Morning Hymn now available

Morning Hymn is Chris's eighteenth album, his second featuring lyrical songs influenced by a number of musical styles and genres, from bluegrass and rock to jazz and indigenous flute music. Unlike his instrumental albums, Morning Hymn is based in the rock and singer-songwriter genres. Morning Hymn and all of his albums are available via most streaming and sales platforms, including Pandora, Deezer, Spotify, Amazon.com, Apple Music, and more, The album can be previewed in its entirety and purchased at http://csfuqua.bandcamp.com.

 

Review of Edward Gillow’s The Clockmaker’s Bequest

 

As Holmes and Watson languish in boredom, a telegram arrives from solicitor Phineas Larcombe, requesting Holmes’s immediate assistance. Renowned clockmaker Ezekiel Brand has died suspiciously after leaving his estate to whichever of his three apprentices can solve a riddle hidden in his final masterpiece clock.

Holmes examines the clock, which is housed in a secure vault. Since it’s light-sensitive and chimes a unique sequence of notes in darkness, Holmes deduces it’s designed to reveal a message under specific conditions rather than through physical tampering.

When one apprentice dies and another expresses fear for his own life, suspicion falls on Larcombe who may have reason to keep the clock’s secret undiscovered. In the event all apprentices die, Larcombe would become the clockmaker’s beneficiary, but Holmes suspects deeper motives driving events.

As Holmes and Watson continue to investigate, a letter arrives, warning them to abandon the investigation altogether. Instead, the duo attempt to prevent yet another murder by setting a trap for the murderer, spreading the rumor that Holmes has solved the clock’s secret, setting up the climax that unveils the murderer as well as the mastermind who set events in motion.

Author Edward Gillow perfectly captures the voice, mood, and pace of the original Holmes tales with this satisfying mystery worthy of the Baker Street detective’s expertise. The Clockmaker’s Bequest is available in hardback, paperback, digital, and audio formats from Amazon.com, other retailers, and directly from MX Publishing.

The Further Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Volume III, by Caiden Cooper Myles

The Further Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Volume III, by Caiden Cooper Myles, features six new adventures and is a welcomed addition to the Holmes canon. Precisely capturing the original Holmes stories’ narrative voice and style, Myles delivers tales that not only further explore Holmes’s deductive prowess, but also celebrate his cherished relationship with John Watson.

Having finagled Holmes’s blessings to publish accounts previously forbidden, Watson recounts a half-dozen clever mysteries that include the disappearance of an Aztec statue, a mystical circle, the murder of a form
er criminal, a murdered politician, a gambler found garroted and naked in his study, and a nemesis worthy of Moriarty comparison, providing the intrigue and deductive challenges readers have come to expect Holmes and Watson to face.

Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, not all in this collection end neatly with the perpetrator suffering consequences for crimes committed. Holmes and Watson, to their frustration, must wait for future opportunities to serve justice even as an innocent in the meantime pays the price.

Myles has compiled a satisfying collection of tales, generously augmented with Victorian style illustrations by Marie-Charlotte Feret, that celebrate and honor Conan Doyle’s enduring legacy of “the world’s greatest detective.” The Further Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Volume III is available in hardback, paperback, digital, and audio formats from Amazon.com, other retailers, and directly from MX Publishing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bridge & Politics Published

Announcing simultaneous publication of two books, The Bridge and Politics. In late 2021, it became necessary to place all work on hold throughout 2022. I have now returned to those projects, which means more will appear in a shorter time than usual, beginning with these two collections, but I will not inundate you with emails. I hope you find the completed projects interesting and relatable.

The Bridge and Politics collect new and previously published poems that present the stories of life's common and extraordinary experiences we share in myriad ways. The books are available through most bookstores in digital and paperback formats, including Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and many others. You can also request your local library to purchase them through distributors such as OverDrive.

In tribute to my best friend and spouse Bonnie, I am currently posting previously published poems to FaceBook (http://facebook.com/c.s.fuqua.author), poems that will be included in an upcoming collection tentatively entitled Bonnie Lynne ~ Real Love Poems, featuring new and collected poems written for and/or inspired by Bonnie over our 5-plus decades together. Other upcoming projects include a tribute album of songs and instrumentals written for Bonnie over the years. I hope you’ll find each project a celebration of and testament to one of the most extraordinary persons ever to grace this planet.

