If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Mild and Partly Cloudy: Thoughts from an Executive Drifter

by Blumen Young

108 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0425; ISBN 1-4120-0062-9; US$14.50, C$19.50, EUR12.70, £8.80

Mild and Partly is just a by-product of a wandering mind. Insightful reflections from a drifter's diary...quietly sensitive, occasionally quirky, and mostly written from personal experience...with a little fiction thrown in for color.

Read more!

about the book      about the author      sample excerpts or Table of Contents      catalogue info

About the Book Mild and Partly Cloudy is simply a collection of thoughts and feelings and just about anything else that crossed my mind over the last several decades. So you'd better put your boots on, because you're going to be wading through a wide variety of writing. Along with various pieces of prose, I've included a theatrical monologue, a"short" story, a mini-screenplay, a prayer, things that I call short shots, and a few other miscellaneous selections that don't seem to fit into any particular category. I've also included some song lyrics that are complete tunes with chorded melodies, and just waiting to be charted and produced. But for now, they're just words on a page, and I hope they read entertainingly. So, a lot of different stuff, indeed. Nevertheless, I have tried to remain true to the overall theme of the book, and that theme is best described by my foreword: "Through the years, thoughts have tumbled over and over in my mind like herds of evening clouds, high in the sky, lighted by the moon, drifting with directionless purpose, always on the go, never going anywhere. These are a few of the ones that got caught".

---

About the Author Blumen was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1945, and raised there in a relatively middle class family with two parents and four brothers. Between '63 and '75 (ancient history), he was in the army, which included a year in Korea; graduated from Middle Tennesse State University with a degree in Sociology, got married, had two beautiful children, worked as a banker, sold ATMs, got a divorce and hit the road. Whew! Blumen sums it all up this way: "I'm just a country boy, born in the city, and raised in too many directions. No wonder I became an actor." Presently, Blumen lives in Santa Clarita Valley, just a few miles north of Los Angeles, with his long time girlfriend, Katie. He works as a substitute teacher, a freelance bartender, and when he can get the work, as an actor. Oh yeah... he's still writing.

---

Sample Excerpts

Once I Was In The Army Overseas
They said we were going south
for maneuvers by the ocean.
I envisioned Daytona Beach
and a hundred miles of burning sand
and beach balls and beer and
half nude women and other pretty things.
We went by train.
First class on this trip
was an empty cattle car
with complimentary "C" rations
and built in stereo hurly burly
from the chatter of the wheels
and the rocking of the train
for three hundred miles.
After dark - still rolling,
side sliding door wide open,
watching the moonlit mountains
passing by outside,
listening to it all,
and feeling a curiously familiar breeze
across my face,
I fancied myself a drifter
and fell fast asleep...
in the comfort
of the straw
beneath my head.

Don't Just Stand There

There used to be a time when a half gallon
bottle of gin would start gettin' light 'long
'bout this time toward the end of the week.
And bottle number two of the same size
would get consumed over the weekend.
Weekly, regularly, with few exceptions.
But that was long before I went broke, and
I never knew just how miserable I actually
was, back then, until now, and now looking
back, I can clearly see that the gin didn't
have a damn thing to do with it. It all very
simply applies to the simple fact that mildew
does not smell bad at all in its' natural
environment. And if you don't understand
what I'm talking about, then it won't do you
any good for me to explain it to you when
there's no possible way you could ever
understand it until it happens to you in your
own way. And even then, only if you keep
your damn brain in tune with all those secret
little promises you've been making to yourself
ever since you can remember. All I'm sayin' is
if you're not happy with the way things are,
then do something about it!

Salt Lake City Jean

Hey Jean!

Do you remember that hundred
you loaned me? You said, "When you
pay me back, I only want ninety-nine,
because then we'll always have a reason
to know each other."

I never knew
a dollar could be worth so much.

The Brand New Winter

Today, on a bench, in a park,
where flowers bloom, and trees grow autumn,
and squirrels scamper, and dogs chase birds,
and children play, and old men talk,
I heard the noise from the city
stealing the calm of the scenes
of silent laughter from the brand new winter
fast on the rise.
There is unexpected beauty
in a gray afternoon sky
that stretches far beyond
the silhouettes of naked trees,
far beyond the far away sunshine,
and far beyond the rainbow colored leaves
that blanket the earth.
I watched the wind blow melancholy
amid the scrape and crinkle of swirling leaves,
over the distant sound of children laughing,
through broken windows where nobody lives,
and under the feet of strangers passing by
who seem to be anxiously hoping
for something miraculous to occur,
but have yet to ever witness.
If only they would slow down, just a little. . .
and take some time to notice
the brand new winter
fast on the rise.

---

Catalogue Information

---