I know it's been quite a while since I've posted, much less since I've published! I have to admit that it is because I have been enjoying doing the whole YouTube thing. I started a channel back in 2018 about classic video games. It is called Classic Gamer74. The following has been slowly growing, not as fast as I'd like it to grow. To be honest I really can't figure out why I have just over 100 subscribers and others are into the thousands!
Regardless, I am back to writing. I decided that I wanted to publish a large anthology of my poetry, since my past poetry anthologies are all out of print. Word to the wise: do not trust fly by night publishers. You see them on TV all the time, but don't buy into their promises. Do yourself a favor and publish on Amazon.
So, anyway, I put all of my anthologies together, added a few new poems I've written, and then found a few old ones that I didn't know I still had. And there you go! This is quite a heavy tome, but what do you expect? It covers 30 years of poetry! Of course I will still be writing more poetry so another anthology will be in the works. However, since I published this large one already, I don't think another comprehensive anthology will be in the works. Probably after I die they will create one for me after they realize that I am Indiana's greatest poet.
The second book was at least 3 years in the making. It is a compilation of short stories I wrote about two high school sweethearts and the stuff that happened to them. The big question here, I'm sure is: Is this based on my life? The answer is yes and no. Yes, because some of the characters are based on people that I knew or knew of. No, because my life wasn't anywhere near as ideal as Adam Hanson (the book's narrator). Because of that I invented the character and "writer" of the book. I gave a whole biography of him and allowed him to do the "writing" or talking as it were.
My motivation for writing this book was when I learned of the death of someone I knew when I worked at PetSmart when I was in college. Her name was Giselle DeJesus. She was a good friend, and I loved her dearly. Being young, stupid and immature, I didn't tell her exactly how I felt about her and didn't present myself as someone who deserved her. We parted ways when I left PetSmart to work at a gas station in my hometown. I had lost touch with her but always wondered here and again about how her life turned out.
I found at that she had passed away years ago from breast cancer. Even though her death wasn't recent, I still felt the grief and loss of losing her. I decided to start writing this book as a sort of tribute to her and to create a very idealized life for a girl named Giselle and a boy named Adam. Are they based on the real Giselle and me? I'm not saying. But sometimes you draw inspiration from things that happen in your life, and things that should have. This is a case where both apply.
So, what's next? Well, I will keep working on my YouTube videos, as now I'm doing a channel on classic rock albums. And I will keep writing. I have to get that Jinn book done. It's really sad when you have a cover for a book but the book isn't finished. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
Anthony Ventrello, January 2020
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