Silver moons sailing through black velvet midnights and azure days shimmering with sunshine at noon are upon us. The breeze whispers, "This is why you have five senses." And after your senses are overwhelmed, the stimulation becomes exercise for the soul simply because there is nowhere else for the inspiration to go.
New research shows that people who exercise in natural settings have less depression and a far lower incidence of dementia later in life. When you are genuinely interactive with nature, your mind and body get purged of stress and your spirit is sated with beauty. That makes the peace of exhaustion satisfying and complete. And if you work out in the liquid air of summer, you can feel the dew in your bones. The headwaters of the Fountain of Youth flow from our minds.
I love roller skiing into a sunset, even though the State Bird is out searching for blood at that hour. Minnesota skeeters have antlers and drink Raid; but I rip along pretty fast, and even on the steep uphills it seems like dragonflies fly wing for me sometimes and pick off the little vampires. Speaking of birds, you know a bird has problems when the calling card he leaves on your car doesn't come off in the car wash. ‘Scuse me, while I go buy a chisel.
Well, you wouldn’t have sent so much mail last month about the Dallas man if you weren’t interested, so I guess a follow-up won’t be wasting your time. Advice ranged from this…
[Englewood, FL] “Read about your friend who, after eight years, has not gotten over the love of his life. From my experience, the best way to accomplish this is in the arms of another woman.... a definite cure !”
To this…
[Kalamazoo, MI] “You don't have to stop loving who that person used to be when they loved you – I think that’s sweet – but if they are hurting you that badly you don't have to love who they are now either.”
And then there was this about my standards for marriage…
[Beverly Hills, CA] “…you always sidestep a personal answer…”
OK. This is right out of my pathetically naive soul. I think I’m missing a gene or something for plurality in love. Almost everyone else, man or woman, seems to be able to feel romantic love for more than one person at the same time. I have a great caring compassion for all people at once, but it's not romantic love. I think I would not be happy married to someone unless they were missing the same gene. It's a ridiculously unrealistic approach – I know that – but it doesn't hurt anyone else. Taking marriage off the table allows me to love single-mindedly without expecting the same in return, i.e. justify a personal relationship and still protect my sense of self-worth and the romantic ideals that have defined me all my life. I know that’s cynical, and based on a belief in the narcissism of others, but I’m being no less selfish. I get pleasure mainly out of giving – a romantic imagination conditions you to that.
Photos below: the sunset is from my own little slice of Paradise, and the other water shot is from kayaking on the Rum River (I tasted it; it’s not rum). There are 3 shots from Michigan of grand-lad Seamus & Sully; 2 photos from Bluesfest8; one Blast from the Past photo when my semi-pro baseball prospect father thought I was going to throw fire in the Majors someday (I threw fire, but most of the time it landed on the moon without passing through the strike zone); and last but not least, the cover of my latest novel...DUST OF EDEN in e-book (see feature below).
My July SU column: http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2012/07/15/thomas-sullivan-bore-dumb/
My biggest month in publishing is underway, and I very much appreciate all the well wishes. As many of you know, I went with two separate publishers last October in bringing out new expanded editions of my print novels in e-book and audio. A superb audio of THE MARTYRING came out last month, read by one of the world's top talents [ http://www.amazon.com/The-Martyring/dp/B008AJBZZ2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341612603&sr=8-1&keywords=THE+MARTYRING+AUDIO ]. This month three e-book editions will come out, culminating with Barnes & Noble featuring DUST OF EDEN in their Nook First program for 30 days beginning July 23rd. This link may get you to that page – not sure – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/NOOK-First-eBook-Featured-Authors/379003312 but in any case, the B&N site will have a Nook First link. I'll be doing a guest column on http://dearreader.typepad.com/ July 25th that will link to that. Dearreader gets over 350,000 readers a day, so stop on by. In addition BORN BURNING will be coming out and should be available through Amazon’s e-books among others right around that date. And finally, SECOND SOUL has just come out http://www.amazon.com/Second-Soul-ebook/dp/B008IVEC3Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1341805242&sr=8-3&keywords=second+soul+sullivan#. Many of you have kindly asked what you could do to support and promote my work. I am most appreciative of that, and I’ll simply say that the Nook First feature of DUST OF EDEN beginning July 23rd is where I think interest will build if sales are strong there. That book will also be available from other outlets, like Amazon.com, of course.
"I never met a subscriber I didn't like" – Sully. Honest. I keep running into people who think I dropped them from my mailing list. T’ain’t so. Never happened. So, if you stop receiving Sullygrams, suspect it's an e-mailing problem. The newsletter has thousands of readers, so I have to send it in bulk, and often it turns out that automatic e-mail security settings on readers’ computers block bulk mailings as spam. You can adjust your settings to give you a choice of seeing what’s being blocked as spam, or you can list my email address as an exception to your spam-blocking settings. Check both your email junk folder options and your computer security (McAfee, Norton, etc.). And please make sure I have your latest address. I absolutely don’t want to lose touch with anyone!
