Off to Look for America: Catching everybody up...

If you have read the "Off to Look for America" blog, you already know what we're doing.  The Fabulous Feathermaye and yours truly have launched ourselves off into the unknown... our eyes are on the horizon and we are taking opportunity as it comes.

Thanks to the Divine Mz. Z, we have a roof over our pod, and have kept busy working on both staying alive while on unemployment, and working toward some pretty worthy goals...  


The Hot weather that so pervaded TEXAS and turned it into a summer-long tinderbox, has finally been soaked down by a few good storms as we work from the back porch of the "Mardi Gras" (Mz. Z's B&B) with mobile internet connection and laptops a-buzzing!

Feathermaye with another unique capture
She is greatly influenced by 'Escher'

Of course, on a more personal level, since that is what blogging is really all about (right?), we've also been research machines, burning up every search engine, downloading, as fast as our mobile 3.5G phone will allow, which can take some patience--truth be told.  But, when the night around you is full of rustling trees, and you're parked at a cool, Parisian-style table in a festive, yet rustic, damn near camping, setting, you tend to loose a little of the normal aggravation that technology presents to many of us... 

Calling all Sponsors!  We test lots of products!

East Texas has gone from hot and sticky to cool and crisp, almost cold.  We have started product testing, from Insect repellents to how well Mucinex can really stave off the congested cough of two old smokers.  


Of course, this is East Texas, so there are some differences that seasonal change offers: like going from ninety-nine degrees to thirty seven, overnight.  Yikes, honey, where did we put our jackets? We...DID bring jackets, right? 


Gotta remember, folks, Feathermaye and the ole kid here have been warm-weather travelers, for the most part.  But, since life is presenting opportunity around every corner, we are happy to chase down a few sponsors (Dear Bass Pro Shops..., or Dear People who make Gore-tex...) OUTFIT US!  We are your willing subjects, and if it can be broken, or proven worthy, you need only ask feathermaye


My poor wife, has had just about every mosquito in East Texas feed on her beautiful calves.  Now, just so you know, Feathermaye can rock some Capri britches, and she tends to wear them, like...all the time, all weathers.  She's my little Yankee, after all, Michigan gal.  I digress...


But, you just gotta know, folks, that for a girl who knows she is going to be eaten alive, and be PERFECTLY WILLING to test bug products in some hard-for-most-brave-souls buggy territory, Feathermaye has undergone quite a change.  


Bless her heart, she's had bites on bites, her blood is just too sweet.  She has a lot of strange allergies and has dealt with those conditions all her life.  It had been easy enough to hide out in AC, but when the work you love calls you outside... Well, she went right out there with it!

Her focus is everywhere as she hunts for the next frame...
"Moth Capture" by feathermaye.com 2011

I'm living witness to Feathermaye now crawling around under buildings and trees and bushes, even in the middle of the night!  Uncanny!  She has me giggling like a kid again as we traipse about THE MOUNTAIN taking pictures, or rather, looking for the right picture, the right frame.  Most nights, we are in a scurry to download and edit what we've captured, while new story ideas, promo ideas, ways to help THE MOUNTAIN ideas keep coming and are carefully taken down.  It's all material now, it's all part of the story. 


We may be eating Ramen Noodles and a new supplement that we will mention later; we may have lost weight like you wouldn't believe, having forsaken fast food--except for evenings when Mz. Z hangs out with us and forces us to eat pizza!  


Please understand, we're having a lot of fun, but we're also learning how to work for ourselves from a very thin precipice.  At such altitude, and with so much hanging, it pays to be positive, as well as realistic.
  
We have found that it also pays to live Spartan, keeping only what is important for everyday function, slowly shucking away what is really not necessary.  It's amazing to see how full of Shit-we-seem-to-need-to-carry-around-with-us we are. 


Living up here in a sort of fake Western Town, it gives us the singular opportunity to work in the GREEN if you know what I mean.  As I write this, Feathermaye sits across from me and plans a new green project for the approaching Market Days.  That will be another blog.

Rainy lit Bougainvillea under Mardi Gras' Porch

I know, everyone is asking about the Book Controversy. We've been dodging reporters and picture-takers, for the most part.  I will say that the new book, A Week in Agony...Texas has sort of taken on a life of its own.  I've just completed a series of interviews with press from that part of the state.  Sometimes, big things start small, don't they?

The new book is causing a fuss

However... There is the problem of the lawsuits, the ones that I've still not gotten from anybody.  This lawyer guy down in Agony has it in for me.  He's gotten into the heads of some of the families down there, people Feathermaye and I have come to call friends, and turned them against us, evidently.  They hope to somehow forestall, or stop the book from being published.


My stalwart publisher is unabashed by such scandal and name-calling, he is going ahead with the book and will be announcing a release date soon.  Did I already mention that this is just book one?  You can still catch a glimpse or two of Generations in Agony...Texas, right here on the blog!

Signing books here!

Feathermaye is busy getting in touch with her artisan friends, telling them about THE MOUNTAIN as we both keep working to get the word out. It's really happening.  The folks who've been here for years still have that gleam in their eyes.  We want every artist we can find to know that there is a place like this.


We also want to continue to tell you fine folks about it.  Without your following us, we'd be talking to the sky, I suppose.  Thank you for following and remember you can always find us on facebook (thanks Zuck),  Please be sweet and give this one a Tweet! as you Stumble along.  Can you digg it?