For my birthday in May I received a Kindle. I have been so delighted with this gift and have been reading much more than I was previously and thoroughly enjoying that. It is so easy to download books and such a convenient way to read. I am now working on converting Relaxing into Meditation into Kindle format so that I can make this available for download.
I have just finished editing the latest Aro Books worldwide publication: an odd boy by Doc Togden. This is the first of four volumes. The (hopefully) final draft copy will arrive tomorrow and if it is approved by the author we will then launch it. Here's some information about the book from the Aro Books worldwide blog.
Midnight / late September 1964 / Surrey, England / a naked 12 year old schoolboy
cycles to a country crossroad . . . with a plastic guitar on his back / he
wants to be a Bluesman like Robert Johnson / he’s heard about the deal he made
with Papa Legba (the devil) – Johnson’s soul for the mastery of guitar / the boy
needs a similar arrangement.
An odd boy is a roman à clef – a memoire (1957—1975) of a Blues musician, poet,
and art student – written in the form of heart-warming romantic novel. At the
age of five—when the story begins—the family doctor described him as ‘an odd
boy’ – and in so doing, adventitiously depicted something of his precocious
obsession with the Arts and romantic chivalry.
This portrait of the artist as a young man – is a coming-of-age adventure set in
the cultural ferment of the 1960s. A high-spirited escapade—humorous and
poignant by turn—of an era when the arts set a generation’s imagination on fire.
It was an epoch of volatile excitement, naïve hope, and reckless
experimentation. Music was the revolutionary edge and its protagonists saw no
limits.
The author’s voice is whimsical, entertaining, yet insightful. The narrative is
a roulette wheel of vicissitudes: childhood wonderment and traumatic debacles;
debilitating childhood stammer and a powerful singing voice; emotional
exhilaration and near despair; outrageous good fortune and plain bad luck;
surprising encounters and untimely deaths. This optimistically nostalgic work
paints emotional panoramas entirely bereft of maudlin sentiment. It is a
surrealistic voyage – rather than a diary of hallucinogenic chaos. The narrator
is occasionally a victim of circumstances – but never a victim of
self-destructive impulses. He throws himself at life and love with verve. He
meets with triumph and disaster – but picks up the pieces and takes to the road
again with an irrepressible grin.
The primary readership will remember the ’60s fondly—or wish they had been
there. It might be described as Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ meets ‘Under Milk Wood’.
The best comparison may be with Bob Dylan’s ‘Chronicles’. An odd boy is similar
in form: an engaging narrative as the vehicle for a quixotic extravaganza within
the world of the arts.
Midnight / late September 1964 / Surrey, England / a naked 12 year old schoolboy
cycles to a country crossroad . . . with a plastic guitar on his back / he
wants to be a Bluesman like Robert Johnson / he’s heard about the deal he made
with Papa Legba (the devil) – Johnson’s soul for the mastery of guitar / the boy
needs a similar arrangement.
An odd boy is a roman à clef – a memoire (1957—1975) of a Blues musician, poet,
and art student – written in the form of heart-warming romantic novel. At the
age of five—when the story begins—the family doctor described him as ‘an odd
boy’ – and in so doing, adventitiously depicted something of his precocious
obsession with the Arts and romantic chivalry.
This portrait of the artist as a young man – is a coming-of-age adventure set in
the cultural ferment of the 1960s. A high-spirited escapade—humorous and
poignant by turn—of an era when the arts set a generation’s imagination on fire.
It was an epoch of volatile excitement, naïve hope, and reckless
experimentation. Music was the revolutionary edge and its protagonists saw no
limits.
The author’s voice is whimsical, entertaining, yet insightful. The narrative is
a roulette wheel of vicissitudes: childhood wonderment and traumatic debacles;
debilitating childhood stammer and a powerful singing voice; emotional
exhilaration and near despair; outrageous good fortune and plain bad luck;
surprising encounters and untimely deaths. This optimistically nostalgic work
paints emotional panoramas entirely bereft of maudlin sentiment. It is a
surrealistic voyage – rather than a diary of hallucinogenic chaos. The narrator
is occasionally a victim of circumstances – but never a victim of
self-destructive impulses. He throws himself at life and love with verve. He
meets with triumph and disaster – but picks up the pieces and takes to the road
again with an irrepressible grin.
The primary readership will remember the ’60s fondly—or wish they had been
there. It might be described as Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ meets ‘Under Milk Wood’.
The best comparison may be with Bob Dylan’s ‘Chronicles’. An odd boy is similar
in form: an engaging narrative as the vehicle for a quixotic extravaganza within
the world of the arts.
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