Blog Posts for James GAitis

A SENTIMENTAL CAT

James GAitis — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:50:48 -0800

I’m a sentimental cat, particularly when it comes to cats and dogs and the love people share through them. So here’s my poem (an average sort of poem, I’ll admit) on that subject, published last week in The Blue Guitar, an online publication of the Arizona Consortium for the Arts. See page 27: http://www.theblueguitarmagazine.org/resources/Blue+Guitar+Fall+2009+76+...

The Next Species

James GAitis — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:50:29 -0700

We were talking about the next species to come. The species after Homo sapiens. She said she hoped its defining characteristic would be a new sixth sense. And when I asked her what sense that might be she said, “A sense of guilt.” I formulated the idea that there already were members of the next species living here on our little planet. After all, it’s not always the case that a new ...

Here Comes the Sun

James GAitis — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:49:46 -0700

These words are written and posted on the internet by the power of the sun. And the fact of it makes me think of Richie Havens and Montana. We have just installed solar panels on our roof here on the very edge of the edge of Tucson, up against the Santa Catalina Mountains in the Sonoran Desert. And I feel like singing of the smiles returning to our faces. It’s not the first time we’ve ...

My Literary Travelling Companions

James GAitis — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:12:55 -0700

I had with me on the train a copy of D. H. Lawrence’s reflections on Italy, although there seemed little reason to open it with the countryside of neat vineyards and smoky olive trees and rising Tuscan hills passing by in endless shades of greens and browns and faded claytile reds. But I felt some comfort to have him with me nonetheless. For despite all the splendor of the art and architecture ...

Masons and Pulp Fiction

James GAitis — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:27:13 -0700

James Gaitis It’s more than unlikely that I will ever read a Dan Brown novel. I’ve yet to read a novel by Grisham or King or Clancy (or to see a single Rocky movie), so why start now? I do appreciate how works of authors such as these might placate the general reading public but I prefer something more eclectic or classical or at least literary in the sense that I define that term. On the ...

And the Next Publisher to Fail . . .

James GAitis — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:25:33 -0700

. . . is mine! Oh, dear. Not exactly what I had in mind. Yesterday I learned that the publisher of my second novel—Kunati Books, ForeWord Magazine’s 2008 Publisher of the Year—has folded its financial tent. Now I find myself somehow out in the cold, not only in search of an agent but, also, a new publisher for a recently released book. Oh, my. It makes me feel young again. In a way that ...

Missing articles in action

James GAitis — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:23:52 -0700

James Gaitis © 2009 It is has been years now since I took the advice of the renowned editor Maxwell Perkins and immersed myself for the first time in Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Perkins, of course, was long dead by the time I took to reading Tolstoy’s novel of Russia’s pivotal role in defeating Napoleon and of the trauma and tragedy war brings to families great and small. So Perkins’ ...

Remembering Hiroshima

James GAitis — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:28:35 -0700

I have the fairly unusual claim of having attended a high school (a public high school located in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago) named after a literary figure--John Hersey. I was a member of the entering freshman class when the school was opened (now many years ago) and I recall the speech John Hersey made during the commemoration ceremony. He was something of an inspiration at the time, and ...

Cool 'eh

James GAitis — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:34:01 -0700

Well, I've made it into the crime issue of New York's famous (some say infamous) Cool 'Eh Magazine and now can only hope I have not inadvertantly triggered a wave of vigilanteism amongst gun enthusiasts, rope-tying specialists, and the like: http://coolehmag.com/frontEnd/interview.php?i=47&s=82

The Travails of a Satirist

James GAitis — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:58:01 -0700

James Gaitis © 2009 This much I now can tell you: The life of a satirist can be a lonely and misunderstood existence. I know. We satirists are often sorely mistaken, perhaps because it is difficult for the reader to pierce the veil of satire to understand the true meaning underlying the masked, satirical word. I have written a novel (a satire, to be sure) that it intended to be gender ...