Lennox Randon's Blog

Up until January 10, 2017, if anyone asked how I was coping with the loss, I would have said, “Poorly.”

My brilliant, talented, creative, generous, caring, funny, adventurous, beautiful 18 year-old daughter, Lark “Alou” Randon, died on September 4, 2016.  We chose not to immediately announce her death publicly because of our own struggles to process it emotionally. Before her death, Lark completed a novel under her pen name, Alou Randon.  One way I am more »

Dennis Green, Rob Cline, and I have been meeting in my basement on Sundays for nearly 5 years to discuss our writing projects. Our meetings have resulted in 5 novels and a collection of short stories. Most importantly for me, they’ve also resulted in two new friendships and a welcome distraction from my stupid cancer. Since Dennis and I have new novels launching this week, we decided to interview each other about our works.

DENNIS:  Let’s start by getting the elephant in the room out of the way. Your stomach cancer has returned. How are you feeling?

RANDON:  First of all, thanks to you and Rob Cline for visiting me in the hospital after my last surgery.  Sadly, that nasty scar puts an end to my childhood dream of being a Speedo model, so I hope this writing thing works out. Fingers crossed.

Joking aside, the second-line chemotherapy for treatment of GIST (gastrointestinal stromal tumors), Sutent, is harsher than the first-line chemo.  My oncologist has been tweaking the dosage to find the sweet spot where the tumors remain suppressed but my quality of life is reasonable.  I’ve lost a substantial amount of weight and my stamina is greatly diminished, among other problems, but that’s all due to the chemo as opposed to the cancer itself.

Since I didn’t even expect to be alive in 2015, I won’t complain too much.

RANDON: How would you describe your latest novel, Prisoner?

DENNIS: Prisoner takes place about a year after the events of Traveler. True to the promise he made to himself at the end of the first book, Trav Becker has settled into a normal life, or as normal as a policeman’s life can be. But he’s left all the parallel reality-jumping behind. Everything is fine, until dead and dying Trav Beckers start showing up everywhere Trav turns.

Pursued by an FBI profiler who believes (with some justification) that Trav is hiding something, the detective races to save two kidnapped girls while also trying to sort out why he keeps turning up dead. Desperate to preserve his home timeline, Trav is thrust into a hidden war that threatens to destroy the very fabric of reality itself.

DENNIS:  Memoirs is a very different book than Friends Dogs Bullets Lovers. Where did the idea come from?

RANDON:  In 1991 or 1992, I was courting my wife, trying to convince that her I had a modicum of class.  We went to a museum called The Menil Collection in Houston and saw an art exhibit of Jacob Lawrence paintings from 1939 and 1940 that focused on the lives of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.  Each painting had a caption below it. One caption mentioned that after suffering a head injury as a slave, Tubman, for the rest of her life, had a condition that caused her to fall asleep with no warning.

I was blown away that, despite her medical condition, she risked her life repeatedly to free slaves. Tubman’s story and courage inspired me to begin writing Memoirs of a Dead White Chick. A large portion of the story concept came to me almost instantly. As I did more and more research, though, I began to wonder whether the Civil War was the best way or the only way to end slavery, and that question informed much of the rest of the story.

RANDON: Prisoner is the second book in your Traveler trilogy.  Compare the experience of writing this book to the first.  Was it easier, equally as difficult, or harder?

DENNIS: In music, they say a band has ten years to make their first album and ten months to make their second. If you think about it, you can pretty much count on the fingers of one hand the number of follow-ups that even match, let alone exceed, debuts. So you definitely feel like you’re under some pressure to prove the first book wasn’t a fluke. On top of that, Traveler was intended to be a one-shot. I wanted to leave it a little open-ended, but didn’t intend for it to become a series. Then, toward the end of writing Traveler, I had this idea for a scene where a bleeding and dying version of Trav shows up on “our” Trav’s doorstep. After that, I had to write a sequel. Only problem was, I then had to figure out the rest of the story!

RANDON: What did writing your first book teach you that applied to the second one?

DENNIS: Like you, I’ve never taken any classes or had formal training in writing novels. At its most basic, I learned how to structure a novel. It’s pretty easy to think of the idea of a story, and maybe even to write a scene or two, but understanding the ebb and flow of a narrative, where to leave the little clues your protagonist (and reader) need, while playing fair, takes a lot more skill and patience than you might think.

DENNIS:  And I’ll ask you the same question to wrap up. What did writing your first book teach you that applied to the second one?

RANDON:  The biggest thing I learned was that I can actually write a book.  Doubt was my biggest enemy for years.

Secondly, I learned that the book doesn’t have to be written perfectly in the first draft nor does it have to be written in perfect chronological order.  By that, I mean, if I had an idea for the ending, I could write it early on and then write toward that ending.  If I got stuck in the middle, I could skip over that part and fill it in later.

