Parallel Society

“The real question is whether the ‘brighter future’ is always so distant. What if it has been here for a long time already – and only our own blindness and weakness have prevented us from seeing it around us and within us, and kept us from developing it.”

Vaclav Havel, The Power of the Powerless

The poet-statesman whose dissidence helped create the collapse of authoritarian Czechoslovakian and Soviet hegemonies was then elected to lead the new Czech Republic. A fellow Czech poet, Ivan Jirous, also the artistic director of the rock band the Plastic People of the Universe, called for new creative infrastructure beyond ruling values and hierarchies, such as we see in the flourishing world of independent presses in our country today. When writing conferences hinge on the assumption that everyone wants to be courted by one of the Big 5, with contracts negotiated by high-stakes middle-men aiming for millions, independence of thought and values seem pushed far to the side.

on Superior National Forest

We each do our part. In whatever realm we can. Here's a piece of my own parallel universe: the long-awaited Cover Reveal (must log in to actual website!) for independently published book Number 2. Winter Woods Publishing will release (un)Familar: stories in early September, and with luck, you can join the fun at launch parties in Wyoming and/or Maine. The Maine launch will include a chance to take home the original D.L. Duda artwork as part of our ongoing collaboration to turn proceeds from our arts to good works addressing other parts of our ever-interlinked planetary challenges. Another artivist friend has already donated some quilted landscape imaginations, complete with critters you will get to meet in various stories of the collection.

If you can imagine yourself in this small but mighty functional society, let me know! You write reviews, or songs? Play ukulele or basketball or create boardgames from story characters? COOL-- Let's hang out and dream together.