevant to people living in the South.

One of Rickey Pittman’s mottoes is a quote from Akira Kurosawa: “The role of the artist is to not look away.” *Red River Fever* never looks away. It is a vision of hell where evil is perfectly interpenetrated with ordinary life, while the good is superficial and eccentric. It is Dashiell Hammett’s *Red Harvest* reborn in the American South of the 1970s, a place where the lives of dogs and fish, and finally of men and women, have lost their intrinsic value. Where vitality has become a fever, a disease, and where love itself withers in the heat. Don’t be fooled by its localities of time and place. What Rickey is talking about is the condition of the American soul right now, not some faraway Gothic but what’s right in the mirror, if we dare to open our eyes and not look away–David Lenson, Professor, Comparative Literature, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Some haunting, graphic scenes. The characters really come to life. . . people just like that live in Hebert and Start. A powerful, frightening statement on living in the South.—-Angela Ford, Monroe, Louisiana.

We all know someone like Clifton, more serious about fun than work, but unlike the ones we know, Clifton seems to get meaner with each page of the book. . . Clifton Ray is verbal and mean as an old cur dog, and Pittman is very detailed and descriptive in his writing. I found the book an easy read, and Pittman has a way of communicating the feelings of the lowest gutter rat to the pain and suffering felt by the innocent victims . . .This is Rickey Pittman’s first novel, but I am sure not his last one.  Mickey McLean, Column, “The Edge of the Woods,” Bastrop Daily Enterprise.

The music in your language is wonderful.  Your use of alliteration, assonance, and consonance gives your words an incredible resonance.  Not many authors can do that without detracting from the story line or trying to cover up for the lack of a story line.  You worked it just right. You also managed to use slang and local dialect without sounding affected.  That is hard to do well; not many authors pull it off successfully.  You did.  The characters were very believable and life-like.  I especially enjoyed the way you pulled it all together at the end with the reference to the “Red River Valley” song.  . .  I like a book that makes me think.—Allison Diffey, Cleveland, MS.

A first novel is always a treat to read . . . I was moved by the descriptions which one can tell came directly from Pittman’s soul. For example, “Something about the house’s condition, like his own, saddened him.” Impressive writing.—Sharon Morrison, Librarian, Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Red River Fever is very interesting. The characters and setting seem so real and intelligently thought out.  That Clifton Ray is a bad boy and all the women love him—reminded me a little bit of my daddy in his younger days. Pittman did an excellent job of capturing the essence of the woman-charming, cocky, good ole boy!  I was thinking, “Yeah, I’ll bet he can’t carry this one off,” because I know that character, but he surely did it, and did it well!” Should be made into a movie. It’s good!—Cyndi  Butler, Dallas, TX.

I just finished reading the book last night. It was great.  It was one of those books that you just can’t put down because you want to know right then and there what is going to happen to these people next. I can’t wait until your next one comes out. You have me hooked now.  Ursula Braxton, Houma, Louisiana.

Overall, the novel left me with somewhat of a haunting feeling. And I like that. It’s not a traditional Hollywood ending (thank you). It reflects the darkest capabilities of humans. They cannot be ignored. Time and time again they have emerged, proving their existence, whether people want to acknowledge them or not. The evils come to the surface. This novel just portrays a fictitious stimulus, almost personifying what many people cannot explain in everyday life. . . this novel inspired thought.-–Regina Phillips, Durant Democrat, Durant, OK.

Pittman has a great talent for making characters come to life. Honestly, I can see so many people I know in these characters.—-Judith McDaniel, Monroe, Louisiana.

I love history. Here is an article I had published in a Dallas magazine some years ago.

Rendezvous:  When the Present is an Anachronism

Historic Fort Washita, located just outside of Durant, Oklahoma, on the first weekend of April, is the yearly host to what is known as a “Fur Trade Rendezvous.”  An estimated 15,000 visitors, including bussed in high school students, viewed and sampled the wares of the 30-35 vendors and observed the 150 plus campers of the rendezvous.  Vendors (who like to call themselves traders) and campers all had one thing in common: everything they wore, used, sold or traded, ate was made, done, or prepared exactly as it would have been before 1840.