Lastly, I learned how much I enjoyed meeting readers when we spoke at bookstores, book clubs, Rotary Clubs, and Optimist Clubs.  Their enthusiasm and support gave me the confidence to keep writing, and their questions helped me better understand my own process and the process of our writing group.

My first-line chemotherapy has failed and I feel like a guy who tried to disarm a bomb but cut the wrong wire.

Now the timer has sped up.

The second-line chemo has been kicking my taut derrière, and my 2nd novel is giving me a little trouble, so my spirits have been sagging.

Then I got the following uplifting comments on my website:

Christine Grandon on October 18, 2014 at 4:16 pm said:

read my daughter’s copy and really enjoyed it, especially since I’m from CR and moved to TX!! Also, Noh’s religious feelings mirror mine!! Also, coincidence, i had just finished Suspect by Robert Crais and you are WAY better!! His protagonist was predictable and made stupid choices. As i said, you are way better. Don’t quit writing and i hope “the Gods” smile on you and make you well again

Christine Grandon on October 18, 2014 at 4:23 pm said:

just finished my daughter’s copy of your book, having just finished Robert Crais’ Suspect by coincidence and you are way better than he is! I liked Noh and Lee so much! My religious journey mirrors Noh’s very closely and coincidentally was raised in Cedar Rapids but moved to Texas for work. Please keep writing with confidence, and I hope “the Gods” smile on you with complete recovery.

Now I realize that I’m a lucky guy and I should re-focus on the good.

I have a great wife and daughter who cheerfully assist me when my body isn’t up to snuff.

One sister and her husband and kids visit and check in regularly. My other sister keeps me up to date on the latest therapies.

My wife’s family both in Cedar Rapids and out of town consistently let me know they are thinking of me.

My neighbors read my novel for their book club and invited me to discuss it with them.

My three brothers-from-other-mothers call, email, text, and visit.

My bluesman cousin from Austin lifechecks me regularly.

A brilliant former co-worker/haiku laureate from my technical writing days agreed with a smile to be a beta reader for my 2nd novel.

The Writing Lads still get together most Sundays as we have for nearly four years, supporting each other’s efforts.

Cancer sucks, but my life doesn’t.  I’m a lucky guy.

(But I wouldn’t say no to a cure.)

Busy last couple of days for The Writing Lads.

Dennis, Rob & I met with the Daybreak Rotary of Cedar Rapids on Friday to discuss our novels.  We shared a few laughs and met some outstanding people with a strong sense of community.  Moreover, they are partnering with Sunrise Rotary to construct an Early Childhood Development Center in El Salvador.  Good people.

On Saturday, we went to Beaverdale Books in Des Moines to tell our tale and read.  What a beautiful store with a great selection and helpful staff!  Buy local, readers.

On a personal note, my body has held up fairly well and I’m finding myself more and more comfortable with public speaking.

Thanks to everyone that came out to hear us.

Beyond their obvious literary merit, here are the top 11 reasons to read our books. (A list which is not at all like Letterman’s Top 10 because it’s one more, isn’t it? It’s not ten.)

11.  Nary a single hunky vampire, werewolf or Chupacabra graces the pages of these tomes!

10.  We ardently adhere to the fifth Rule of Peaceful Pizza Delivery. [Ch.28, MBTS]

9.     Content is guaranteed Gluten-Free and Bieber-Free with no MSG, Zero calories, and no soporific content.

8.     Each novel is less than an eighth of an SPL thick. [Ch.3, FDBL]

7.     No documented permanent harmful side effects have been attributed to our books. (not yet verified by FDA or CDC)

6.     Generations of readers from Alma to Zelle want to know the secret of Branches.  See if you can figure it out.

5.     Zombie-proof. Nuff said!

4.     Not inspired by Reality TV

3.     They’re Hipster-rific.

2.     Each book was crafted in the good ole U S of A.

1.     Over one dozen Amazon reviewers can’t be wrong.

Autographed copy of Kyle Eastwood’s latest CD

I gave a copy of Friends Dogs Bullets Lovers to bassist extraordinaire Kyle Eastwood on Tuesday night during the intermission of his quintet’s show at CSPS in Cedar Rapids.  In return, he signed my copy of his latest CD.

Kyle said he spends a lot of time on planes, so he’s glad to have something new to read.

Meeting Eastwood is especially cool for me because I mentioned Kyle’s bass prowess on the bottom of page 228 of my novel, never imagining I’d see him live.  In the January 5, 2006 issue of The Gazette, our local newspaper, I even wrote a blurb about how I thought Eastwood’s Paris Blue was the best CD of the prior year.

Kyle and his band were outstanding. I own five of his CD’s but until I saw him live, I did not know how truly incredible he is on the basses.  The entire quintet was tight and soulful.

