20/01/2020
Spinoza cat.
Spinoza Publishing
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I publish and market my own books through Spinoza Publishing. Books cover The Vietnam War, poetry and a novel, Nora's Notion, about faith vs fantasy.
About the Author
I was born shortly before the end of World War II in Madison, Wisconsin, the first of three children. When I was four we moved to Florida where my father, a salesman, struggled to make a living- we moved often. I adapted to these challenging times by cultivating a sense of adventure. These adventures are woven throughout my writings and included in my first book, the memoir Hitch
hiking from Vietnam: Seeking the Ox. When I was in the fifth grade we bought a house in North Miami, Florida where I graduated from high school in 1963. I took my first hitchhiking trip that summer from Illinois back to Florida and got hooked on the freedom of the open road. In the fall I attended junior college in Miami, studied journalism and worked on the college paper. The following summer I worked at the New York World’s Fair then hitched to California and back just for fun. As a young man I struggled through life’s conflicts making more than my share of mistakes. My way of processing these conflicts was to write. Writing not only brought me satisfaction, but also recognition. After completing junior college I went to the University of Missouri, but left school before finishing a journalism degree and enlisted in the Navy in 1966 to avoid the draft. I joined with a sense of pride, but after two deployments to Vietnam and a tour of duty on a submarine tender I left with a sense of disillusionment. In 1972 I graduated from Columbia College in Chicago determined to become a journalist. I took a job with a newspaper in La Porte, Indiana, but soon became bored with small town reporting. I tried some freelancing but ended up back in Madison searching for a new life. Ditching journalism, I got a job at a hospital and became a nurse. I moved to Blackfoot, Idaho in 1978 where I worked at an institution for the criminally insane. That experience was interesting but stressful and after a couple of years I decided to try something new. I attended graduate school for counseling, but left in despair over the futility of the profession. I was looking for a new career when mother hood-winked me into moving to Columbia, South Carolina where we tried to make money buying and selling homes. In 1981 the economy was in a recession and we failed miserably. I felt trapped living with my mother at the age of 36, so I left town and escaped back to Madison. I was free and on my own again, but with no idea of what to do. I began driving for Union Cab, a company that had risen from the ashes of a labor dispute-a thinking person’s worker owned cooperative, a liberal enclave for artists and politicos. Who could ask for a more flexible job, a more fertile ground for ideas, and time to write and pursue my interests? Over the years I have written about environmental and forestry issues for Madison’s Isthmus and in the journal Wild Earth. I was also editor of the Union Cab newsletter for four years. My poetry was been featured as part of an art exhibit at the Elvejem Museum in Madison and my short stories have been published in Mobius, The Journal of Social Change. For me the real joy of writing is in telling a good story, sharing my experiences with others, and imparting a few of life’s lessons along the way. Today I live in Green Valley, AZ, a small town south of Tucson, writing, hiking and living with my wife of 20 years.
— Richard Chamberlin
16/12/2019
I had a great time reading my poems at Green Valley's Got Talent last month. We had 400 people for two shows.
28/08/2019
I'm being told by the Facebook deities that I have not been sending enough messages and I suspect that terrible things will happen to this website if I don't write something. After all, I AM A WRITER. Summer in Green Valley, Arizona is slow. We are mostly concerned with staying cool and waiting for Fall, which doesn't really take hold here until October. Everyone is begging for the monsoon rain. Yes we call them "Monsoons" although there is a small but persistent sub-set of desert dwellers that insist on calling them "heavy thunderstorms." The weather people on TV start getting excited over a 20% chance of rain. I'm looking forward to the fall when the snowbirds begin to filter down from the Ñorth and book sales creep upward. I auditioned for Green Valley's Got Talent last spring and will be doing some readings before an audience of 300 at CPAC (Community Performance Arts Center) That should happen sometime in November. Stay tuned.
