25 November 2019
My first love was in a band. His advice about music translated easily to the writing life-or I made it fit, those nights I was killing time backstage in dive bars during sound check. "Leave them wanting more" was his advice on playing. So I won't drone on when I give readings, erring on the side of reading too little.
"All money made by the band goes back to the band" is another one of his sayings-easy to follow when I made only $10 here and there publishing poems. My first three books were poetry, published because they had won contests.