Amorphous Press

The Marginalian

A fellow D’Youville alum recommended that I check out the Marginalian newsletter (then called “Brain Pickings”) — and it does not disappoint. Maria Popova gives us many deep and thoughtful musings, incorporating any and all disciplines as they relate to personal human experience.

From a recent edition, we find quoted the words of Nick Caves,

All my songs are written from a place of spiritual yearning, because that is the place that I permanently inhabit. To me, personally, this place feels charged, creative and full of potential…

My experience of creating music and writing songs is finding enormous strength through vulnerability. You’re being open to whatever happens, including failure and shame. There’s certainly a vulnerability to that, and an incredible freedom… To be truly vulnerable is to exist adjacent to collapse or obliteration. In that place we can feel extraordinarily alive and receptive to all sorts of things, creatively and spiritually… It is a nuanced place that feels both dangerous and teeming with potential. It is the place where the big shifts can happen. The more time you spend there, the less worried you become of how you will be perceived or judged, and that is ultimately where the freedom is.

He’s talking about songwriting, but I feel it applies at least as much to writing in general.

All writing is to some extent a form of giving witness to things — internal, external, or imagined — that need to be expressed. We fill in the space by opening it up to the atmosphere outside ourselves and wanting the air to rush in. But I never realized until reading the above that we’re talking about something best described by that one word, vulnerability.

How many of us authors feel the strain of vulnerability in every sentence we intend to spread upon the field of public criticism? Do our fictions reveal more of ourselves than we could — or would — display to strangers, even family and friends? Do we even dare to share some of our works with kith and kin? Why do we so often use a nom de plume, and avoid using a photo portrait on the dust jacket? Sure, we agonize over the synopsis, the acknowledgments, the bio, but it’s the work itself that is the performance. We can frame it how we want with marketing bluster and cover art. But those are all behind-the-curtain controls. The rest — the actual work of our writing — is on stage, under the lights, and once published and in people’s hands, there’s no do-over. It’s an eternal live performance and you’re the star. That’s an awesome and terrible responsibility of self-representation.

Any act of writing is an unintentional exercise in psychoanalysis. Being able to finish and publish a work takes a certain amount of self-acceptance to tolerate such scrutiny. It takes not just fortitude, but real courage. That’s why most of us need support. You may or may not get it from family, and that’s a whole other story. And you may or may not get it from fans. But we as authors must support and uplift each other. We need “group counseling”, even if it’s just a Facebook group or two.

Anyway, I just wanted to share these thoughts. And now I am more aware than ever that it reflects me more than the reader, and I must come to grips with that.

{You can visit and subscribe to the Marginalian newsletter HERE.}

Everyday Justice

Everyday Justice

Setting the World Right One Day at a Time

With so much wrong with the world, it all seems out of our control. Everyday Justice is about how we make the world a better place, sometimes without even knowing it. It’s about living up to who we think we are, or who we want to be, through conscious action. Learn how to see opportunity from the selfishness or lack of consideration in others. Transcend prejudices and judgment by service to others. And help others be a light in the darkness instead of cursing it.

Author: Ken JP Stuczynski

Softcover / eBook

Publishing Date: April 23rd, 2021

We will be taking pre-orders shortly. Check back later, or send an email to
tophat@amorphous.press
to be notified when pre-ordering is available.

Some White Guy’s Book

Some White Guy’s Book

Unexpected Memoirs, Thoughts, and Facts about Race and Ethnicity in America

An admitted “White Guy” tackles the complicated subject of race and ethnicity in America. With unique life experiences and unconventional ways of thinking, the author covers the disparate ways we view history, society, and ourselves. From White guilt to cancel culture, Southern pride to religious intolerance, no subject is off-limits. Challenging political correctness and canned arguments, Some White Guy’s Book candidly explores different sides of issues, why we believe what we do, and what roles White people and People of Color can play in building a common future. This work digs deep into how prejudices of color intersect poverty, crime, the justice system, religion, and patriotism. It includes first-hand experience and research of the George Floyd protests, contrasted with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

 

Author: Ken JP Stuczynski

Softcover / eBook

The Birth of Hip Hop

The Birth of Hip Hop

“Rapper’s Delight”—The Gene Anderson Story

The early history of Hip Hop, in the words of the man who was there in the middle of it—Gene “Poo Poo Man” Anderson.

Softcover (134 pages, over 50 historic photos) – $19.99

A playlist of music referenced in the book can be found HERE.

Visit Gene Anderson’s website, PooPooMan.Com

Number Seven and the Life Left Behind

Number Seven and the Life Left Behind

The life you leave behind may be your own…

Number Seven is a soldier-turned-bodyguard. His assignment: keep sheltered Olympic hopeful Kirill Morozov unharmed, untouched, and under control until he wins the gold. An easy job if only Kirill weren’t so desperate for a woman’s touch. And if Seven’s superior, Number Two, weren’t scrutinizing their every move.Seven enlists an old friend to satisfy Kirill’s lonely needs. But Number Two discovers their extracurricular activities, dropping Seven into a labyrinth of indecent proposals and explosive conspiracies and leaving him and his friends with only one choice for survival: run.How long can Seven stay out of the crosshairs of his fellow agents? How far will he go to protect his friends? And what might he lose on the way – his friendships, his love, or even his very life?

Author: Mayumi Hirtzel

Softcover (123 pages) / eBook