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Blowing My Hero (1 Viewer)

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I just recieved a nice little package with a San Pedro Postmark in the mail!!!! I'm just so damn happy!! (with just a slight bit of disapointment:() this is great tho, really!! thanks to everyone involved!!! (you know who you are!)
 
I too received Ambers book today. Just great! I'm looking forward to reading it. Thanks a lot Amber and mjp! :)
 
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Postmark?... return address?... ya, what the hell?... my mistake, whataya expect.......
 
Got it.
Crossed the Atlantic in only 5 days! Amber must live (or work) near the airport.
Good clean read. The style actually gives the impression of a young person, twentyish - just like the main character. Liked that.
Also liked the scene describing the "blowing of the Hero". Rather tenderly done, actually, and contrasts well with the rather harsh sounding title.
Good one Amber!
 
Amber -- a fine piece of work. I'm no professor, but you get an A on this one. It's honest, sincerely, lean, filled with light and humor. That scene in the bar where Bukowski says "You know, I don't look so bad," revealing his insecurity about his appearance -- that is remarkable. You resisted the temptation to make yourself look good, and were very open about your own insecurities. As a result, we learn you are short, shy, worry a lot, don't like your front teeth, don't consider yourself beautiful -- like a "prom queen" -- and it all makes you so likeable, so real. Bukowski was lucky to be involved with you. The unadorned firsthand observations in your memoir are the reason why an account like yours is so valuable to understanding Bukowski. The book may be only a few pages, but it tells us things we'll never read in biographies written by people who didn't know the man personally. By the way -- I didn't even miss the cut-out Bukowski letters. The book doesn't need them. Sure, they would have been a nice extra, but your memoir stands on it's own. It deserves far wider readship. Thanks for sharing your story with us, and for your patient, articulate and insightful posts here.
 
Amber, it came today in the mail and I immediately sat down and read it. Honest and at times touching. I'm glad your story is out there. This is not a "Me too" memoir, you should be proud.
Thanks Amber and mjp for making this volume available.
 
You fellows have been a bright spot in my life too. Many thanks, and I'm happy that these few pages which have been boxed up in various spots for years now have been fun for you to read.

Since retiring, a group of us have been meeting for dinner once a month. One of the instructors wanted to read my story. When I brought it to the table, he said, "Oh, oh, I didn't know what the title was!" I gave him a plain brown manila envelope to carry it home in!
 
When I brought it to the table, he said, "Oh, oh, I didn't know what the title was!"
yet another funny little anecdote! I like these!

Now since everybody here says thanks to you in public, I'll have to state again, what I already PMd you, so the others know I'm no sucker who's just Taking:

It was so very FUNNY and entertaining to read and had a great Lot of WARM moments. And it is just the right complementary statement to the story as appeared in 'Women'. (note: Not 'contrary'! - complementary!)
I read it straight through.
It shines a bright light on your relationship in special as well as on Buks attitude to his girls at this time in general, I think.

I thank you a Lot for sharing! in your book as well as here on the forum.
Love, roni

and, p.s., of COURSE, my thanks go also to our mastermind mjp!
 
Amber - I enjoyed your story very much! It's Well written, warm, witty and funny. It's also very honest. You certainly did'nt wipe your own shortcomings under the carpet - and that takes guts! You also described Buk in a kind understanding way. No doubt those few days together with him means something to you. It's a great story!
Thanks a lot for the book, Amber! And thanks a lot, mpj, for making it happen!
 
Well, i haven't time for forum now :(, but I just want to say, that book arriwed to me week ago maybe earlier, never mind. But thanks Amber and thanks mjp. Good job!
 
... One of the instructors wanted to read my story. When I brought it to the table, he said, "Oh, oh, I didn't know what the title was!" I gave him a plain brown manila envelope to carry it home in!

Amber -- very funny! If his wife sees it, and knows he's been having dinner with you once a month, he'll be sleeping on the couch. That title does get your attention, and it took moxy (Buk slang alert) to use it. The story delivers more than that great title promises. Excellent writing.
 
As you may or may not know, Blowing My Hero is the story of Amber O'Neil's visit to Los Angeles in the 1970's to meet Bukowski.
Folks looking through stuff in the roofspace and came across a number of things from Red Stodolsky that I haven't looked at in ages... thought you might like to see cover attached... firing most of it on eBay over the next few weeks.. doubt any amazing discoveries out there, still my dough is on finding a few little gems...

amber.jpg
 
Just to clarify, since this has come up again, Martin did not forbid or prohibit Amber from distributing Blowing My Hero. He asked her not to publish any further copies, saying that it was okay to sell the 500 she had made. Amber has her own reasons for not wanting to sell them, and that's her business. But Martin's correspondence pretty clearly gave her a green light to go ahead and sell the books.

Of course the longer they stay in a box in her house the more valuable the copies that are out there become. But this could eventually become another Going Modern if she ever does let all the copies out onto the market. Going Modern was supposedly "suppressed," but in reality, all 500 copies were sold to book dealers. Which is why you can buy it for $25 or $30 and Blowing My Hero is more likely to set you back $100 or more.
 
Can't wait to track down a copy of my own some day. Thanks for the clarification, I, too, was confused about the limitations on the book.
 
I bid on that one.

All the action happened in the last ten seconds.

Too rich for me.
 
Just for anyone new coming into this thread, copies of Blowing My Hero are not available here any longer. There was a one-time sale of copies of the book with the Bukowski letters removed, but that one-time sale happened a long time ago, sorry. Asking Amber to send or sell one to you is not likely to get a response, so you might want to look for a copy elsewhere. You'll pay more, but you'll probably get a copy with the letters pages intact.

If you are looking for the Bukowski Society yearbook with the excerpt from the book, check Roni's web site, or contact him for more information.
 
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