On March 7, 1980 I saw Jaco Pastorius perform with Weather Report, and on June 28, 1981 I saw Stanley Clarke perform.  Kyle’s performance was on par with those cats – that’s how good he was!

CSPS was a wonderful, intimate venue and the packed house responded well to the show.

Kyle was very gracious about signing autographs and posing for photos both at intermission and after the show.

It was a very cool night for me.  Chalk up another wonderful experience for my bonus years.

In September of 2008, I began feeling easily fatigued and light-headed.  I thought it was perhaps a blood sugar problem, but tests indicated otherwise.

Eventually, a gastroenterologist performed an upper endoscopy.  When I awakened from the procedure, I was shown a photo of a tumor located in the wall of my stomach where the esophagus connects to the stomach.   It had its own blood supply.

Pathology determined I had a GIST (gastrointestinal stromal tumor), a fairly rare cancer.

In October, surgery was performed and the tumor was removed.

Six weeks later, I began taking a targeted chemotherapy pill (Gleevec) on a nightly basis with its accompanying side effects.  For me, I had nausea, diarrhea, severe muscle cramps, dry heaves, hypopigmentation (skin color lightening), and teary and puffy eyes.  Over time, I determined by trial and error which foods and drinks worked best to lessen the severity of the side effects.

In April, another type of cancer was found in my bladder.  For the first time I cried and started to feel my situation was hopeless. I felt like I was a cancer-making machine.  I shook it off a few days later because it’s not my way to dwell on the negative.

By the end of January 2010, I was able to stop chemo after 13 months and my life returned to normal.

Unfortunately, on December 16, 2010, I began to have great pain and was unable to bend at the waist.  An ambulance transported me to the hospital where a CT scan showed innumerable tumors.   My cancer had metastasized.  Surgery was recommended but we were told I would not survive.

I was moved to ICU, and my wife and I said our final goodbyes.  She contacted family and friends.  Then we got practical, discussing bills and household matters.

Once we thought about the whole surgery deal, though, we realized it would be best to consult with oncologists before rushing to cut me open again.  The oncologists we consulted said that we should put off surgery and try bombarding the tumors with chemo first.  We liked that idea much better than certain death.

Over two years later, the tumors are still there but the chemo is keeping them suppressed. Research says that the first line chemo fails in 50% of cases after two years, so I have been understandably anxious with every new CT scan or PET scan.

Until just recently, I’ve lived with the knowledge that when the first line drug fails, it has meant I have about 24 weeks or so left to live.  Bummer.

A few days ago, though, it was announced that a third line drug had been approved which has been shown to add a median of 4.8 months of life (3.9 months on average).  Though that does not sound like a lot, it relaxes me to know I could still hang around 10 or more months after the drug I’m on fails.  Perspective.

I’m neither an optimist nor a pessimist, but a realist.  I hope for a longer life but don’t expect it.

Writing and experiencing reactions to my first novel serve as a welcome distraction from my worries.  Hopefully I’ll have enough time to finish a second novel, and maybe even see readers’ response to it.  I’m just trying to make the most of the time I have left.

If you’ve read my novel, you suspect my love of music.  Since I was a wee wisp of a lad, I’ve loved music.  My first favorite song was Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road, Jack.” James Brown was my first favorite singer, and The Temptations were my first favorite group.

I’d been planning to post a favorite albums list for a while, and when I looked at the Influential Albums list referenced by cousin Angela Sloan, I decided the time is right. However, this is not an important or influential albums list.  This is a makes-me-happy list.

I own plenty of influential albums, but they are not necessarily the ones I love to listen to any time – I have to be in the mood for them.  The Beatles, Nirvana and Narada Michael Walden just missed the cut.

How did I decide on the albums for this particular list?

Firstly, I must love or really like over half of the songs.  If I have to ask myself, “Now how does that song go?” for more than one track, it probably won’t make the cut.

It must be an album I’ve listened to all the way through more times than I can remember and still enjoy.  They must be complete albums.

The album must be from my collection of approximately 1000 LP’s, 8 track tapes, cassettes, digital albums, and CD’s.

I have decided to only list one album per artist, or at least not give one artist more than a single slot.  This is difficult with cats that I own large number of albums by, like Stevie Wonder (13 albums), Pat Metheny (28), and George Benson (13).

If you have an opinion on which album is best by the artists for whom I listed more than one album, please help.

And, yes, the 70’s are highly represented – I’m old.

