Scot: Is it RD Armstrong or Raindog?
Raindog: It’s either. RD stands for Raindog or RainDog. Raindog Armstrong sounds kinda hoakey to me so I go by RD more. Raindog is from an album by Tom Waits (whom I admire and deeply respect –Happy 60th Tom).
Scot: Tell me about Down This Crooked Road?
Raindog: I published a Little Red Book for Will back in ’99 called Any Abyss Will Do and I’ve been wanting to do another ever since. I came up with this idea a few months ago and Will really took off with it. This is a new collection of poetry by Miles Bell, William Taylor jr., MK Chavez, Father Luke, Christopher Robin, Christopher Cunningham, and Hosho McGreesh. Will and I edited it. It’s such a good collection that I wish I had contributed to it as a poet as well. As Will says in the intro, “the authors collected here are writing some of the best poetry out there right now, period. I’m excited and honored to have my work appear alongside them. The death of poetry is a silly, vicious little lie, and this volume attests to it.” Cost will be $15 and it will be available thru Lummox Press and on Amazon. It’s also available as an EBook from Lummox for $7.
Scot: What else is new at Lummox Press?
Raindog:Also publishing SEA TRAILS – Poems and 1977 Passage Notes by Pris Campbell. A collection that will satisfy any lover of Pris’ poetry…but should also awaken a hunger to “go down to the sea” in those who have a wanderlust craving but don’t know how to fulfill it. Cost will be $15 and it will be available thru Lummox Press and on Amazon. It’s also available as an EBook from Lummox for $7.
Scot: How did the Little Red Book Series come about? Is it still in production?
Raindog: Yes I’m still doing them — there are four due out before the end of the year. You can read a cross-section of almost all of the titles in THE LONG WAY HOME, for $15 from Lummox Press and on Amazon. It’s also available as an EBook from Lummox for $7.
When I first conceived of the idea for the Little Red Book series (or LRB), I had just published two small books with very distinctive fire engine red covers (these later became LRB 1 & 2). The second book was a short story entitled El Pagano and was written in what I thought was a gritty, noir / pulp style. Eventually I would republish it as the centerpiece for a collection of short stories of my own. But in the humble beginnings of the Lummox Press, the LRB would become a series that poets would eventually seek out to be included in.
An English Prof at a local university suggested to me that if I wanted the Lummox Press to be taken seriously, I’d better start publishing other poets, lest I become known as a Vanity Press, an ignoble fate to be sure. Had I known better I might have opted for the Vanity Press status – at least I would be getting paid for the books I published; unlike the losing proposition that most Small or Alternative Small Presses suffer from – this “labor of love” mentality. It’s a fine line between enjoying a modicum of success and failing with panache.
Each book is hand-built by yours truly. It takes about 8 hours per book to create…from concept to final product. I do all the work, except the “printing”, in house (including binding). Now it’s eleven years later and I’ve published 59 titles. It’s been a long road with lots of pitfalls and few rewards, but I still plug away at it. Each Little Red Book sells for $5, but I’m going to have to change that to $6 as production costs are going up.
Scot: What is new with your writing?
Raindog: I’m not sure what you mean. As a poet, I don’t write that much. As an Internet Wag, I’m always kicking up dust and tilting at windmills, and as a Publisher, I’m writing emails and answering questions, doing interviews, etc. I’ve recently started doing interviews for the Jane Crown Radio Show on BTR (you can go to her site and look for me in the Archives). There’s a lot of stuff up on my website for your readers to check out.
Scot: What is an Outsider Writer?
Raindog: I’m not sure. There seems to be a lot of titles for what we do: Outlaw, Outside Writer, Irresponsibles, Renegade, Bastard Scum, etc. I like Renegade, it describes my passage thru life pretty well. Some poets write like outlaws, but are pretty law-abiding in their private lives. I am pretty much a renegade, thru and thru. I have a code that I follow, and I apply it 24/7. People respect that, for the most part (not always). I figure I need to be pretty consistent because I do deal with a pretty broad spectrum of poets…some are the greatest people on the planet, and some are the rottenest…and there’s a whole lot of shades of gray in between. They all get as fair a shake as I’m capable of, but if they screw up or do me wrong, I’m gonna call them on it; just as I offer praise for a job well-done. (I mention this because I deal with a lot of “young” writers – ones whose voice is not that seasoned or experienced – and I try to be encouraging, but sometimes it’s not possible).
ok isn’t bastard scum a little different?