lost track of my marketing, gave it up because it wasn't doing much good. i enjoy making pop art but only when i'm in the mood. lately i've been eager to finish four more books. really there are a few beyond those i'd like to get to as well. and they're urgent, my reason being, vulnerable as i am, i may not be around forever. and i may not be around forever, just in the sense that i might become unable to write. i'm already a little too sloppy with my writing, and the best i can say is that because i do so much of it, at least i'm used to it enough to produce full sentences.

one of the things i'm doing is affecting me strongly. i found an 80-page, single spaced sketch of the life of one of my great-great grandfathers. it was typed out very carefully on brown paper that still has some of its integrity, i.e. it's not falling apart as i type it out. he's a very clear writer and never uses contractions; he also limits his paragraphs. i am almost done typing it. but it's a diatribe, setting the record straight on people who wronged him. he was treasurer of hillsdale college for many of its early years - but he was ousted, and had incredibly bad luck at every turn. he documents it all very carefully.

almost done with my other great-great grandfather - actually at that level i have eight great-great grandfathers, but i'm really only exploring two of them - and his life is plenty interesting. i've kind of plowed through the years when nebraska rejected statehood, civil war, a farm in wisconsin, and the panic/depression of 1893, as it affected south dakota. this would be his life. of course i also have this other great-great grandfather, and perhaps a few more, and i haven't even got to my mother's side yet.

if you go up twelve generations, you get over four thousand people who helped make me who i am today. in some cases people are marrying cousins and relatives so that might make it a bit fewer. i was surprised to find one of my great (12) grandfathers to be william brewster, who was a pilgrim leader. some of the others, i'm just not clear on, if you go all the way up twelve generations. it's interesting that i'm clear on him, yet not on my father's side where the leveretts, going all the way up, have some serious clouds.

short stories - all about mcdonalds. also, autobiography. lots going on, not enough time to stay home and write, which is what i want to do. more later.