Last Call.

I don’t post much personal stuff on facebook. I learned my lesson back when I did the Bachelor #1 blog (not to mention She Who Shall Not Be Named prefers privacy.) But I’m going to stop Degenerate Press efforts and, if you’re a loyal reader, I feel you should know why.

Alcohol.

I love the stuff. But I love it too much, and it’s an unrequited love. I started with cheap wine, often of the Boones Farm variety, when I was in my teens. Eventually I developed a taste for beer. Then vodka. Then rum. Then bourbon.

I remember my first hangover like it was – well, last year, if not yesterday. After a long night of Ernest & Julio Rhine Wine and a couple of white crosses (speed), I woke up with a headache unlike any I’d known before. Unfortunately, it would not be the last.

Almost 30 years of hangovers later, I’m quitting. I’m sick of being sick, tired of being tired, and can’t afford to waste any more time and money being wasted.

I have other projects to attend to. I have a book going through its final revisions, several games in progress, renovations to two houses, and I’d like to get back to work on the tiki efforts in the thunderbird.

I’m man enough to admit I have tried to quit and failed. The less I drink, the more I want it. I’m man enough to admit I need help. So Sunday evening I’m checking into rehab. (No, this is not just beautiful, beautiful drunk talk. Reservations were made while I was sober days ago.)

When I get out, I have already planned enough activities to keep me busy. But one activity I won’t be participating in is the local music scene. I love it, but for me the scene goes glass-in-hand with drinking. I can’t imagine watching my friends, or even just jovial strangers, having a fine time getting hammered around me while I stand stoic, bored, and/or annoyed. It’s just not fun being sober around drunk people.

Without such degeneration, there’s no point in continuing Degenerate Press. I really wanted to make it a nice round 20 years (this June would’ve been 19) but such is life.

You can follow my other efforts through Pangenre. And soon I hope to have my first novel put together as an ebook for sale on Amazon. I’ll be at the Get Delicious Supper Club gatherings, and the weekly visits to Starlight Drive In when I think I can handle it again.

I’d love to say something like “Drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity have worked for me,” a la Hunter S. Thompson, but honestly I have done less and less work the more I have consumed.

So. Let’s work on something new!

See y’all at Pangenre, I hope. Look for us on facebook and the interwebs. Look for me by name on Amazon in the next couple of months.

I leave you in the incapable hands of Jeff Clark and Chad Radford. God save us all.

(UPDATE: Happy April Fools, everyone.)