I felt like an anachronism, walking about in my modern dress, listening to their conversations and interviewing them about the rendezvous experience.  Except for the cars I could see in the background at the Fort’s entrance, I felt I had been transported into an 1840 frontier village.  I have always been a lover and student of history, but I learned much more than I expected and intended.  What I observed in the people of this rendezvous was not a quaint infatuation with the past, like one might have when he or she dresses up like General Grant or a Southern belle for a costume party.  I felt like my body and face had been slammed into history.  Those who participated in the rendezvous have an intensity that is both charismatic and jarring.  They not only know and love history—they live it.

Roy Kelly Jr. of Norman, Oklahoma, expressed one aspect of the rendezvous philosophy eloquently.  He said,  “The code we live by of is of a time that has passed, but it was a good code. Things were dealt with properly. For example, the way you treat people.”  And from what I observed, they treat visitors and participants alike with politeness, dignity, and respect.

Just as it was in the early 19th Century for the trappers and explorers, the rendezvous is a primary (and in some case, the only) source of income a source of entertainment, a source of information.   I found that many are part of a rendezvous every week of the year.  It is their life.  The rendezvous follows a strict code of ethics, and camp rules, from what I heard, are strictly enforced.  A rendezvous may range from ultra primitive (where they literally have to walk or ride a horse or mule in) to what is considered very comfortable camping such as they enjoyed at Fort Washita.  The rendezvous may be regional or national, and they are held all over the nation, with the ones in the West being the largest, some with over 1,000 campers.

Those who are really into the rendezvous experience have a distinctive lifestyle.  Even when away from the rendezvous, many grow all their own food, and live without most of the technology and comforts  (electricity, running water, etc.) of our modern society.  And they seem quite happy to be living so.  History is the bond of this unique brotherhood, and history is the teacher.   They have values and a passion which is unique to our present age with its deepening apathy, ignorance, and dependence upon creature comforts. The cumulative knowledge of this growing group of people is a massive storehouse of practical knowledge ranging from craftsmanship to survival skills.  And as all who take on this lifestyle seem to be passionate learners, readers, and researchers, these men, women, and children are able to keep history alive.  I talked to some who had grown up in this lifestyle and never known anything else.

A rendezvous is a sensory experience.  I was overwhelmed by the rich aroma of the foods. The small campfires spread the smell of woodsmoke throughout the grounds of the fort. Girls and ladies in buckskin and calico dresses, all handmade, glided about in moccasins or bare feet.   A plains Indian in war bonnet and buckskin leggings and shirt carried a curved lance and rode about on an Appaloosa.  The canvass tents of the traders were mixed with teepees for families with horses and mules tethered nearby. The competitions with axe, rifle, pistol, bow and arrow, and knife, were spirited and entertaining.  (The bows, by the way, were handmade by the carriers. One contestant told me he had spent months shaping his Osage Orange bow.)

I learned also how vital some of the knowledge and skills these people have are to us. For example, Lloyd Teeter of Foss, Oklahoma is a trapper—badgers, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, possums, muskrats, beavers, and skunks. Recently an Oklahoma school had a severe skunk problem.  (Need I describe how odious and traumatic an experience this could have been to the educational process there?) He trapped 10 skunks from beneath the schoolhouse without the first spraying incident.  If you ever have a “varmint” problem, he would be a good man to contact.

I also met Ron Ashbury, a pencil artist, and a wonderul storyteller.  We chatted as he was sketching Ft. Washita and some of the scenes of the rendezvous. He told me of the ghosts of Fort Washita, his ancestors, and his thoughts of the rendezvouz experience.  He made the point, that sometimes, if we understand the past, we can understand the present and understand our own world.