Praise for C.S. Fuqua’s poetry:

• C.S. Fuqua’s poetry paints an entire story with a Tom Waits brush. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, google it. ~ Ken S., editor, Spank the Carp literary magazine
• With an eye for the particular and ear for the music of life, C.S. Fuqua shares with readers his brave, lyrical view of the human experience. ~ Dr. Wendy Galgan, former editor, Assisi Literary Magazine
• … gritty, insightful, humorous, tragic, and celebratory … ~ Jonathan K. Rice, editor, Iodine Poetry Journal
• C.S. Fuqua handles the themes of love and death with beautiful simplicity: what else is there to life? ~ Kalyna Review
• …thought-provoking and interesting … ~ Suanne Schafer, author, A Different Kind of Fire
• …a lasting impression on the reader. ~ Sensawunda
• The power of C.S. Fuqua’s poetry lies in the relentless chronicling of real people with real sorrow, triumph, regret, and above all the sad beauty of the human experience. Superb poetry. ~ Tony Nesca, Author of About A Girl
• Few have as deft a touch as C.S. Fuqua, weaving a complete story in just a few lines—what poetry is supposed to be. ~ Dick Claassen, Author of Sacred Native American Flute

I am grateful for your support of and interest in my work. If you have questions or concerns, please visit my websites (csfuqua.com and csfuqua.bandcamp.com) or write to me directly at fuqua.cs@gmail.com. 

I wish you and your loved ones the very best always.

Fatherhood Explores Parenting from Dad’s Perspective

Any way you look at it, parenting is rife with challenges and joys. Fatherhood ~ Poems of Parenthood, the latest book by author/musician C.S. Fuqua, published by UK-based Stairwell Books, explores the facets of parenting from a father’s perspective in 90 poems written over a 30-year period.

In 1991, Fuqua became an “at-home dad” charged with the day-to-day care of a newborn daughter. He and his spouse Bonnie were what the media then called a new breed of parents, those who chose not to settle into traditional roles of woman-as-homemaker, man-as-breadwinner. While his wife pursued a career in public service, Fuqua established himself as a freelance writer. 

In the lean, early years of marriage, the couple had dismissed the idea of becoming parents, Fuqua said, “because we weren’t ready for parenthood—not monetarily, not intellectually, not emotionally.” By age thirty-five and their thirteenth wedding anniversary, “We’d become financially stable and decided it was time.” 

Beginning with two miscarriages, the couple found themselves on an emotional rollercoaster like they’d never experienced before, one that only intensified with the birth of their daughter. “But something magical happened,” Fuqua said. “With most of my time now devoted to her, our daughter became my primary creative muse, and I began to devote much of my writing to the exploration of parenthood—the daily experiences, insecurities, failures, successes.” 

Fuqua spent most days caring for the couple’s daughter, playing with her, taking her on exploratory walks, conversing with and reading to her as though she understood every word, involving her in social development situations, and sharing all duties with his spouse in the evenings, on weekends, and her days off—all about which he wrote in poetry, in fiction, and in journal-style letters to their daughter that he continues to write today.

In 2007, Uncial Press published a collection of 38 of Fuqua’s parenting-related poems entitled The Swing ~ Poems of Parenthood, which won the Best Poetry Collection EPIC Award for 2008 and remained in print for the next fourteen years. In 2021, Fuqua decided to expand the collection with poems he’d written since its publication, more than doubling the number of The Swing’s original poems, all of which are included in Fatherhood. 

Fatherhood chronicles 30 years of parenting experiences, from pregnancy to the child’s adulthood—the joy, sorrow, insecurity, confidence, anxiety, calm, irrationality, fear, pride, confusion, clarity, mourning, celebration, hope, and so much more—“all due,” Fuqua said, “to one extraordinary young woman who’s astounded her mom and me from day one with her intellect, humanity, and grace.”

Fatherhood ~ Poems on Parenthood is available through most bookstores and directly from Stairwell Books at https://www.stairwellbooks.co.uk/product/fatherhood/.

Fuqua has been writing professionally since 1979. His published books include White Trash & Southern ~ Collected Poems, Walking after Midnight ~ Collected Stories, Big Daddy’s Fast-Past Gadget (SF novel), Hush, Puppy! A Southern Fried Tale (children’s book), and Native American Flute ~ A Comprehensive Guide, among others. His short fiction and poetry have appeared in hundreds of national and international publications as diverse as Rattle, The Pearl, Cemetery Dance, The Christian Science Monitor, Main Street Rag, and Year’s Best Horror Stories. Learn more about his writing and music at http://csfuqua.com.

Tradition and Modern Structure Meld on Native Flute Album

Musician and author C.S. Fuqua has taken a slightly different approach with his latest Native American style flute album Homeward ~ WindPoem VII ~ Native American Flute Meditations, combining traditional sound and harmonies with modern structure and percussion.

