Updates for the forthcoming novel

 

Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/marshalljameskavanaugh

New moon, next chapter. What goes up, must come down. These chapters about Yosemite are expansive, and yet I still don’t think I’m able to capture everything in my prose about that sacred place tucked away in the Sierra Nevadas. Still, I don’t think that’s the point, though. I think the point is to capture the Deerfield character of wild-eyed awe seeing for the first time such impossible beauty. It’s later in his legend that he becomes an expert in a place of such extremes.

Become a patron by following the link above and gain access to the chapters of my novel as I write them. Different tiers with different rewards. Excerpt below to encourage you to want to read more.

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There, there, I pat my wounded ego reflecting on how I’m not one for small talk in front of something so holy anyway, so I give a little wave to the falls and continue my journey, smiling a sad-happy joy to have been spared a few minutes alone with the madness of all there is in the world that’ll outlast us. Another apple and few handfuls of trail mix and I’m up and over that life stream again keeping my eye on the sun’s passage between cloud and mountain, feeling light in my stride, though conscious there’s a rush to beat out night setting in.

Following cairn after cairn in this bare boulder back of a giant, I’m given preview to what true wilderness is, one wrong step and I’m food for the roaming mountain lion, but then I begin again to descend, and with every footfall I understand how those faces going down while I was going up looked so jolly and meditated. It doesn’t take much to bring back down, from the heights above, one’s own personal heaven. All you got to do is climb until there is no more climbing to do and from there take the time to take it all in, both heart and soul nourished upon its glory.

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News & Updates 1/7/2019

Become a patron and help me finish writing my novel!

Hey all,

I’m back to working on the novel I started writing four years ago, about the first road trip I took across the country in 2014. I’ve spent the last couple days digitizing my journals written during my transits between LA, Big Sur, Yosemite, and San Francisco. This whole process has been a lesson of how I should finish projects when I start them, because as I delay bringing this narrative to a close, several other narratives have been backed up in the process. I imagine I have two other whole novels to write once this one is complete. In the meantime, I have to trust that when I began writing this novel in 2015, I didn’t quite know how to write it and it has taken me the last four years of experiences to figure out how to give all of its characters and the social movements contained within, a proper voice to uplift the nation they take place in. Your patience and patronage is much appreciated as this year is hopefully the year that marks the first part of the Deerfield Legend receiving a conclusion.

You can share glimpses of this writing process with me on my Patreon campaign, and support my writing in the process. $1 a month and you’ll have access to Travel By Haiku.

Wish me luck, and in the meantime here are some haikus and musings to read over from my journal dated, 11/23/2014 in Yosemite Valley, CA:

Western desert

purity in quiet

sand bottom of earth

 

Mountain enchantment

cliffs hanging over valleys

supernatural sky and earth

 

The Yukon

the gold standard

American destiny 

 

Fire spirit    Ice spirit    Mountain spirit

Wind Spirit    Road spirit    Lake spirit

Water spirit     Bear Spirit    Cliff spirit

Earth spirit    Wolf spirit    Nature spirit

The Yosemite has all these things….

BECOME A PATRON TO MY POETRY!

Donate $1 a month to my Patreon campaign, and have full access to my forthcoming release, Travel By Haiku: Still Trippin’ Across the States. It’s as easy as that!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Just a little update for 2016: I’ve got good news from the writing room! All 5 volumes of my next book, Travel By Haiku -> Volumes 1 through 5: Still Trippin’ Across the States, are officially drafted. Now, they’re not quite done or nearly as pretty as I’d like them to be, but all those hundreds and hundreds of haikus written from my travels over the last year are finally narrowed down and organized onto the page, ready for editing. Also this means I‘m ready to move on to sifting through the thousands of photos I took on the road to find the 10-20 best to accompany the pages of the book. It feels great to be taking a break from sculpting words and moving onto the images of all these landscapes that inspired me so much this last year.

In the meantime, I’ve added all five volumes of Travel By Haiku to the documents section of my Patreon account. For $1 a month you can have full access to these rough drafts and watch the writing process unfold, as I continue to update them. $1 a month goes a really long way, as I save up for my next trip across the country. All donations will go towards expenses encountered while making merch for the next tour. This includes the production of new books, new t-shirts, mix tapes, etc.

There are other rewards too, if you’d like to donate a little more. For $5 a month you’ll have access to all of my previously published and soon-to-be published short stories. This includes all of the stories from Fire. Sun. Salutation., as well as short stories that you might’ve heard during my last book tour, about travels in California, but aren’t actually published anywhere yet.

