HOLY FIRE JOURNAL, originally published four times from 2003 to 2004, is available once again in its original photo-illustrated ebook format: you get all four PDFs as a bundle for $7.50 USD. These early digital self-publishing efforts are short, compelling, and unique cultural artifacts.
You can read these on any computer, of course, or simply print them out. The only caveats are that "Zoo Pilot Publishing" is no longer operational, and that the first volume's only photo is the cover.
The bundle consists of separate downloads of all four of the following:
Volume 1 (16 pages, 1 photo) - Original, unedited Arkansas "woods hippie" letters from Yellowhammer Farm to friends back in Texas in '71. These capture the mood of the moment & the times like nothing else. From the included notes:
The nearest neighbors were several miles away in either direction. There was no electricity or shelter, but there was an old hand-dug well, a half-collapsed chimney and fireplace of dry-laid native stone, streams, woods, and some of the most beautiful sunsets on God's green earth...
Volume 2 (13 pages, 7 photos) - A collection of four columns from Horse Fly, a monthly political/cultural newspaper published in Taos, NM (June-September, 2003). From the June column, "Ruminations & Old Home Towns":
There are forces here that tear your psychic muscle from the bone. If you live here long enough and nothing happens, you're as solid as a child of God can be (and thank your lucky stars), but many mostly normal people go berserk before too long. You can hardly walk down the street without stepping in the bloody bits of broken marriages or smelling burning dreams.
Volume 3 (21 pages, 11 photos) - The biggest HFJ yet features New Mexico writings from FarrFeed.com. Essays include "The Thing on the Roof," "Lunch at the Pueblo Cafe," "Free at Last," and "Morning Song." Here's a sample from the first true story:
The only thing going through my mind was that I didn't want whatever was there to jump down onto me from the roof, but where had I gotten this idea? Feeling more frightened than I had any apparent reason to be, I turned on the outside light ... something was there. My body knew it.
Volume 4 (14 pages, 9 photos) - More Horse Fly columns, including "Looking for New Mexico," "Daring Death in Dixon," "Fire in the Hole," and "Island." The last one is a killer:
"I know a lot more about these little mountain villages than I did before we left Maryland," she sighed as we drove past eclectic adobe homesteads, old dead cars in muddy yards, and trailers with tires on the roofs. Eventually the road curved down from the jaw-dropping view of the final pass and sent us into Talpa...
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