Anyway, here are my semi-finalists:

1)    Al Jarreau – Look To the Rainbow    LP    1977

2)    Antonio Carlos Jobim & Various Artists – The Girl From Ipanema:  The Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook    CD    1995

3)    Bob Marley – Legend – The Best of Bob Marley & the Wailers         LP    1984

4)    Brainstorm – Journey to the Light    LP    1978

5)    Branford Marsalis – Renaissance    LP    1987

6)    Deniece Williams – Gonna Take A Miracle: The Best of Deniece Williams    CD    1996

7)    Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms    Cassette    1985

8)    Earth, Wind and Fire

a)    All ‘N All    LP    1977
b)    Gratitude    LP    1975

9)    George Duke – Reach for It    LP    1977

10)    George Benson

a)    Tenderly    CD    1989
b)    Give Me the Night    LP    1980
c)    Livin’ Inside Your Love    LP    1979
d)    Weekend in L.A.    LP    1978

11)    Heatwave

a)    Central Heating    LP    1978
b)    Too Hot to Handle    LP    1977

12)    Herbie Hancock – Sunlight    LP    1978

13)    Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, et al

a)    Round Midnight    LP    1986
b)    The Other Side of Round Midnight    LP    1986

14)    Hubert Laws – Say It With Silence     LP    1978

15)    Isley Brothers

a)    Forever Gold     LP    1977
b)    Go For Your Guns     8 track    1977

16)    James Taylor – Greatest Hits    LP    1976

17)    Janet Jackson – janet.    CD    1993

18)    Joe Jackson – Night and Day    LP    1982

19)    John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman    CD    1963

20)    John Mayer – Inside Wants Out    CD    1999

21)    Johnny Guitar Watson – Ain’t That a Bitch    8 track     1976

22)    Kenny Loggins

a)    Celebrate Me Home     LP    1977
b)    Leap of Faith     CD    1992
c)    Return to Pooh Corner     CD    1994

23)    Kevin Eubanks – Guitarist    LP    1983

24)    Koop – Waltz for Koop    MP3    2001

25)    Lenny White – Streamline    LP    1978

26)    Manhattan Transfer – Extensions    LP    1979

27)    Marvin Gaye

a)    After the Dance     LP    1976
b)    What’s Going On    LP     1971

28)    Melody Gardot – iTunes Live from SoHo – EP     MP3    2009

29)    Michael Franks

a)    Tiger in the Rain    LP    1979
b)    One Bad Habit    LP    1980

30)    Michael Henderson

a)    Goin’ Places    LP    1977
b)    In the Night-Time    LP    1978

31)    Michael Jackson – Off the Wall    LP    1979

32)    The Jacksons – Destiny    LP    1978

33)    Miles Davis

a)    Kind of Blue    CD    1959
b)    Kind Of Blue 50th Anniversary Collectors Edition    CD/LP    2009

34)    Pat Metheny Group / Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays

a)    Pat Metheny Group     LP    1978
b)    American Garage    LP    1979
c)    Offramp    LP    1982
d)    First Circle    LP    1984
e)    The Falcon and The Snowman Original Motion Picture Soundtrack     CD    1985
f)    STILL life (talking)     LP    1987
g)    As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls     LP    1981 1980

35)    Paul Simon – Graceland    LP    1986

36)    Peter Gabriel

a)    So    LP    1986
b)    Plays Live    LP    1983

37)    Parliament – Mothership Connection    LP    1975

38)    Phil Collins – Face Value    LP    1981

39)    The Police

a)    Regatta de Blanc    LP    1979
b)    Outlandos d’Amour    LP     1978
c)    Zenyatta Mondatta    LP    1980
d)    Synchronicity    LP    1983

40)    Prince – For You     LP    1978

41)    Quincy Jones – Back on the Block    CD    1989

42)    Rare Silk – New Weave    LP    1983

43)    Rickie Lee Jones – Girl At Her Volcano    CD    1983

44)    Rufus feat. Chaka Khan – Ask Rufus    LP    1977

45)    Sergio Mendes -Timeless     CD    2006

46)    Steely Dan – Aja    LP    1977

47)    Stevie Wonder

a)    Innervisions    LP    1973
b)    Music of my Mind    LP    1972
c)    Songs in the Key of Life    LP    1976
d)    Talking Book    LP    1972

48)    Sting – The Dream of the Blue Turtles     LP    1985

49)    Swing Out Sister – It’s Better To Travel    CD    1987

50)    Tears For Fears – Songs From The Big Chair    LP    1985

51)    The Brothers Johnson – Right On Time        LP        1977

52)    Weather Report – Mr. Gone     LP    1978

 

Just to be obstinate, I’m gonna put it out there.

I don’t believe Lance.  He didn’t cheat.  No steroids.  Ever.  He just confessed to shut people up.  He actually won fair and square.

Since few were going to believe him when he professed his innocence, he pretended to be guilty to quiet those who wouldn’t stop hounding him.  Maybe not tomorrow or next month or next year, but someday, people will realize what a saint he was to shoulder the blame and put the focus back on cancer research.

There, I said it!