Attached is a recent poem I wrote about our beloved leader
The Parade That Never Happened
Stars tumbled from the sky as the dawn broke hard over Pennsylvania Avenue
Black turned to red and sailors took warning
Then the sky faded to grey
As the units formed a gaunt array
The band was last to come minus their drum
And the horse manure sweepers turned out to be sleepers
A cold wind blew in from the South
By a quarter to one everything was undone
A kettle of vultures were released by the ton.
The leader of course wasn’t riding a horse
He walked down the street quite naked
As the head of state he stopped to ma******te
And the queen wore a trench coat dyed blue
That read “I don’t care. Do you?”
The head of information broke from the formation
Mooched a joint
Then blew smoke to the crowd
Next white hooded marchers
Followed by archers
Were pelted with bagels and lox
The soldiers wore spats
Plus bats on their hats
And carried shovels and picks
The band played a waltz
All decorum was lost
As the trumpeter
Tripped on some acid
The wind howled loud
Biting into the crowd
And the president became
Quite flaccid
A day after the disaster
The tweets came faster
Than s**t through the ass of a goose
Truth was upended, facts were amended
And a good time was had by all.
09/04/2019
Two other poets and myself will be doing a reading Thursday at the Green Valley Library. Check out the poster.
14/03/2019
I didn't sell as many books as I did last year at the Tucson Festival of Books but I guess ya gotta take the good years with the bad. Maybe it was beause the guy at the table next to me was GIVING HIS BOOKS AWAY FOR FREE! Anyway I'll be reading at the Green Valley Library on Thursday April 11 from 2-4 p.m. along with two other excellent poets, Tia Ballentine and Cal Lambert.
Free Poem
Nothing to write
The old poet sat in front of his computer
A marvel of technology
Offering nothing.
His mind floating in a hydrocodone stupor
His left hand wrapped in an ace bandage
The result of time and human folly
He casts his eyes down to the tan antique desk
A scrap of paper
W**d Killer
1 gallon white vinegar
1 cup salt
1 tablespoon dish liquid
On a pad lifted from the United Community Health Center
Jim Nintzel
Senior Writer Tucson Weekly
Sent email July 12
Called Jim Nintzel 7/23/18.
Mailbox full
On another page: The white dome of a telescope perches atop the mountain
Traffic whines the fountain gurgles the hummingbird feeder waits.
Projection
01/03/2019
I just want to invite my Arizona friends to stop by and say hello at the Tucson Festival of Books on Saturday 12-2 in the Indie Pavillion on the mall. My story about a rock throwing incident on the border in My Desert Menagerie, was a finalist in this year's competition.
10/01/2019
Spinoza Publishing has been busy preparing for the second printing of The Cybernetic Possum which will include a rewrite of "Ramsey's World", a story about a right-wing talk show host who makes a wise crack to a HS agent at the airport and ends up being waterboarded.
I'm also coming out with a second printing of "My Desert Menagerie" which was first printed in May 2018. I will be selling books at the Common Ground Border Fair on Saturday morning Jan. 19, at the Good Shepard Church in Sahuarita and then doing a reading at the Society of Southwestern Authors at the Grill on the Green at the Canoa Ranch Golf Club from 11:30 am to 2:30, also on the 19th.
I was recently chosen as a finalist in the short story contest for the Tucson Festival of Books for Justicia Fronteriza, a story based on the killing of Mexican teenager Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez by a border patrolman in 2012. I will be selling books at the indie tent at the festival in early March.
More later.
28/09/2018
Facebook is telling me that I haven't written much lately on my Spinoza Publishing page. Summer is ending in Southern Arizona and the snowbirds will be returning soon. I'll try scheduling some readings for the fall. I will be selling books are the Tucson Book Festival in March of 2019 as well as doing a reading at the Green Valley Library. Below is one of my latest poems.
The Parade That Never Happened
By Richard Chamberlin
Stars tumbled from the sky as the dawn broke hard over Pennsylvania Avenue
Black turned to red and sailors took warning
Then the sky faded to grey
As the units formed a gaunt array
The band was last to come minus their drum
And the horse manure sweepers turned out to be sleepers
A cold wind blew in from the South
By a quarter to one everything was undone
A kettle of vultures were released by the ton.
