The Black Books

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Shawn M. Tomlinson set out to be a rock star. He wrote his first lyrics at age 14 and they were spectacularly dreadful. Undaunted, he partnered with James G. Collins to form a variety of bands and to write songs. When their partnership fell apart, Tomlinson kept writing songs, but eventually - finding it difficult to put music to his own lyrics - he cleverly started calling them "poems," but no one was fooled. One 2 a.m. day, through lack of sleep and better judgment, Tomlinson formed Zirlinson Publishing with Gary Ziroli and Eileen Anderson. He set to work turning the paper sideways in his typewriter. Ziroli drew a too flattering image of him for the cover. In the fall of 1983, it became 'Visions of the Lost Mind.' Between 1983 and 1996 or so, Tomlinson continued to publish chapbooks with and without Ziroli and Anderson. 'The Black Books' - four volumes - collects most of the "poetry" Tomlinson write before giving it up when sobering up from his delusions that anyone wanted to read "poetry" anyway.