First, thanks to Art Thieme for alerting me to this thread. I don't check Mudcat as often as I should. Way too busy racing to meet my manuscript deadline!

Speaking of which, if I can finish my draft manuscript for the Goodman biography by the end of March 2006, that will allow enough time for my publisher, ECW Press, http://www.ecwpress.com, to do all of the necessary prep work for the book to be published and in stores next fall. So "fall 2006" is the anticipated pub date at this moment.

To all those who tell me, in so many words, "I can't wait to see it," I usually reply, "Neither can I." And that's only half a joke. I started envisioning and working on the book sporadically in the fall of 1997 and began in earnest starting in January 1999. In a breath or two, that'll be -- yikes! -- seven years.

I'm confident that the book will have much material that is new and fascinating -- not just to the general audience of boomer music fans but also to those who were close to Steve and knew him well at various times of his life. And that's a tribute to those of you at Mudcat and many others who have been so generous with time and resources so that I can assemble an anecdote-filled (dare I say cinematic) narrative of Goodman's life and music and its wide-ranging influence.

I suppose that I should ask for any of you who have Goodman stories or insights and haven't shared them with me (or who know of other such sources) to please contact me asap at ceals@comcast.net so that we can talk by e-mail or phone. My only hesitation about that request is that I am already so overloaded with information that my main challenge at this point is to access and synthesize it all in a manuscript of reasonable length. But I'm never afraid to knock on a new door, because therein may lie an unheard gem of a memory (or photo or tape or document ... ) that deserves inclusion in the book.

Another request: If I don't already have your name and contact information and you would like to be notified by me of the progress of this project at key stages next year, please e-mail that info to me. That goes for other current or potential Goodman fans you know as well.

I hope this message is not so promotional as to be off-putting. I truly am excited about this project and am eager for it to be in the hands of many. Someone recently called it my magnum opus. I laughed at first because I assumed the intended meaning was the one that society seems to use -- something that is way too long and unwieldy. But then I decided to look up the term, and I was pleased to learn that the true definition is different and far more complimentary -- a person's most important life work. Indeed, while I have created several other journalistic mountains in previous eras of my life, this Goodman book is indeed the most formidable and challenging project I've ever taken on. That has made the process of researching and writing it (and finding a publisher for it) all the more delicious and meaningful.

My deep gratitude goes to everyone who has helped and who is looking forward to the book. I aim to do its subject justice and to "get it right." How rewarding it will be to find out what others think about that.

Clay Eals
1728 California Ave SW #301
Seattle, WA 98116-1958
ceals@comcast.net