BAUMANNBLOG

‘Exploration. Great theft.’

My secret project, a.k.a. A Big Thing, is not a secret anymore. I now own & operate a nonprofit publishing company. My first title, The Complete Works of Marvin K. Mooney–a novel by Christopher Higgs–is available in paperback, ebook & audiobook forms. Special presale prices, limited edition cover. Click here to look & maybe order.

I captured the book as it fell from the sky, landed at my feat, Santa Monica beach.

Immediately I am struck by the ease of fulfilling digital orders (ebook/audiobook) vs. print orders (book object). To give the person what they bought via the former: one email. To give the person what they bought via the latter: packing, post office, fingers crossed. I really didn’t need to warm any more to digital storytelling, but now I’m just hot for it. That said: a beautiful tactile thing is a beautiful tactile thing. I’m evenly spread.

Reading: I finished Closer by Dennis Cooper this morning. The last fifty pages are just these brutal, crystalline things. What is really astonishing is how Dennis managed to not only capture the myriad voices, but how he places them next to each other and in each other in a way that suggests a unifying, much larger body that breathes and sleeps and welts like all of us do, under certain kinds of pressure. The last sentence in particular will stay with me for awhile.

EDIT: I highly recommend reading this article, which features this paragraph:

What was easy to convey was that something about the past ten years had been unsustainable. But the truth—that an entire ideology had been unsustainable—is one that we have not yet grasped. And that is why so many journalists, economists, intellectuals and financiers now scramble to churn out books that for the most part read like the memoirs of people trying to make themselves feel less stupid. The current financial system was constructed to make us all feel stupid, and in the process of building it the architects allowed themselves to become stupid as well. That ignorance begat infantilization, which bred cowardice and systemic moral decay. The only sustainable way out is to reacquaint ourselves and our fellow citizens with the wisdom of asking stupid questions.

Watching: Enjoyed A Single Man. A very sensual film, and best in its sensuality, and least compelling in its mandatory narrative. Very happy that Tom Ford is directing, and excited to see what he shapes next.

Novel: Digging there in a moment.

World of Flesh: In the last week alone I’ve met and hung with Nick Antosca, Ned Vizzini, Sabra Embury & Kevin Sampsell and his formidable posse. Increasingly I’m convinced that this sprawling community of artists w/literary bent is the kindest, most wonderful group of people on earth. So: torrential kudos to all those listed.

Oh, and I redesigned my homepage to accommodate the new Sator info. I added a section for my book cover design, and a house for some errant photographs.

More secret projects loaded up in their invisible queue. Collaborative secret projects, which is something new for me in the world in which they are being conjured. I’ll speak some more soon.