So that is the basic very short story behind 20 years of my life as a homeless person and writer, composer and graphic artist. Apple Cider Poetry, of course, is an ongoing thing. Jitter Bug might be too in terms of making it a series of fictionalized autobiographical intrigue books. you can email your praise, comments and corrections to zarabrookswatson@gmail.com. please, please clap for tinkerbell. i might not be able to publish at a regular publisher, but you, my readers, can keep me writing with your encouragement. I travelled all over the country when I was homeless, hauling all these papers and photos with me. You might wonder that I had any money to take photos but it is quite inexpensive. I panhandled for fifteen years and did pretty well except for social status. With my extra money I bought Greyhound bus tickets (as i said) and went to some pretty good shelters in Chapel Hill and Los Angeles (for the winter).

Along the way, I might buy a plastic camera and take some careful shots or borrow a good Canon or something from someone I met donating money to me when I panhandled. I would develop my film at places that were known for their careful and inexpensive handling of photographer's work. That is easy to find in Hollywood, Ca. or in Harvard Square in Massachusetts. I figured, in those days, that black and white photos were easy to xerox or even, if I got published, cheaper to print and to buy as a book. This is still true. Color photos in paper books are expensive to print and to buy.

I also found out that it usually costs the same thing to get your prints in sepia instead of black and white so that was a bonus.

I bought two cars and a van with my panhandling money, drove alone through the Everglades, through the Bayous of Louisiana where my Hassidic Jewish family settled when Louis the 14th threw the Jews out of the Paris area and parts of France in 1762 (their names & a blurb of dedication, at least, are in my novel Jitter Bug). I drove on the very hairy southern Arizona highway 10 and onto the spectacular city of San Diego, visiting Tijuana and Rosarito, Mexico when I lived there.

I also spent about four months on a commune in southern Missouri. You will see indexed photos from all of those interesting places on the CD when I finish it. And I shall finish it! UPDATE ON THE APPLE CIDER CD: I have as of December 2013 about 60 pages (with full color graphics and original new age music) completed. But I want about 100 or so pages before I copyright again. but my present place, a camper trailer in northern Maine, is too small to set up my tower. i might suck it in and try, though.