I’m 74 years old now and have started a new phase in my life. With the publication of The Whole Shebang, I am finally fulfilling a dream I had over 50 years ago. That dream was to publish a collection of my poems. Life, obligations and commitments got in the way. Now, finally, that book is seeing the light of day.
Admittedly, the book is being self-published—what used to be called vanity publishing. But, I have reasons for this. First and foremost is that I don’t know if I have the time left to go the traditional route with agents and traditional publishers. That could take years and I don’t know if I will be alive to see the outcome. Secondly, I have never written for critical praise. I hope that the poems I have written resonate with readers regardless of whether they do with critics and editors. I suppose I’ll find out soon with sales of the book being the telling metric.
Now to the point of this blog entry.
So many people were so kind to a young poet and writer. The most important was my mentor, best friend and the older brother I never had, Thomas Walters. Tom was responsible for so much in my life. Heaven knows where I’d be or what I’d be if it had not been for him. He helped me in so many ways that I don’t have space to list all of them. Among the many things Tom did for me was to introduce me to Thad Stem, Jr. Thad also encouraged me and became a friend. He opened doors for me with the North Carolina Arts Council, helping me to get readings at a number of colleges and acceptance into a program to teach poetry in the public schools. I used my vacation time from my ”real” job to do that.
Through Tom and Thad, I also met, became friends with and was encouraged by Betty Adcock, Campbell Reeves, Ron Bayes, Shelby Stevenson and many others. Ron and some others helped me publish a few poems. We all spent many nights at the North Carolina Writers Conferences, sitting up late at night drinking, talking about poetry, telling lies and jokes and just generally enjoying the camaraderie we shared.
I want to thank a couple of my high school teachers for being among the first to encourage my writing and a couple of special college professors for doing the same. I especially want to thank my sister and my niece for their long and continuing encouragement and help in pursuing my writing. All were invaluable.
I also want to thank and commend the excellent team at BookBaby for all of their efforts to bring this collection of poems to publication, especially my BookBaby Senior Publication Specialist Cassidy Helikson and my Editorial Coordinator Colleen Kelley. Cassidy and Colleen have been my guiding lights through this process. I can’t praise them highly enough for all of their help.
Finally, I need to thank my small coterie of special friends, Kendra and Dennis Coleman, Debbie and Cheney Anderson, Payton Hawkins, Jake Ballew, Megan Dunn and Carri Bass. I also need to acknowledge numerous bartenders, strangers at the bars, waitstaff and casual acquaintances who have provided inspiration and insight.
Lastly, I need to thank my friend David Ayers without whose knowledge and help I would have been unable to manage. Besides, without David, I’d have no one to drink beer with and share lies.