I’ve tried to make these rewards make a little more sense, as well as add to them. Essentially, I’ve made it so my writing is behind a “paywall”, which is exciting to me because it means I can share it, without devaluing it, and yet with the power of crowdsourcing the overall price is very little for each individual.

There’s other rewards too like me helping you write and edit your next short story/novella and monthly postcards sent to you or someone you love. And I don’t think anyone will take me up on this, at the moment, but for $50 a month, I’ll even take you on your next road trip! That’s right, I’ll be your Neal Cassidy to your Ken Kesey magic bus ride. Together we’ll live out the story of our generation and find the American Dream!

So take some time and check things out. Volume 1 of Travel By Haiku is available now for anyone to check out, as a free sample. It’s the shortest chapter of the forthcoming book (the other chapters are double and triple in length), but it also has some of my favorite haikus. For example:

The Sea: Never in
any rush to get any place
but always on time.

You can read through the rest by going to my Patreon campaign page and clicking “Creator Posts”, then scroll down, and you should find it.

Thanks all and much love,
Marshall James Kavanaugh

Live video of “The Orgone Wurlitzer”

THE ORGONE WURLITZER by Marshall James Kavanaugh
Here’s an erotic ode to Damien Hirst. It comes straight out of the psychedelia-infused romp, Fire. Sun. Salutation. This live reading is from the book release party at The Random Tea Room in Philadelphia last April.

Like this one? You can grab a copy of the book here: http://bit.ly/FireSunSalutation

Become a Patron to my Poetry!

Donate $1 a month to my Patreon campaign, and have full access to my forthcoming release, Travel By Haiku: Still Trippin’ Across the States. It’s as easy as that!

Over the last year, I’ve gone on 3 separate poetry tours, traveled across about 35 of the 50 states in the US, been through a few dozen national parks, and met all sorts of incredible creators from around the world. I really couldn’t have done it without the help of so many generous people on the road. It’s been a fun time with life’s typical ups and downs, and I’ve tried my best to take everyone else along for the ride, to share with them all the stories and all the magic I’ve encountered. I can say honestly, I have grown in so many ways, especially as a writer.

Travel is certainly tough, though. There’s a lot of expenses from paying for gas to general upkeep on my car to camping fees and buying food. Beyond that, traveling for 3 month stretches means I don’t have a regular income for that time and I’m mostly living off of my savings. I’m far from starving, and I think I’ve almost got this traveling thing figured out as far as being efficient and living on the cheap and busking when I need to pick up some extra gas money. But every little bit really goes a long way.

If you like what I have been up to over this past year, and you’re looking for a way to contribute, you could help by becoming a patron to my poetry. For only $1 a month you will have unlimited access to various pieces of my work before they are made available elsewhere. This includes travel stories, haikus from the Travel By Haiku series, photography, and more. Like any crowdsourcing campaign there are bigger rewards the more you donate, so follow the link below and pick what suits you best: https://www.patreon.com/marshalljameskavanaugh

Thank you, everyone, for so many great experiences in 2015. I’ve had so many opportunities to meditate on gratitude towards all. In 2016 I hope the year brings even more in the shape of abundance for all of us.

Much Love,
Marshall James Kavanaugh

Live Video of “Howling at the Moon!”

It’s been almost a year since Antonio and I biked up Nob Hill and howled at the full moon with all those 200 or so San Franciscans and here is a spoken word recording of the grand borderline fiction it inspired. Marshall Deerfield, front and center with Antonio Bandalini making an appearance, facing the stagnant contrasts of Skid Row in midst of the Tech Boomed-out streets of San Francisco. Here in its entirety is “Howling At The Moon!”, a fraction of a novel about all those wayward zig zags across the west coast last year, but definitely one of my favorite tales to tell.

This was filmed back in April by Andrew Galati at the Random Tea Room in Philadelphia at the book release party for my collection of psychedelic erotica, Fire. Sun. Salutation. It took me a few more weeks to talk out all the tongue ties and stutters of the narrative, but this night in particular still has my heart hanging heavy. Thanks to Becky Goldschmidt for hosting, the other performers for setting the stage, and to everyone who attended. That night we became a bunch of wild wolves hooting and hollering at the muse above. Also thanks to my parents for giving me a quiet place to write these beginnings to a novel that’ll hopefully soon be finished. Without that brief pause from the 9-5 all this material would still be stuck up in my head or randomly notated throughout several journals on some dusty bookshelf.

