Coal Fire Mind

by Greg Young

Overview

Greg Young: for decades, always moving, always moving on. Traveler, seeker, escape artist: from or to Texas, the Navy, Seattle, India, NYC, Korea, Honolulu, Germany. Passionately into stonework, surfing, alcohol, drumming, meditation, THC, teaching, Santeria. Fits and starts; restarts. Countless departures, arrivals. Moments of debauchery; of heartfelt appreciation; of enlightenment. Recidivist heart-breaker, breaker of his own heart. Self-saboteur. But, in the arc of Coal Fire's resolutely confessional telling, cleansed by the life-saving rigor of endeavoring to shape true narrative. To let story hold him accountable. And now, age fifty-something, so very far from where he began, composing this story (and thus himself) on the windswept coast of Wales. WALES!--of all the places he's been, could have been, could still be. At long last home, if (of course) restless still. But, for this redemptive moment, saved by his art. And by love: received; given.

Thomas Farber, author of The Face of the Deep

Product Details

BN ID:	2940033184064
Publisher:	Greg Young
Publication date:	04/24/2012
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	284 KB

About the Author

Born on the day before Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 1962; I was born to explore many different worlds.
I learned to navigate in the US Navy, got a degree in Journalism and surfing from the University of Hawaii and through self-discovery have studied Zen Buddhism, Santeria, Yoga, mountaineering, whitewater raft guiding and have worked in many different jobs from a bank teller, to a bartender, to a reggae band manager.
Though I've been writing for years, my proclivity for straying at the drop of a hat has kept me in the realm of the unpublished for way too long. My offering, Coal Fire Mind (due out via Amazon and Smashwords by Christmas) is my first attempt at publication (I had a minor poem published in my mentor's book – The Face of the Deep, Thomas Farber - long ago). In Coal Fire Mind the main character, that's me, meets a beautiful Welsh woman in India while they are both on a spiritual odyssey. We catch up with our hero nearly 10 years later as he and Amanda are finally testing the waters of living together. Layers of the protagonist's character begin to reveal themselves in the fire of real life as he and Amanda are force to split one more time due immigration policy. In the ensuing narrative the reader discovers hidden gems and demons as I burn my repressed selves in the ever-present embers of the hearth of reality.
My goal is to continue writing memoir style non-fiction. I've never learned to write fiction and I really don't have a desire to; I'm absolutely passionate about reading stories about real-life experiences. David Shields, author of Reality Hunger, wrote that "We are essentially alone in this world. I can't know what you're thinking and you can't know what I'm thinking; so, the goal in this writing is to construct a bridge across this abyss". This is the crux of my ardor for the true story; though the world is getting smaller, we are becoming more disconnected. Yes, you are connected via Twitter and Facebook but these "connections" are not heart to heart. Technology (the internet and all that comes with it in social media) espouses to connect us, and undeniably, it does (the Occupy Movement, the Arab Spring and unfortunately the August 2011 riots of London). However, technology lends an air of unreality and disparity in how many "Friends" one has and how often you actually see those friends. This type of communication hastens emotions to a text byte that has very little relation to the real-life emotion someone is liv...