Chapter and Verse
I haven’t posted in a week
because I’ve been working on my new novel’s first chapter.
So if you’ve logged in for a peak
at my life, please be patient for I guarantee you’ll soon be rapt or
titillated, at least, by the love story I’m writing.
It’s not set in Afghanistan. It’s not about kiting.
This much I can tell
you about it so far since it’s just beginning to unfold in my mind.
It’s about an ex-stripper named Emelle
who is overburdened, overweight, and overly kind.
Any more info would just be conjectural.
Though it is set in Ptown. And the love is hetero as well as textural.
Right now its title is “Cock and Load,”
yet I realize that could lend itself to a lot of Provincetown lore
on its own. So before I get too far down the narrative road
I might change it to another title that would fit: “Soul Whore.”
Which of the two do you find more resonant?
I’m not sure I like what either says or not
About the love story I’m trying to write.
Emelle heads to Ptown to spread her son’s ashes from their urn
and meets Doyle, a housepainter, whose daughter, always ready to fight,
has recently been killed in the war in Iraq. Together, they learn
how again to walk along a beach
as well as the lessons only dead children can teach.
Don’t worry, there is a drag queen
or two in the story also. The main one, in fact, is named Nan Tuckit.
So rapier wit and raunchy mean-
ness abound with words like “suck it” and “fuck it”
thrown around with a bit of zest and much, much verve,
since everyone in Ptown - even middle-aged heteros - is a bit of a perv.
Okay, the novel is now demanding attention
so it’s time to put words in the mouths of Nan and Emelle, and Doyle
and other characters too numerous to mention
in a sprightly little poem. I must also be careful. I do not dare spoil
any more of the plot residing in my imagination.
Plus, I’ve reached - thank God, huh - my rhymester limitation.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:53 am
I’m thinking “Death Be Not Prude”.
May 21st, 2007 at 11:23 am
I actually like “Soul Whore” as I have know a few of these….
May 21st, 2007 at 11:36 am
How ’bout: “I Hate Every Bone In Her Body” (but mine)
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Walker Percy wrote one called LOVE IN THE RUINS. So maybe you could call it LOVE IN THE DUNES.
Also, I like what you wrote: ONLY DEAD CHILDREN CAN TEACH
I just watched the 1967 version of Reflections in A Golden Eye via Netflix. A really good John Huston film with Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. One of Carson McCuller’s best. It has the gold tone color which was only in the theaters for a week before it was pulled. Brando does a southern accent that sounds remarkably like Tenn. Williams. Taylor looks beautiful as always.
Huston liked this southern gothic material. He did WISE BLOOD late in his life.
REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE is really good. Elizabeth Taylor riding a white horse and Brando doing a Tenn. Williams accent. Huston directing. Who could ask for more than that? Good performances by Julie Harris and the actor who played her husband. And the strange young man who creeps in the house at night to watch the Taylor character sleep.
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:46 pm
I look forward to the novel. I certainly enjoyed Mississippi Sissy and admire the courage it must have taken to write it. I also am from Forest, MS (a few years younger than you - in fact Karole is two years older than me, but I regret I didn’t know her very well) and recognize many of the people and places. Although I haven’t lived in Mississippi for many years, the humor, drama and horror really came alive while reading. Very powerful writing. Thanks for sharing.
Andy Wolverton
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:33 pm
” Wriggle and Affliction” I thought it was funny, not ment to make light of your work…. but it made me giggle. I’ll try to think of something better for ya! However something tells me you’ll find the perfect title, (it being your book and all. lol)
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:41 pm
I am almost finsihed with Mississippi Sissy and am so happy to hear you are writing another book - I will buy it as soon as it is available. As I sit here in the great State of Mississippi - I can see what it must have been like to live here when you did - you were right when you wrote (I will paraphrase) we are all hicks in Mississippi some of us just wear better clothes - so true.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Im glad u came into my life
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:21 pm
u’re somethin
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:22 pm
joe b, walker married my mama’s cousin Bunt
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:13 pm
This is a type of “soutern fiction” that started (innocently) with Confederacy of Dunces and is currrently kept alive by Fanny Flagg & Co.: “Aren’t we southerners just the cutest, wackiest, lovable things y’all have ever seen? But arent we also wise with universal truths to share with everyone? And tough when we need be? But mostly, lovable. And wackily cute.”
Flannery O’Conner or Walker Percy would stand for none of this “cute/tuff belle” crap. Hell, Tennessee Wlliams set it up, mocked it and then had Stanley rape the lie out of it.
God knows you’ve seen the underbelly of false…in Mississippi and, I would think, P-town. God also knows you can describe it with an almost numb terseness…the sounds of words is what puts emotion back into dark scenes….such a gift passed on to you.
All I am saying is I, for one, hope you are grappling with a novel that kicks you in the ass on a regular basis. I can just imagine Gilfoy, who was sure as hell tall enough, giving you a good whump!
May 24th, 2007 at 10:10 am
How ’bout Ashes to Assays as a title? Ashes to Sashays?
Terrific poem, by the way. Surprising rhymes and great cadences.
May 24th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Thanks to those above who remember Walker Percy. Lets all re read him. He was important. THE MOVIEGOER is terrific.
And once again I must remind those who dont know who Florence King is to look her up on wikipedia. Her book SOUTHERN LADIES AND GENTLEMEN is the funniest book about THE SOUTHLAND I have ever found. She really knows SOUTH. Wise in a good humored way. She also knows Mississippi means moonlight,magnolias, and manure.
May 26th, 2007 at 6:41 am
it isn’t corny
hell it took me a week to find the damn poem & I was reading it
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Kevin,
I’d seen a picture of you in the H’burg American recently and had planned to drop by and say hello on the date of your book signing recently, here in Hattiesburg. It didn’t work out…although, after having bumped into to you on the sidewalk in Manhatten on that day in ‘75 (’76 ?) so unexpectedly, well perhaps that was the last reunion we’ll need from our brief acquaintance as schoolmates and fellow players at Millsaps. Once again, it was great to see you doing so well then. I congratulate you for your successes and durability after all these years.
“Vivat, Vivat Regina!”
Your old schoolmate,
DeWayne