Tom Robbins R.I.P. at. age 92. Irreverent, stoned satirical over-the-top prose reminiscent of a drunken Fitzgerald, blew our minds and made Robbins a counterculture literary icon.
Robbin’s foxy hippie looks and imaginative, adorably sexy female protagonists helped make him a hit with women readers. With his 1976’s NYT’s best-seller Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Rolling Stone crowned him “the new king of the extended metaphor, dependent clause, outrageous pun, and meteorological personification.” Take that, Hunter S. Thompson.
Another Roadside Attraction in 1971, 1976’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and Still Life with Woodpecker were must-reads in that generation circles if you were cool—and even if you were not, as it reached No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list.
Robbins told BookPage magazine in 2000, “The family in which I was reared was a kind of a Southern Baptist version of The Simpsons and I played the part of both Bart and Lisa. Which is to say, I was, on the one hand, a rambunctious little troublemaker, and on the other, a highly sensitive, creative, artistic type.”
He wrote that listening to the Doors, stoned at 2 A.M. he had an epiphany, “found his voice, and soon starting his debut novel, Another Roadside Attraction. https://doorsmania.narod.ru/History/Whatthay.html
As reported in the Seattle Times, “He once described his books as ‘cakes with files baked in them. … I try to create something that’s beautiful to look at and delicious to the taste, and yet in the middle there’s this hard, sharp instrument that you can use to saw through the bars and liberate yourself, should you so desire.’
“Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules.” Tom Robbins.
Founder Gerry Griffin at his California Magic Club.
With Mill Valley’s Tam High grad Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez!
Bobby: How does it Feel??? WITHOUT A HOME….
Without a home…Drone shot from Pacific Palisades shows entire blocks of homes literally burned to the ground in yet another suspiciously negligent, massive urban fire. 1-8-2025 Courtesy of @KitKarzen
RIP Puff the Magic Dragon. Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known as one-third of Peter, Paul and Mary, recently passed at age 86. Yarrow was MC at the notorious ’65 Newport Jazz Festival, as featured in the movie, A Complete Unknown.
“Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life…” his daughter Bethany said in a statement.
FEATURED for Winter 2024—2025
Courtesy Alta Journal.
CONGRATULATIONS! MillValleyLit Poetry Editor Jeff Kaliss won First Place at the Los Angeles Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Awards 2024. His interview with singer Linda Ronstadt was published in Alta Journal.
First Place: Jeff Kaliss, Alta Journal, “Alta Q&A: ‘Heart Like a Wheel'” for “Personality Profile, Music and Other Arts – Over 2,500 Words, Print.” Judges’ comment: “Revealing and compelling and riveting, hard to do in a Q&A.”
“Denken mit der Hand. Writing by hand is thinking on paper. Thoughts grow into words, sentences and pictures. Memories become stories. Ideas are transformed into projects. Notes inspire insight. We write and understand, learn, see and think – with the hand.” Notebook promo – Leuchtturm Gruppe, Deutschland.
Get LIT and keep us fired up. NEW Free original-design spiral notebook for a donation of $50.00 or more. While supplies last. Donate via VenmoVenmo profile(perry-king-5) or PayPal Info ondonating and free notebook here.
Writers: Submissions now open for Winter. Interesting and well-proofed short memoirs, fiction, travel tales and poetry are being accepted for publication consideration. See Submissions Guidelines here.
FEATURED for Autumn 2024—
Jesse James Ziegler, Sierra Arts Mixer, Reno, 9-26-24. Credit JMK
The hardest working man in the poetry business!
The ULTIMATE GUIDE to Reno’s Poet Laureate Jesse James Ziegler— Replete with Profile, interview and his poetry.
J.Macon King with Perry King lit up the Tahoe Literary Festival opener with theatrical poetry.
The Tahoe Literary Festival weekend kicked off with a free evening of jazz, poetry and prose Oct. 11 at Tahoe Wine Collective in Tahoe City.
Poetry & Prose was enjoyed by about 80 folks at the Boatworks hosted by Scott Green of Tahoe Poetry Collective. An evening with featured poets and writers included Green, Reno Poetry Laureate Jesse James Ziegler, MillValleyLit publisher and novelist J.Macon King, Karen Terrey, Teresa Breeden, Roxy Hankinson, Edward Manzi, John Merryfield, Cheyenne McGregor and others.
Poet Cheyenne McGregor.Event MC Poet Scott Green.
