The Alabaster Addendum

After thinking it over for a few days, I've decided to keep my previously published books as canon after all. Partly because, knowing myself as well as I do, I realized that (being a perfectionist with impossible standards) any hypothetical idealized work I do in the future I'll probably ALSO be less than impressed by after some time has passed anyway, and also because I think one can get too obsessed as to what constitutes the notion of a "first novel"; like in my case, is it HARLEM SMOKE (the first novel published by a legit publisher)? CONFUSION (my first published book, but self-published)? PUNKMODERNIST (my first typed book, though never published)? Any of the handwritten books I did in college or high school? THE HOLE OF DOOM (written in a blank journal in 1993, when I was still 13)? Who's to say? My bibliography is chaotic and less than ideal, but I suppose you could say that about a lot of writers . . . we can't all be Bret Easton Ellis! What I CAN control is what I do in the future going forward. As the Manic Street Preachers said in "Archives of Pain," "Any fool can regret yesterday."

Having said that, I do still intend to go forth with my idea of using James G. Champagne as my new author name, and I do plan to start a new blog (perhaps on Substack), if only to make the division between my older works and my future works clearer.