To illustrate, he told me of some gypsum hills near Fort Washita known as the Indian stomping grounds.  He told me how his grandfather had taken him to these hills as a boy and told him the various Indian legends, and how if you stomped the ground you could hear the old dance steps of Indians ghosts trapped below.   Of course, he knew that the hollow sound was only due to the unique construction of those hills.  But I started thinking that this was a good analogy to understand the rendezvous crowd. There they are, in their ridiculous pioneer attire, able to live in self-sufficiency in a way most can never imagine. And why do they live that way?  Because when they leave the rendezvous experience and return to us, and they stomp on the hollow ground of modern American culture, all they hear is a hollow sound, and they turn back to the hills, to their flint and steel, to families raised with books instead of television.  And you know what? They really do quite fine.

Obviously, the rendezvous experience is not for everyone.   One man in modern dress passed me and said something about how stupid these people looked.  I was amused because by modern standards he could have easily qualified as “stupid looking.”  His girlfriend did not appear pleased with his attitude and she distanced herself from him by a couple of feet and went by herself into one of trader’s tents.  By the frustrated look on his face and the hurt look on hers, I think the emotional distance between them also increased.  However, if you love history, if you want to see history as it was (at least as close as we can reproduce it), if you want to meet people who have minds sharper and a lifestyle tougher and leaner than most today have, a rendezvous can be an enriching experience. And who knows, if you go next year and pass a longhaired, buckskin-clad man cleaning his muzzleloader or munching down the sourbread, he just might be me.   Just look for the camera and the writing pad. 1840’s rules or not, I don’t think I’m ready to give them up.

Rhetorical eloquence is a learned skill. Though many may have as we say, “the gift of gab,” a writer must acquire an appropriate vocabulary and learn to express his or herself in an effective manner that will assist communication with publishers, editors, fellow writers, and readers. This means that there are terms and concepts a writer must learn and absorb. I’m convinced that through reading good articles and books on writing, and memorizing and imitating the language and phrases of others, a writer can acquire needed communication skills that will enable the writer to talk about his or her writing with eloquence. In today’s market, writers must be able to talk and write about their books. Good speeches and an understanding of the business of writing will help sell books.

One magazine I personally rely on to help myself is The Writer’s Chronicle, a publication of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. I’m in-between books right now, so I’ve been reading some articles to help develop my own eloquence. This week, I’ve carefully read three articles, one each night before I go to sleep, carefully underlining the phrases that are worded eloquently or that teach me something I didn’t know or haven’t noticed about writing. Here are the articles I’ve read this week that are helping me learn to talk writing:

“Lever of Transcendence: Contradiction and the Physics of Creativity,” by David Jauss. This article opened my eyes to the power of Janusian contradiction and made me think of my own novel-writing strategies.
“Structural Strategies for the Multiple Plot Novel,” by Debbie Lee Wesselmann. This article analyzes several novels that use multiple plots (The English Patient is one) and discusses the limitations and benefits of the techniques authors use.
“The Art of Creative Research,” by Philip Gerard. This article reminded me of the importance of research and how it can breathe “into your writer’s brain some glimmer of language, sensation, or idea that can then shape itself into something more” (52).

Tonight, I’ll be speaking in Ruston, Louisiana. I’ve got radio interviews scheduled, and my calendar is filling up quickly. My personal sales have been brisk as I promote Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House. I want to thank my beautiful friend Tina for the promotion ideas she shared with me a while back. It looks like her ideas are going to produce some results.

News: It’s official now. Yesterday I signed the contract with Pelican Publishers to publish my Stories of the Confederate South.  If all goes well, it should be in print with them this summer. I’ll be interviewed on a local radio station, K-104, sometime around 8:15 a.m. Thursday, May 24.

This week’s song lyrics is a song I perform sometimes when I do my one-man show. It’s by Guy Clark and it’s called, “Magnolia Wind.”

I’d rather sleep in a box
Like a bum on the street
Than a fine feather bed
Without your little ole cold feet.

And I rather be deaf
Dumb and stone blind
Than to know that your mornings
Will never be mine.

