Get to Know True Blue Indigo: Author Interview – Part Two

This is Part Two of our illuminating interview with True Blue Indigo, where he discusses his creative process, publishing experience, goals for A Personal Aristocracy, and gives us a sneak peek into what’s up next. Enjoy!

What is the one thing that you want readers to take away from your book?
That we have been defined by the assimilating power of this culture to be utilitarian objects not of any particular beauty. Only we can redefine ourselves as glorious, exquisite, radiant creatures. No one else can do this work for us, but we have not been presented with an alternative to this current embodiment. We are composed of an etheric and a physical component, and so we mediate formlessness and form. With the possibility of living only this one life in only this one embodiment, we should seek to perfect both of these elements every moment of every day, and live as beautifully as we can imagine, and then exceed this beauty again and again in constant redefinition, living our own personal aristocracy and so elevating humanity through our example.

How do you write? Do you have a daily routine? What’s good about it? What do you hate about it?
I am a glass of water. The glass fills, and writing empties the glass of its contents, whereupon I stop writing. Then the glass refills itself, and I empty it of its contents again the following day. The words suggest other possibilities, other subjects that have not been explored. I have two or three new projects deriving from this first experience, as branches split at their meristems and produce new branches. I hate nothing. The entire universe is inside me, and it is absolutely perfect.

How did you find the publisher for A Personal Aristocracy? What has your experience with the process been like?
Shabd Sangeet required the assistance of a therapist to overcome what in another person would have been impossible odds, but she is not another person. Her therapist helped her to release much bad energy, and so the book is dedicated both to she and to Michael Picucci. I sent the file to him as a courtesy, should he have any reservations about it. Unknown to me at the time, Michael was in the North Atlantic stable of authors, and he sent the unedited manuscript to Richard Grossinger, publisher of North Atlantic, saying it was the best thing he had read in a decade. Richard read about 15 pages and said he would publish it. I never sent the manuscript out so I have no rejection letters to support the romantic struggling artist image. That it is true is coincidental. The experience has been magical. I even enjoyed the editing process even though it was compressed into about two weeks time.

What are you working on next?
I am describing a condition of the universe, that everything is absolutely perfect in every moment. Everything: creation, ourselves, our relationships, our history, everything. Everything is all absolutely and totally perfect, and I have proof. It can be demonstrated.

What have you learned about human nature that isn’t common knowledge?
I met an Australian man while in Malaysia some years ago, as we had to share a table. I was in a restaurant while he was drinking beer on the veranda, very unkempt, rather seedy looking, actually, working stock on long holiday. He was covered with tattoos, but there was something more intelligent and elegant about this man than other people I have regarded covered with tattoos. I have no tattoos personally, especially as it has become fashionable and I have no interest in fashion, but I realized in this one man that he had something inside him that needed to be expressed outwardly. It was as though he was saying, “I am someone. I am a human being. I am more than that which you can see,” and he was trying to communicate something deep inside that wanted out, and his skin bore messages from his inner soul. It wasn’t this mindless fashion that has gripped our culture from soccer moms to surfers for validation and belonging to a perceived normative chic, it was an expression that real human beauty lie underneath this covering of ink. He had soul. It was a silent plea of something larger within needing to be expressed outwardly. Sometimes lessons come in unexpected ways. I never learned his name.

What single thing might people be surprised to learn about you?
When I taught the improvisational theater techniques of Viola Spolin I used to collect the very worst science fiction movies of all time, the absolute worst of the worst, and I would put them on with the sound turned off with friends and we would make up the dialog. It is enormously entertaining. The nadir of really, really bad science fiction film has to be a black and white Mexican candidate from the 1960’s called The Robot Versus the Aztec Mummy. It is absolutely dreadful. Dreadful. Exquisitely bad. Painfully bad. In an alternate universe where Ed Wood Jr. is Steven Spielberg, and I know this as I had all of Ed Wood in my collection, including Glen or Glenda, this would be his hidden and vaulted stinker. Slow enough to stop time itself. Pointless. Thrillingly dull. Perfect for dubbing dialog. Then, it is perfectly hilarious. A lovely diversion when it is minus 60 outside and the cold universe is outside knocking on the door.

The question no one asks, the one you’re itching to answer is…
I am perfectly itching to answer the question: Where do you get your clothes?

A: Thank you for asking me to ask me that question. I make them or have them made for me. Not being able to locate beautiful clothing, I undertook to make my own. My tunics are a Kutchin or Gwitch’in form of clothing from the upper Yukon River from the last century, but rather than made of caribou hide, mine are made from hand-selected and hand-loomed Balinese fabrics I purchased in Sidemen, Bali, and which were sewn by Madu tailor of Kuta, Bali, later fringed and trimmed by various hands. The original Athabascan tunics bore decoration in silver berry seeds, the quills of porcupines, and red ochre mined from the banks of the Yukon river, but I have made the decorations to be carried on a kind of tippet or veil worn in Nepal and Tibet so the main garment may be laundered easily. I also wear Balinese or Myanmaran longhi skirts in warm weather, finding these skirts to be most appropriate and comfortable when the day is over warm. Otherwise, I wear pants, and these too I decorate in various ways and to which I sew elk hide which is fringed and painted. They replicate the old designs done in bead or quill but can be laundered in a modern machine, as I love the feeling of fringe as it dances and makes movement upon my body. Drape and flow are very important to me in clothing. I make my own moccasins when I can, or have them made for me, which I then decorate. I hope to have a winter coat soon I will make of woolen blankets in the old style.

CLICK HERE to check out True Blue Indigo’s website.

CLICK HERE to learn more about A Personal Aristocracy.