Ask the Author: Robert Joe Stout
Answered Questions (8)
Robert Joe Stout
I'm afraid not. The publisher originally planned to bring it out as a Nook ebook along with the print version but apparently ran into problems negotiating it and the deal fell through. I have a couple of review copies left and could provide one (or a pdf) if that would be of help to your group.
Thanks so much for your interest.
Thanks so much for your interest.
Robert Joe Stout
Hi Jimmy,
Good questions. In the early 70s I was involved with an interactive veteran’s support group (as a writer/journalist not as a counselor) in Austin, Texas. One of the things we did was get those involved to talk about their experiences, or write about them. At one point we mimeographed the comments, experiences. For a while I had the mimeographs but they long ago disappeared; however, I had a version of them that I’d typed, thinking I might sometime publish something using them. Later in the 70s after I moved to California I taught an off-campus writing class sponsored by a university connected group. Several of the participants were Vietnam vets and wrote about their experiences—or brought poems they’d written when they were in Vietnam. As a magazine journalist I was then writing for a number of military magazines—Army Magazine, Retired Officer Magazine, Vietnam Magazine, American Legion magazine, etc. so I was tied in to military experiences (my own having been rather mundane) and wrote a few poems about Vietnam. Much later, in 1997, I wrote the poems that were included in Monkey Screams intending it to be a chapbook. I based the poems on the old ‘70s accounts of events in Vietnam and decided to make each poem a separate narrative told by a participant. The events described—the jeep hitting the buffalo, the return to the town burned by the Cong, the missing supplies, the marine’s trip to the monastery, etc. all actually happened though not exactly as narrated in the poems. The one exception is the four-part poem “Good Reports” which is based on experiences related by a friend and was written a year or two before the others but like the others is not an accurate journalistic account but a poetic rendering of the events described.
I hope this clarifies rather than obfuscates. Bob Stout
Good questions. In the early 70s I was involved with an interactive veteran’s support group (as a writer/journalist not as a counselor) in Austin, Texas. One of the things we did was get those involved to talk about their experiences, or write about them. At one point we mimeographed the comments, experiences. For a while I had the mimeographs but they long ago disappeared; however, I had a version of them that I’d typed, thinking I might sometime publish something using them. Later in the 70s after I moved to California I taught an off-campus writing class sponsored by a university connected group. Several of the participants were Vietnam vets and wrote about their experiences—or brought poems they’d written when they were in Vietnam. As a magazine journalist I was then writing for a number of military magazines—Army Magazine, Retired Officer Magazine, Vietnam Magazine, American Legion magazine, etc. so I was tied in to military experiences (my own having been rather mundane) and wrote a few poems about Vietnam. Much later, in 1997, I wrote the poems that were included in Monkey Screams intending it to be a chapbook. I based the poems on the old ‘70s accounts of events in Vietnam and decided to make each poem a separate narrative told by a participant. The events described—the jeep hitting the buffalo, the return to the town burned by the Cong, the missing supplies, the marine’s trip to the monastery, etc. all actually happened though not exactly as narrated in the poems. The one exception is the four-part poem “Good Reports” which is based on experiences related by a friend and was written a year or two before the others but like the others is not an accurate journalistic account but a poetic rendering of the events described.
I hope this clarifies rather than obfuscates. Bob Stout
Robert Joe Stout
Both the nonfiction Hidden Dangers and the novel Where Gringos Don't Belong were generated by experiences in contemporary Mexico, particularly in Oaxaca, where social protest crescendoed eight years ago, a preview of what currently is happening in the country.
Robert Joe Stout
By being alive. Seriously, what I see, what I read, what I experience is constant inspiration, not always a rose garden, like being teargassed in Oaxaca, joining an immigrdant caravan, losing my best friend to a heart attack. And by writing--writing creates its own inspiration.
Robert Joe Stout
Three books coming out from Indie publishers: Hidden Dangers which analyzes the problems of Mexico-U.S. confrontations with drug commerce, immigrations, corruption, social protest and ecological violations has just been made available by Sunbury Press. Where Gingos Don't Belong, a novel set in Oaxaca, Mexico is being printed and will be available on Amazon and from Anapora Press in January. A new volume of poetry, Monkey Screams, which includes Vietnam poems, is scheduled to appear in Spring 2015 from Future Cycles Press.
Robert Joe Stout
Be honest with yourself. Ask "Why am I doing this?" For money? For fame? For love? To win a bet? and answer candidly. Ask that about each thing you start to write and let what you write answer the question.
Robert Joe Stout
It is a lifestyle, an identity, an integrated involvement with one's self, one's relationships, one's activities, one's environment. To create gives great satisfaction despite frustrations and setbacks.And it's an adventure--always someting new, always more to achieve.
Robert Joe Stout
Having several things going. I write poetry and fiction as well as nonfiction so there's always a place to turn, something to rewrite, something to blog, something to put in the computer and delete.
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