I’d rather die young
Than live without you
And I’d rather go hungry
Than to eat lonesome stew.

You know it’s once in a lifetime
And it won’t come again,
It’s here and it’s gone
On a Magnolia wind.

CHORUS:
I’d rather not walk
Through the garden again
If I can’t catch your scent
On a Magnolia wind.

So if it ever comes time
And it comes time to go
Just pack up your fiddle
Just pack up your clothes.

If I can’t dance with you
Then I won’t dance at all
I’ll just sit this one out
With my back to the wall.

Chorus:
I’d rather not hear
Pretty music again,
If I can’t catch your fiddle
On the Magnolia wind.
If I can’t catch your scent
On a Magnolia wind.

WRITING QUOTE OF THE WEEK: (From Writing From Personal Experience by Nancy Kelton)

“Writers, by their nature, spend their time thinking about, wondering about, delving into, trying to understand the very things that the rest of the world doesn’t like to think about”–Harry Crews.

Yesterday, I had my first signing for Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House at Windows: A Bookshop in Monroe. Today, I’m doing a speech at the Scottish Society of Northeast Louisiana on the Flags of the Seven Celtic Nations (Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Brittany, Galicia, and Cornwall). I’ll also be signing my book there. My May calendar is officially full of events and I am now filling my June calendar. My head spins when I think of all that I need to do to promote my books successfully.
Margaret Atwood in her book, Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing,  tells a joke I wanted to include in my post today regarding the cost of writing success.  She says:

“The Devil comes to the writer and says, ‘I will make you the best writer of your generation. Never mind generation–of this century. No–this millennium! Not only the best, but the most famous, and also the richest; in addition to that, you will be very influential and your glory will endure for ever. All you have to do is sell me your grandmother, your mother, your wife, your kides, your dog, and your soul.”

“Sure,” says the writer, “Absolutely–give me the pen, where do I sign?” Then he hesitates. “Just a minute,” he says. “What’s the catch?”

My children’s book, Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House, is now available. Today officially begins my marathon of promotion, signings, and presentations. I’ll be on KEDM’s program, Lagniappe, at 8:30 a.m. and again sometime around noon. An interview with me will be recorded this afternoon at 5:30 p.m. for a local program called, Hello, Monroe. That interview will be aired on cable channel 75, Comcast Cable, May 29 and 31, and June 5 and 7 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on each of those days. Here’s some other dates for my book promotion:
Saturday, May 19, I’ll be at Windows: A Bookshop, 609 Park Ave, Monroe, for a signing from 2:00-4:00 p.m.

Sunday, May 20, I’ll be presenting my book to the Scottish Society of Northeast Louisiana. The society meets at the Monroe Jaycees building, 710 30th St. in Monroe at 2:30 p.m.

May 21, Tuesday, beginning around 7:00 p.m., I’ll be at the Nicholson (Ruston, Louisiana) Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans for a reading and musical presentation. They meet at the Woodmen of the World building in Ruston. They are always a lively group and true Southerners.
SPECIAL OFFER: If you order a copy this week of either Red River Fever or Stories of the Confederate South from the links on this blog, I’ll send you a free pdf ebook of either How to Market Your Book to Libraries or Just Write for Dinner: Planning, Producing, and Presenting Dinner Theatre. You can have your choice of which ebook you want. Write me at rickeyp@bayou.com and let me know the date of your purchase and I’ll send the book to you.

Last night I finished reading Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. I enjoyed the read tremendously. The story is considered to be Mann’s masterpiece. I read the Dover Classic edition, which surprisingly had a fascinating introduction and critical notes after the story. He was Nobel laureate in 1929. Set in 1911, the story touched on these particular areas of interest to me:

1. The city of Venice: This is a city I must see someday, if I can see it in the right circumstances and in the right company. I don’t want to see it alone like Aschenbach. The details Mann provides are rich and thought provoking. I particularly liked the reference to the “Bridge of Sighs” that is also mentioned by Byron.