Anyway, enjoy the lofty imagery and dream-inspired beauty above!

An excerpt from Fire. Sun. Salutation. – Sand Full of Friction



Here is another excerpt from my new book Fire. Sun. Salutation.

Order your copy today on Amazon! or if you live in Philadelphia, you can grab a copy from The Random Tea Room & Curiosity Shop (713 n. 4th street, Philadelphia 19123)

from the story “Sand Full of Friction”: 

The sun divides into two and then four and multiplies until the full sky is full of its ecstatic light. His naked body impure under its brilliance. The tar melting now sweating and dripping down his sides becoming one with the earth beneath his toes hardening forming a dead sea’s bedrock. He takes one step and then another and begins to walk again on into the desert surrounded by only irresolution.

From the haze enters a female figure sand blowing in every which way as her belly shakes side to side in a roundabout way possibly pregnant bringing life with her every swagger. Tip toeing now he moves closer until he is just behind her upon her he reaches out to touch her to see if she is real but her movements are too rapid and with each reaching of his hand he stumbles as she pivots away. She turns to him now her full breasts levitating in a magnificent way above her midline holding up her heart beneath gold glitter and rubies hanging scarlet around her thin neck. Her hair is long and it traces her buttocks as her hips gesticulate widely and he imagines only briefly the fuck.

To finish the story you’ll need to grab a copy for yourself. Fire. Sun. Salutation. is available now! It is a collection of 9 short stories of psychedelic erotica. Grab a copy today! tinyurl.com/FireSunSalutation

Poetry Tour down to New Orleans

Hey all, I’m currently in the process of booking my next poetry tour in April. I could really use all of your help filling these dates. You can reach me at afreedombooks@gmail.com if you’d like to host me in any of these locations or know someone who would. Thanks! And hope to see you out at some of these readings!

APRIL:
8 – enter Baltimore, MD

9 – PerVerse Reading Series at LitMore with Cliff Lynn
3326 Keswick Rd, Baltimore, Maryland 21211

10 – TBA in Baltimore, MD
11 – TBA in Washington DC
12 – rest day in Washington DC
13 Charlottesville, VA
14 Richmond, VA
15 Durham, NC
16-17 Asheville, NC
18 – TBA in Athens, GA
19 Athens, GA
20-21 Atlanta, GA
22-23 Alabama? maybe Birmingham or Mobile
24 – arrive in New Orleans, LA
25 – TBA in New Orleans, LA

26 – Reading at Arts House, New Orleans, LA
more details TBA soon.

28 – leave New Orleans, LA

An excerpt from Fire. Sun. Salutation. – Fire Breather, Beach Sun

An excerpt from my new novel Fire. Sun. Salutation
Get your copy today on Amazon.com: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Sun-Salutation-collection-transformations/dp/0692362762
or if you live in Philadelphia, copies are available from the Random Tea Room (located at 713 n. 4th street)

from the story “Fire Breather, Beach Sun”:
Joe Cockren raises his right thumb to Neil Redrun’s right ear and flicks it. Underneath his sunglasses Neil wakes only slightly disturbed. The green smoke from the last joint still settling onto the golden sand. His towel creates a pillow for the crown of his beach bum head. The girls giggle as the boys wrestle and dig a hole with the force of their motions topsy turvey acrobatting out into the ocean and tossing one another into the waves drowning only slightly in order to wash the sweat from their brows coming up for air in a panic that seems worse than it actually is.

Maja Ra is radiant. Her tan breasts supple in the end of summer sun pushing back against the light as they raise themselves to heaven. Adele Catchlight is less adorned but her calm beauty feels au naturale against the serene backlight of the blue sky.

Joe kicks sand into the air as he walks back to the encampment. He shakes the water out of his hair and off his muscular back onto the girls causing them to stir as they smile up at him standing there in his blue green bathing trunks with arms outstretched taking in the sun. “What are we going to eat,” he says. “I got the munchies and the beer isn’t enough to contain them.” He dives onto Maja and rubs his sandy chin into her breasts as she laughs and wraps her arms around him pulling at and straightening his red-blonde hair. She lays back and he picks her up with one arm walking her out towards the sea her arms draped back fingers drawing a line in the sand mapping out his conquest.

To finish the story you’ll have to grab a copy for yourself. Fire. Sun. Salutation. is available now! It is a collection of 9 short stories of erotic surreal splendor. You won’t be disappointed!