Your Sunday Kerouac

If it weren't for work, one could get some stuff done. Like blogging. Or practicing the guitar. Or writing poetry.

I know, I know: I've got all the time there is and it's a matter of how I use it. I could practice the guitar instead of watching Black Sails or any of the other TV series I'm hooked on. I could write poetry instead of catching up on Facebook.

I could blog instead of eating breakfast on Sunday morning (when I usually make myself some eggs instead of pouring my breakfast out of a cereal box and a milk jug).

No, I'm not skipping breakfast -- but I am delaying it long enough to post something. Anything.

The blank screen taunts me. Wait. Wait. I feel an inspiration coming around the corner of my mind.

Got it. I'll give a shameless plug for my book, The Beat Handbook: 100 Days of Kerouactions. Why? Because I just retrieved the Sunday paper from the front porch and just about put my back out lifting it from all the advertisements. Sunday is advertisement heavy, at least for the newspaper, so we'll follow suit. Besides, I haven't plugged my book in a while.

Part companion reader (to On the Road and The Dharma Bums), part memoir, part journal (lots of white space to write in), The Beat Handbook takes the reader on a  journey through two of Kerouac's novels, riffing on passages that answer the question, "What would Kerouac do?" My premise is that to discern the answer to that question, one need only know what the characters in his novels do (since they are quasi-autobiographical, that is, roman à clef). There are 100 entries (hence the title) that wander through the The Dharma Bums and On the Road in order, analyzing various passages in a sometimes humorous and sometime serious attempt to apply a Beat character's behavior ("Kerouaction") to today's world. Each entry includes a suggested "Kerouactivity" and a place to write about your attempt.

For the Kerouac or Beat aficionado in your life, The Beat Handbook makes a great gift and it's easily obtainable on Amazon. If you want an autographed copy, we can work that out via e-mail

There, I feel better. I blogged and I hawked my book.

Insert bon mots here!