The leader of course wasn’t riding a horse
He walked down the street quite naked
As the head of state he stopped to ma******te
And the queen wore a trench coat dyed blue
That read “I don’t care. Do you?”
The head of information broke from the formation
Mooched a joint
Then blew smoke to the crowd
Next white hooded marchers
Followed by archers
Were pelted with bagels and lox
The soldiers wore spats
Plus bats on their hats
And carried shovels and picks
The band played a waltz
All decorum was lost
As the trumpeter
Tripped on some acid
The wind howled loud
Biting into the crowd
And the president became
Quite flaccid
A day after the disaster
The tweets came faster
Than s**t through the ass of a goose
Truth was upended, facts were amended
And a good time was had by all.
25/06/2018
A great big thanks to everyone who attended my reading of My Desert Menagerie in Madison at the Pinney Library on the 20th of June. If you couldn't make it, all my books are available on Amazon. Here are some pictures taken by Tom Glassel of the event. Included in the photos are John Fournelle (from the back) Kevin Rovolinski, Ken Adi Ring, and Theresa Seeley. My wife Judi Torres is sitting next to me helping out with the money.
07/06/2018
I'm in Madison for about a month and will be doing a reading from my newest book, My Desert Menagerie, on June 20 at the Pinney Library, 204 Cottage Grove Road at 7 p.m. It's a book of short stories and poetry about my new home-- Southern Arizona. Its also available on Amazon.
07/06/2018
08/05/2017
I had a reunion with two of the characters in my memoir "Hitchhiking from Vietnam" last week. Rob Connelly (Reilly), who I got stoned with at the Doors concert in Miami in1969 (Chapter 23) came for a visit and, while he was here, Jim Foley (Chapter 24 Tripping in Norfolk) and his wife Julie, from Madison, WI stopped by for a day. My wife Judi and the crew had some beer and Margaritas at nearby El Patio Mexican Restaurant in Sahurita reminisced and cursed Trump .ID- Me, Foley, Reilly.
03/04/2017
What are you doing Tuesday afternoon?
I hope you will join me and some of my friends for a poetry reading at the Green Valley library at 2 p.m as part of their local author series. I'll be reading from my book, The Cybernetic Possum. These ecletic musings will delght and possibly distrub readers whether they are attracted to the real or the almost real, poetry or prose. I'll also be selling my other two books,the memoir Hitchhiking from Vietnam and my novel Nora's Notion. You can get the Cybernetic Possum free if you buy the other two books.
22/03/2017
22/03/2017
The Tucson Festival of Books was held March 11 and 12 and I volunteered as a driver for four authors, picking and dropping them off at the airport and getting them from their hotels to the book fair at the University of Arizona campus in downtown. It got me all nostalgic about my years as a cab driver when I would have great conversations with people I would never have met normally. Joe Conason is a journalist, author and liberal commentator. He has managed to navigate the shark infested waters of media markets and now has a news wesite called The National Memo with 300,000 subscribers. Nicholas Dodman is a distinguished looking gentleman from England, a former veterinarian who writes books about dog and cat behavior. Julissa Arce worked hard, got a job on Wall Street and became a citizen. She wrote, My Underground American Dream and works to improve the lives of Latinos..She was a star in panel discussions. Sam Polk, a former hedge fund trader became addicted to life in the fast land but exited in time to avoid crashing. He left with $2.5 million in cash and wrote For The Love of Money. Today he sells food to low income people in "food deserts" at reduced prices.
01/12/2016
We had a great turnout for my reading from Hitchhiking from Vietnam at the Green Valley Library a couple weeks ago. Thanks to everyone who came. My next reading at the Green Valley Library will be in April from my collection of poetry, The Cybernetic Possum..
11/11/2016
Opps... I just read an article from the Arizona Central site and apparently all the votes in the Arizona Senate race have not been counted because over 1 million people turned in their early voting ballots ON ELECTION DAY and it takes a while to count them all If one seat still up for grabs goes to Democrats it's still a 16-14 split with the Republicans retaining control.
