Website & blogs © Louis Kraft 2013-2020
Contact Kraft at writerkraft@gmail.com or comment at the end of the blogs
The next blog was tentatively scheduled to be in October of this year but will go live in December.
Guess what? … Not quite true as the work load previously shared became more than expected. Much more than expected. It will actually happen in late December and most likely on the thirty-first.
(photo © Louis Kraft 2014)
I haven’t finished writing the Epilogue for Sand Creek and the Tragic End of a Lifeway (a huge understatement for I can’t begin to tell you how large it will be) but have shared the first 30 pages of it to great friend Glen Williams to review on 27may2018.
And better, …
Did I say better? Yes better!! It is 7:38 pm on May 27 and I was about to shut down for the day. … But then I realized something out of the ordinary. I have tinnitus and it is ongoing. The only time it goes on vacation is when my focus is so intense that it delivers a Muhammad Ali knockout punch, a Duke Snider home run, a Johnny Unitas touchdown pass, a Kobe Bryant slam dunk.
This is an early image of my muse on the morn before one of our great explorations. This is one of my favorite photos of Pailin. (photo © Louis Kraft and Pailin Subanna-Kraft 2013)
Guess that tonight I was Muhammad, the Duke, Johnny U., and Kobe all at the same time.
What I’m saying is that at this time, beginning about 7:00 pm LA time (when I realized my condition and continuing through at least 10:25 pm I able to hear like all of you that don’t struggle with this heinous malady. I know that it will only be for a short time, but realize at this moment in time I’m walking on clouds.
The only time this happens for me is when my concentration on what I need to accomplish is so focused that nothing else enters my brain.
Everything in my life is zeroed in on one target—I’m Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood splitting the arrow, I’m Johnny Unitas throwing one last TD bomb to Jimmy Orr in Baltimore, I’m Kobe scoring 60 points in his last NBA game; I’m LK catching a punt and zigzagging my way through eleven defenders. I’m alive and totally focused.
This great image at left was taken by my bro for all time, Glen Williams, at Mission San Fernando Rey de España (San Fernando, California). (photo © Louis Kraft and Glen Williams 2012)
Dear Lord, let me find and grab this zone on a daily basis and your lone cowboy will quietly ride into the sunset without a fight when the time comes.
Regardless of what I said at the end of the my last blog, I’m back, or better … “Here’s Louis!”
On May 31 I will deliver the preface, 15 chapters, and the incomplete epilogue of the Sand Creek manuscript (actually, nothing is close to being complete—there is still a lot of work in front of me before I have a first draft). These words will go out for review.
The last seven years have been pure hell. They have also been the most focused of my life. I have gone from six figures in salary to a pauper, have signed the most important contract of my life (Sand Creek), have written damned good book that wasn’t planned as I needed hard-cold cash to pay bills (The Discovery), have met my muse and the most amazing person I’ll ever know (Pailin), have bashed the hell out of my head way too many times, and have realized that I should be dead (more than once) but due to a lot of events at the midnight hour I’m still walking. … I’m the luckiest guy you know, and let me tell you that my brain still functions (and works in overdrive when necessary).
LK loading a revolver in a image I discovered last year on a roll of negatives from September 1973. (photo © Louis Kraft 1973)
I walk, work out with light weights, stretch, deal with my balance, and swing the sword. I still challenge everything that enters my life that I don’t like (I talked about the most recent incident on other social media, and there is a party next door as I write these words and the music is quiet). More important, I am meeting my Sand Creek writing deadlines, and best I am one with the three people in my life.
These words have taken a little less than an hour to write, but I needed to share them in case the unexpected happens.
I only have one thing to say. I will tell you what Ma Bell told me 48 years ago, when I worked as a long-distance operator: “Being absent without permission is against the rules. It is only allowed in the event of your death. (I think you referred to it as “if the unexpected happens.”) In such case you will need to give three days notice and have the event APPROVED BY MANAGEMENT.
I was referring to it in a military way from days long gone, where at times it could be viewed as desertion.