2. The psyche and creative life of intense writers and artists: Aschenbach was “the poet of all those who labor on the brink of exhaustion . . .” Some of the phrases Mann uses are quite suggestive and may give me ideas for my own future writing. For example, some phrases that struck my fancy are: “the productive machinery within him,” “burdened with the obligation to create,” and “sacrifice upon the altar of art.”

3. The power of love and obsession: Mann’s thoughts on this are filled with mythological allusions. He implies it occurs to artists because they have a “life lived under the spell of art.” The narrator says, “we poets cannot travel the path of beauty without Eros joining company with us and taking over the lead.” He also says artists are not suitable for other jobs because they are born with “an incorrigible natural penchant for the abyss.” Throughout, leitmotifs and symbols are used powerfully.

Mann is a writer you must read with attention, but he will teach you more than you expected to learn, and his writing will move you and make you think. Mann’s biography is another one I must add to my reading list.

I’ve always liked the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, the first woman to win the Pulitzer, and one known for her unconventional and bohemian lifestyle.  I intend to read her biography soon. Here’s a poem of hers I found at:  http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/ednamillay/8146

Well, I have lost you; and I lost you fairly;
In my own way, and with my full consent.
Say what you will, kings in a tumbrel rarely
Went to their deaths more proud than this one went.
Some nights of apprehension and hot weeping
I will confess; but that’s permitted me;
Day dried my eyes; I was not one for keeping
Rubbed in a cage a wing that would be free.
If I had loved you less or played you slyly
I might have held you for a summer more,
But at the cost of words I value highly,
And no such summer as the one before.
Should I outlive this anguish—and men do—
I shall have only good to say of you.

My schedule is starting to fill up with TV and radio interviews, signings, and appearances. I’ll try to post a detailed schedule in the next day or two as there have been some changes in the schedule I posted earlier.

*Here is a short blurb from someone who attended one of my readings at the Lincoln Parish Library in Ruston, Louisiana. I was promoting my book, Stories of the Confederate South.

Rickey,

Thank you for your recent presentation at the Lincoln Parish Library. It was a pleasure to hear you read from your own work and to learn how you researched your characters for the short stories. I have now had an opportunity to read and enjoy the entire collection of tales. What a delight!

You have truly caputured the spirit of the Confederate South through your characters. (It’s about time somebody did!) You bring life to the reality that our Southern ancestors lived. Thank you!

I would like to talk with you again about writing Southern tales.

Your Confederate friend,

Sarah

Authors should keep up with all reviews and blurbs of their work.

Here is a review of my book of short fiction, Stories of the Confederate South that was printed February 6, 2006, in the Butternut News, a newsletter SCV members in north Louisiana utilized for a while for communication and unity efforts:

It isn’t often that the Butternut News is included to review books that should be reviewed by such luminous tombs such as the New York Times or the Atlanta Constitution but the opportunity fell in my lap last month.  Compatriot Rickey Pittman of the Thomas McGuire camp in West Monroe has published a book of short stories entitled Stories of the Confederate South.

I’ll tell you up front that I have never been a big fan of short stories no matter who they are written by.  It has always seemed that just when something is starting to happen, it’s all over.  Well, I am going to have to change my stance on this matter.  I thoroughly enjoyed Rickey’s book.  Not all of the stories were set in the days of the Second Revolutionary War and that kind of surprised me when I first started to read.  No matter, all of the stories were interesting and all concerned us and our heritage.

With any collection of events some read better than others and, of course, I had my favorite ones.  I truly believe that these could stand up against Conan Doyle in holding you there until the end comes.  I heartily endorse Compatriot Pittman’s writings and his book.  I recommend that you buy it and buy a couple to give to your friends.

Good reading,

Thomas E. Taylor
Northeast Brigade Commander
Louisiana Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans

“Duty is ours; consequences are Gods”

P.S.  The cover shot was taken at the 140th Franklin and came from the camera of David Hill, Commander of the Richard Taylor Camp in Shreveport, La.