10/11/2016
Next Tuesday, November 15, I will be reading from Hitchhiking from Vietnam: Seeking the Ox at 2 p.m. at the Joyner-Green Valley library. It is part of their local authors program so I hope that all my Green Valley friends can attend. I will be selling and signing books.
Hopefully by then the shock of Trump's win will lessen and we can begin to focus on other activities. I did a lot of canvassing in the barrios of Tucson and am glad the election is finally over. The Dems did manage to defeat a Republican state representative in our district and picked up two senators statewide to make he Arizona senate an even split. With a little luck we can stop some of the harmful bills from becoming law.
30/08/2016
I'm getting rid of the Spinoza Publishing website and have transferred some of the photos to Facebook.. If you haven't already seen them take a look at my 2008 trip back to Viet Nam in the Photos I talk about My Lai in my memoir, Hitchhiking from Vietnam.
30/08/2016
A few photos from my visit to Vietnam in 2008 for the 40th Anniversary of the My Lai Massacre.
01/04/2016
March 25 was a Good Friday indeed with me reading passages from Nora's Notion and The Cybernetic Possum to some Green Valley friends who came to the Posada Java Coffeehouse. With the sale of lots of books, the coffers of Spinoza Publishing were replenished.I'll be having more readings later, so stay tuned. Thanks to everyone who stopped by.
01/04/2016
17/03/2016
I have been doing volunteer tutoring in reading at Calabas Middle School in Rio Rico, a small town in Arizona, about 30 miles south of where I live. The tutoring program is through the group "Change is Happening." I get together with two sixth-grade students for 25 minutes once a week who need extra help with reading. I wrote a poem about one of them.
Reading with Andrea
I really don’t like to read, says Andrea.
I know, that’s why you’re here.
I open the book.
Find something you are interested in.
Andrea is in the sixth grade and reads at a second grade level.
She adjusts her black framed glasses and flips through the pages with her stubby purple painted fingernails.
She begins reading and stumbles on the word “stereotypes.”
It means oversimplified ideas like what you think of a group, I say.
Like for instance, “old people.”
You probably think I’m old, I say.
Andrea looks up at the ceiling. I’m not going to answer that.
OK, well I know you think I’m old.
I really don’t like to read, she says.
The stereotype of old people is that they are slow and wrinkled, I say.
Suddenly I feel a twinge in my back.
Andrea whips out her computer and finds the word. Her fingers begin moving like lightening over the keys flashing up images and websites faster than I can follow.
OK that’s enough. Put away the computer. Let’s read the book.
I really, really, don’t like reading. It’s my least favorite subject.
I know.
29/02/2016
I tried to attach some pictures of the two venues listed to make it a little more visually appealing but for some reason they wouldn't transfer, so I will attempt to attach something that IS visually appealing even though it may have nothing to do with my two Green Valley readings next month.
27/02/2016
Authors' Day Meet and Greet
Wednesday, March 9
Joyner-Green Valley Library
601 N. La Canada
Green Valley, AZ
1-3 p.m.
All 3 books will be available
Reading, discussion, signing Nora's Notion
Friday, March 25
Posada Java Coffeehouse
665 S. Park Center Avenue
Green Valley, AZ
3 p.m.
For more information go to spinozapublishing.com
04/10/2015
We just got back from Madison Tuesday night and had a great time visiting friends and selling copies of Nora's Notion. On Friday Sept. 25, about thirty people showed up at Cargo Coffee East where I read from Nora's Notion amidst slurping espresso machines and sold a lot of books. It was very gratifying to so many friends I hadn't seen in years. Almost makes me want to move back. After Cargo I did a reading for the Sunday Assembly, as new group that meets at the James Reeb Unitarian church off Johnson Street. After a rest I'll start preparing for another reading here in Green Valley, Arizona sometime this year or early next, although we are in the process of selling our house and will be moving about two miles away to bigger digs so, the reading may have to wait for a while.
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