ADDENDUM

This site is no longer active, but does serves as a link to my other web logs. All new posts will be published at Knotbuchwerks (KBW) or Knotbuchwerks, too (KBWt). Links are:

knotbuchwerks

knotbuchwerks, too

CwHD began May 1, 2017. Besides thematic essays, the site provides a vehicle for any other words or bits of language that I chose to print. My self-published work can be found in The Book Patch Book Store.

My profile 'portrait' is a line drawing of Han Shan, an 8th century Chinese mystic. I use this drawing rather than my own photograph because self-aggrandizement---blowing one's own horn---goes against my grain. Authors I admire a good deal are, for the most part, both reticent and reclusive. J. D. Salinger and Thomas Pynchon come to mind. There is something too crass about a writer whose name eclipses the title on the covers of their books. Besides, there are too many faces everywhere.

The dog featured in the site's logo is Zudnik. He was a wolfdog, a hybrid. His mother was a malamute; his father was a wolf. Few people think breeding wolves and dogs is a good idea. I agree. Zudnik came to me as a gift, and I had no heart for just putting him down. Loving, ferocious, gentle, vicious, he spent ten good years sharing my life. He was a beast, but he was my beast.

WHY KNOTBUCHWERKS

Over the past fifty years, I have written twenty books. This website is intended to provide information on the fifteen that are available. A list of the books each with its own synopsis can be found at KBWt.

The title of this web log is odd, intentionally so. I enjoy wordplay, and the sheer number of 'blogs' makes new titles hard to come by. KNOTBUCHWERKS originated with a rejection slip. Scrawled on the cover letter of my submission was this: ... 73 pages is too short for a book.

Samuel Beckett notwithstanding. Or sitting. Or lying prone.

The sixteen 'books' on my shelf---most of which are only 100 pages or so---were offended. They were no longer books. Now we know, they said, how Pluto felt. So ...

'Not books' became knotbooks---it is a tangled web we weave---became Knotbuch Publishing. I paused a good while over that word 'publishing.' Not the right word at all. Too highfalutin; and not what I intended for my knotbuchs. So ...

Knotbuch Publishing became Knotbuchwerks.

And for your edification: About 25% of English vocabulary has a Germanic origin (buch, werk); 45% comes from Latin-French infusions (flute); the remaining 30% is usually labeled 'native' and comes from a variety of sources. More or less.