With popularity centered around its unique and novel sound, the Native American flute has come a long way over the last three decades and is now featured in a variety of music genres and styles, from folk and jazz to orchestral and world. And yet solo instrumental renditions remain the instrument’s most powerful — and perhaps most popular — means of reaching listeners. 

Four years have passed since Simplicity, Fuqua’s last WindPoem native flute album. During that time, he produced two albums of multi-instrumental world music incorporating native flute. With Homeward, Fuqua returns to the soulful power of solo native flute that made his first six WindPoem albums favorites among those seeking relaxing, meditative music.

Although a return to the traditional sound of solo flute, Homeward selections are more structured than earlier WindPoem instrumentals.

“I produced this album specifically to create the same type of calm and relaxation as earlier WindPoem recordings but with a more modern, melodic sound,” Fuqua said. “Although the native flute is becoming a familiar instrument in popular music, its traditional solo sound will always be the most soulful and satisfying.”

Erroneously portrayed as a male-dominated instrument used solely for courting, the Native American flute historically has been an instrument played by children, women, and men in a variety of capacities, including spiritual and fertility rites, courting, mourning rituals, basic entertainment, and as an instrument of greeting between individuals and villages. In every role, it has been and remains an instrument whose melody is both haunting and soothing.

Since the first WindPoem album, Fuqua’s native flute instrumentals have been used for casual listening and in settings for counseling, meditation, hospice and general care, and educational environment enhancement.

Homeward builds on the WindPoem tradition of music that is both soothing and entertaining, blending traditional sound deftly with modern form while remaining true to native music traditions.

Fuqua wrote and performed all instrumentals for the album, playing flutes that he custom-crafted. Fuqua is the author of the book Native American Flute ~ A Comprehensive Guide ~ Craft & History. For more information regarding Fuqua’s music and books, please visit http://csfuqua.com. To preview Homeward and other WindPoem albums, please visit http://csfuqua.bandcamp.com or most streaming platforms such as Spotify and Pandora. Fuqua is available for performance and educational presentations. For more information, contact him at fuqua.cs@gmail.com.

Different Direction world jazz featuring Native American flute

Mention the Native American flute, and the first thing that comes to mind is a beautifully carved piece of artwork that produces soulful sounds. No screaming guitars. No banjos. No brass section. Just that single instrument and its haunting melody that serves as soundtrack to countless Youtube meditation videos. 

But the native flute is far more than that.

Las Cruces-based musician C.S. Fuqua’s first six WindPoem ~ Native American Flute Meditations albums fully celebrate the traditional sounds of the native flute, but Fuqua’s native flute music has taken a new turn in his seventh album, Different Direction, blending the flute’s soulful, meditative traditions into diverse compositions of world music influenced by bluegrass, rock, and jazz that combine into a refreshing sound that is at once both familiar and yet new. 

Fuqua is not the first to broaden the native flute’s range and use in music. The Rippingtons jazz group featured Robert Tree Cody on two cuts on their 1999 album Topaz. Twenty-one years later, that album remains one of the group’s most popular.

Classically-trained musician R. Carlos Nakai is best known for his traditional native flute work, but he has also broadened the flute’s use in other music genres, collaborating with guitarist William Eaton on new age productions, composers James DeMars and Phillip Glass on classical compositions, the Japanese group the Wind Travelin’ Band, and Tibetan flautist and vocalist Nawang Khechog. Yet, despite these beautiful excursions into other genres, the music that sustains Nakai’s popularity, and that of most native flute musicians, remains rooted in the traditional Native American sound.

Not only is the native flute’s use so grounded in traditional sound, it’s also still fighting the invented belief that it’s a male-only instrument, a false narrative created by European invaders whose sole purpose was to romanticize aspects of native life, even though the flute was played and enjoyed by both genders and all ages. Times are changing, though, thanks to award-winning flautists like Mary Youngblood who have blazed a path of acceptance and expansion that others now follow.

Fuqua’s Different Direction contains twelve world jazz cuts, with native flute featured as primary instrument in more than half of the instrumentals. As more artists produce albums featuring the native flute in modern music, the instrument will continue to expand its range, securing its deserved place in bands of all genres, holding its own with the loudest guitars and most strident brass sections to create a multi-cultural celebration for the ears.

Fuqua’s Different Direction is available for streaming and/or purchase on most major music platforms, including Pandora, Deezer, Amazon, iTunes, and Fuqua’s Bandcamp music website.

Fuqua has researched and published extensively on the history, mythology, and crafting of the Native American flute, including A Comprehensive Guide ~ The Native American Flute ~ History & Craft. His first WindPoem album was released in 2014.