HOW I WASTE MY LIFE THESE DAYS

...by selling crap on eBay!

Most of you know the story of how my publishing empire crashed and burned in 2002 with the bankruptcy of the LPC Group, our new distributor, just after we made the big leap to ongoing nationwide bookstore distribution. What you may not know is that when I went casting about for a new way to make money and spend my suddenly available free time, I resumed a childhood bowling hobby and then decided to become an eBay entrepreneur specializing in BOWLING items!

BAD move. Or GOOD move? You decide:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330016770146

OK, CONTEST TIME:

HOW MANY '70s references can you spot in this auction? And WHICH cultural trends and icons do they all refer to? Read the auction carefully, then send your answers to EmailBillBrent@gmail.com. The winner gets to choose any item in my eBay store with up to a $30 asking price, and I will pay for the shipping.

What? You don't WANT anything in my store?

Me, neither. That's why I'm selling all this crap.

But it's a fun game.

If you prefer, I will send you a free copy of my new chapbook, GIVE UP WITHOUT A FIGHT. Details below.

So, between eBay and Amazon Marketplace, I have been working steadily at selling off my inventory as well as my extraneous personal effects. It's going really well! I'm even putting some of the proceeds into a retirement plan. Oh, wait a minute, I'm already retired. Hmmm.

Well, anyway, it's nice to have money in the bank.

My goal is to sell via eBay through the end of the year, and then close my store for good. I just bought a multitrack recorder and I need time to focus on refining and recording my songs (finally!), stepping up the pace on the rest of my writing career (more on that soon) ... and otherwise being a bum on disability.

Here are my stores:

http://stores.ebay.com/BowlingBay

http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/user-glance/AVHF02BYOQDQP/104-3580418-6136740
(Don't you just love Amazon URLs?
If that doesn't work, try this:)
http://tinyurl.com/ounsk

(THANK YOU, tinyurl.com!
Maybe I'll rename my Amazon store "OUNSK".)

Also, I have a new chapbook for sale, which is titled GIVE UP WITHOUT A FIGHT. You will find within a 45-page collection of previously unpublished essays, poems, and drawings. As always, it's a signed and numbered, limited edition printing. Send $8 via PayPal to bbrent@hawaii.rr.com, or you can send me a check if you don't do the online shopping thing. My mailing address is:

Bill Brent
PO Box 1353
Pahoa HI 96778-1353

Life in Hawaii goes well, though I am sick of being bitten by things that fly, and watching mold grow on everything that can't fly. Man, it rains a lot here. We collect our water in a big tank in the back yard and it's free. We drive all our garbage to the dump and it's free. We walk up and down the plant-lined streets and it's free. My biggest angst is what to do with all my existential angst. When I forget to do that, life is pretty good.

How's yours?

--Bill


- - - EXTRA ITEM:

Here's a note from my friends Neon Weiss and Annie Sprinkle. Neon has directed Annie and her partner Elizabeth in a new live show in San Francisco and it has been resoundingly well received:

LOVE, SEX, DEATH & ART

This multi-media performance art theater event explores courtship, artificial insemination, breast cancer, queer weddings,and more. Enjoy a bevy of lab technicians, a buff F2M, chances to be human guinea pigs and visions of "Bjork."

Drink some "love elixir" and we guarantee great results with no unpleasant side effects.

But you must be over 18, because this show is also about breasts.

Love, Sex, Death and Art is a unique love story in the grand tradition of artist couples such as John and Yoko, Gertrude and Alice, Sony and Cher, Siegfried and Roy. It also offers an artistic response to the violence of war, and the anti-gay marriage movement.

The New Conservatory Theatre Center
25 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
BOX OFFICE: (415) 861 - 8972
http://www.nctcsf.org