Tahoe Literary Festival founders Priya Hutner and Katherine Hill with Reno Poet Laureate Jesse James Ziegler.
MillValleyLit is a proud sponsor of this exciting inaugural event.
King read poetry “deconstructed” from his novel at the Tahoe Literary Festival, Tahoe City, Lake Tahoe, Oct 11. With Jesse James and other presenters.
Circus of the Sun MillValleyLit publisher J.Macon King’s debut novel of 1979 San Francisco’s cultural, sexual and political maelstrom. Available from Amazon.
Penny Bear, 205,000 pennies, 1.5-ton. at Heritage Plaza, Tahoe City, by Lisa and Robert Ferguson. Big hugs from our editor Perry King and writer Tom Fitzmorris, June, 2024. Credit JMK
“I now head to Varanasi, a city located on the Ganges River where Hindu dead are taken to be burned or cleansed by the river. The 1500-mile river is considered sacred and spiritually pure, although one of the most polluted in the world.”
“Denken mit der Hand. Writing by hand is thinking on paper. Thoughts grow into words, sentences and pictures. Memories become stories. Ideas are transformed into projects. Notes inspire insight. We write and understand, learn, see and think – with the hand.” Leuchtturm Gruppe notebook promo. Deutschland.
Get LIT and keep us fired up. NEW Free original-design spiral notebook for a donation of $50.00 or more. While supplies last. Donate via VenmoVenmo profile(perry-king-5) or PayPal Info ondonating and free notebook here.
Plus La-te-da * Hooligan * Peekaroony * Switcharoo * Filibuster * Quagmire. What’s your best words ever?
Circus of the Sun MillValleyLit publisher J.Macon King’s debut novel of 1979 San Francisco’s cultural, sexual and political maelstrom. Available from Amazon.
In the wake of his girlfriend leaving him, young musician Jack has sworn off women, yet the reforming bad boy cannot resist the incandescent, liberated artist Bretta and her creative entourage. The pair sense they have found their Masterpiece of Love—until the return of Bretta’s enigmatic friend unveils disturbing secrets.
“…an ambitious and poetic story of love and creativity. At times racy and poignant… King deftly includes details that bring the book’s characters and events to life.” —Pacific Sun.
“More than a love story, this is a portrait of the city of San Francisco… The prose leans towards the poetic, which results in gorgeous, Kerouac-ian vignettes…seeming like a movie played on fast forward…” Kirkus Reviews.
“A great, lyrical portrait of an era…a spot-on recreation about a great time of history…and I enjoyed the sheer trip of it. Beautifully observed writing—the emotions in the story are true and moments of life are rendered with clarity.” —Louis B. Jones, author of four New York Times Notable Books, including Ordinary Money and Particles and Luck.
“…sets forth a story-within-a-memoir so skillfully that you forget this is a work of fiction. …Captures the ups and downs of an intense relationship deftly. —Rick Dale, The Daily Beat.
Welcome to the Home of the Literary Latte. Mill Valley Literary Review provides short work, poetry, articles, reviews, interviews, photos and art, from known and soon to be rich and famous creatives alike. Our click-ability allows you to read, for sun-filled days and sleepless nights, our amazing regular offerings as well as changing selections of back issue highlights.
Previous interviews and stories featured Peter Coyote, Sam Shepard, T.C. Boyle, writer David Harris, Jennifer Egan, The Brotherhood of Love’s trippy LSD Tales, Fantasy Records and CCR backstory, San Francisco’s Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin, Philip K. Dick’s ex-wife Anne, contemporary Irish poets, Marin favorites Catherine Coulter, Susanna Solomon, Christie Nelson and more.
Jerry Kamstra, The Frisco Kid himself. Photo Ken Collins.
T’was a night to remember featuring Kerouac’s pal Al Hinkle, Woodstock’s Wavy Gravy, “literary outlaw” Jerry Kamstra, poets Joanna McClure, Clark Coolidge, North Beach’s Sharon Doubiago, Daniel Yaryan, Beat expert Gerald Nicosia, musician Ramblin’ Jack Elliot,* MillValleyLit publisher\poet J.Macon King, Live Poets Society founder\MillValleyLit poetry editor Ari Maslow, and many more.
Penny Bear, 205,000 pennies, 1.5-ton. at Heritage Plaza, Tahoe City, by Lisa and Robert Ferguson. Big hugs from our editor Perry King and writer Tom Fitzmorris, June, 2024. Credit JMK
” And then there was this time…”
