4-18-01

Hermit or Individualist?

April Eighteenth in the Year of our Lord, 2001

Greetings from BFE…

Pass this e-mail on to at least ten people or you could develop genital warts the size of golf balls (Ok, it’s not likely…but I’ve seen it happen and believe me, you don’t want to chance it.)

My wife asked me what the hell I was gonna do on this list? (That’s what I get for signing her up against her will) I told her I would offer my witty insights from the week…she told me not to quite my day job. Joke’s on her, my day job pays almost as bad as this thing…

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You ever wonder where BFE is exactly?

--Class is now in session. Please refer to your Rand McNally road atlas. Okay, now look up Texas…see that big blank spot east of Amarillo? That’s BFE—

That’s where I live!

Now I’ve noticed there’s a stigma associated with living out in the boonies, television and motion pictures even promote this wanton discrimination. Rural recluses such as I are often thought of as hermits, rednecks, and perhaps even a quarter bubble off plumb.

Ok, I admit it…I fit that bill. Well sort of anyhow, the term hermit part carries some connotations I’m not real comfortable with: people hater, separatist, butt-banging-banjo-playing-hillbilly…

I’m not a people hater or a separatist.

I can’t hardly think of an individual out there that I truly hate, at least on a personal basis. What I hate is groups of people, and I don’t mean any specific group of people, just any congregation with numbers too large to fit into a VW Bug.

Why you ask? Watch any European soccer game and that will pretty well sum it up for you.

People in groups lose their identity. The group takes on a consciousness of it’s own, and unfortunately that “mob” consciousness often relegates itself to the lowest common denominator. This “mob” mentality frequently leads to random destruction, violence against any person not taking part in the “mob”, and the flashing of breasts for cheap plastic beads.

I never said the lowest common denominator was all bad…

So I bring this up mainly to explain myself, and to let you all know that just because I live in BFE, don’t think of me as a hermit. Think of me as an individualist.

And individualist who likes the idea of being able to drop-trow and pee anywhere I damn well want too…

Ok, this might not be a big draw to you city folks out there, but it’s part of what makes me the banjo-playing individualist that I am today.

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Now down to new business…

In one month I’m going to serialize and release my Novella The Sword of God in four, maybe five, installments over this list. These installments will also be available at my website: http://www.racox.com, so if you know anyone who might enjoy this, pass this e-mail along.

SOG is an odd account, written in the first person (a POV that usually gives me a migraine, but one I find myself frequently using in my short stories and novella’s). This story was penned under the pseudonym R. Abraham Carver, a sophisticated chap who would never drop-trow to pee in the tall grass, and I’m anxious to see how you guys like it. It’s one of my personal favorites, even though it is a quazi-vampire tale…

I had hoped to break some big news on this, my first official mailing to the list, but unfortunately that news is still under wraps for the time being…maybe next week. I hope next week.

Until then…may you get no rash from the tall grass.

R.A.

“Squeal Like a pig!” ~ Toothless Hillbilly Number Two, Deliverance