Friday, June 2, 2023

Book Tour and Giveaway: 18 Golf Poems and A Recollection at the 19th Hole by Ronald Colby

 



Book Details:

Book Title:  18 Golf Poems and A Recollection at the 19th Hole by Ronald Colby
Category:  Adult Non-Fiction,  54 pages
Genre:  Poetry
Publisher:  The Colby Company  
Release date:   2022
Content Rating:  G for everyone.

Reviews for Ron Colby's novel, Night Driver, published by Rare Bird Literary, (January 2018):
 
“Colby has written a novel of relentless energy. While driving a cab at night, his main character hunts his wife’s killers through LA’s dark streets of dreams and nightmares. It’s tense, episodic, complete, and compelling. It’s quite a ride.” ― Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now

"Colby’s well-paced first novel takes the reader on a winding, exhilarating ride through late-1970s Los Angeles." ― Publishers Weekly

“Big news: Ron Colby’s Night Driver is a contemporary noir novel that deserves a place next to Chandler, Connolly, and Wambaugh. The story of a man who drives a taxi through the night streets of Los Angeles searching for his wife’s killers makes an exciting, original and hard-to-put-down book. Colby knows his turf, his characters and he gets everything right.” ― Michael Eliasauthor of The Last Conquistador
The perfect Father’s Day gift for those who love the sport,
and the perfect gift at any time for all golf aficionados!
Book Description:

Ronald Colby worked in the professional theater in New York as an actor, both on Broadway and Off- Broadway. He wrote many plays that saw New York productions, and as a director/playwright, “The Village Voice” declared him an “influential originator” of the Off-Off Broadway movement.
 
Colby also worked with such well-known directors as Francis Ford Coppola and was Executive Producer for The Outsiders and Mobile Masterpiece theatre productions including A Death in the Family.
 
Theater is one of Colby’s passions. His other passion is golf, which is expressed in his new book, 18 Golf Poems And a Recollection at the 19th Hole. Colby says he’s “written these poems primarily for golfers but also for non-players who need confirmation of the absurdities and complexities of the game.” He’s been playing golf since he was eleven, and like many, he became a devoted fan of the game.
 
In First Tee Jitters, he writes,
 
“Could it be, the view from player’s rounds completed
drinking and staring through clubhouse windows
that makes golfer on the first tee so anxious?”

 
In “Escape” he expresses emotions:
Eviscerated by guilt and strife
he arrives and drives
his shots breaking boundaries, incurring penalties
creating snowmen sans snow
.”
 
I Saw a Woman Swinging expresses his shock “at the power” of the female golfer.
 
In My Father’s Latenight Swing, Colby reminisces about his childhood, when,
 
Near midnight,
I take a lonesome whisky to my chair
and nestling, remember as a child
how in the darkness of my room
I could hear my father’s swing.”

 
Relief is a contemplation about death:
 
Golf is a game
to be played
A poor metaphor for strife and life

We’re only ticking up digits
Numbers whose meaning will fade away
Unlike the Reaper
Who shall appear one day.
 
At the end of the day, it’s the Long Shadows cast across the course, where
 
“Palms reach yards to catch last rays, and the golfer, resigned to the days end…
Lifting his bag, golfer stares as
sun loses its grip on rays and slides from view
leaving nothing behind but an afterglow.”

 
Complete with photographs and an essay at the end of the book where Colby reflects upon the sport and its fans, 18 Golf Poems is the perfect Father’s Day gift for those who love the sport, and the perfect gift at any time for all golf aficionados.
Buy the Book
Amazon 

Meet the Author:

Ronald Colby wrote many plays that saw New York productions, and as a director/playwright, “The Village Voice” declared him an “influential originator” of the Off-Off Broadway movement.

Early in his career, Francis Coppola recruited Colby into his fledgling company, and Colby moved quickly from casting and acting into the roles of production executive and producer. The films included, YOU’RE A BIG BOY NOW, FINIAN’S RAINBOW, THX-1138, THE RAIN PEOPLE, THE GODFATHER PART II, HAMMETT, and THE OUTSIDERS. His short film “The Longest Lens” won among other awards, a Cine Golden Eagle, and his documentary “Child Abuse and Neglect” won a U.S. Award of Excellence.

Ron went on to write screenplays for Universal Pictures, American Zoetrope, and in addition, worked on many films with such producers and directors as Milos Forman, Lorne Michaels, Ed Zwick, Wes Craven, etc. He was Executive Producer on the John Hughes films, SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL and SHE’S HAVING A BABY. In addition, he worked as a Production Executive on other films such as LISA, THE EXORCIST III, and ONE FROM THE HEART. The documentary he produced on the making of Coppola’s ONE FROM THE HEART, has been released on the newly issued DVD.

Ron also worked on many television movies as a producer including the highest-rated Hallmark Hall of Fame movie HARVEST OF FIRE, and Showtime’s LUSH LIFE. He has also been Second Unit Director on over a dozen films. He was the Producer of Esmeralda Santiago’s acclaimed memoir, ALMOST A WOMAN, also for Masterpiece Theatre, which won Peabody and Imagen Awards for best feature.

Over the past four years, he wrote and directed three feature documentaries. Completed in 2008 is, PIRATE FOR THE SEA, the film biography of Captain Paul Watson, the most controversial ocean environmentalist. 
Guest Post:
Bonding with my sons over Golf at St. Andrews

Three humble golfers taking a trip to Scotland to play golf and of course wishing to play St. Andrews Golf course. My sons, Trevor and Dylan had taken their father to Scotland on a once in a lifetime trip and we got to play many of the iconic golf courses including the old St Andrew’s course.

One of the rituals is taking your picture of the Swilcan Bridge which spans the Swilcan Burn and in the most and modest way. The bridge is a minor thirty feet give or take an inch and the Burn is maybe 1/3 of that. It is seven hundred years old at least and a very modest six feet high and it is not as spectacular edifice but the fact that it spans the Burn and contributes to the lore of the old course at St Andrews certainly doesn’t diminish its notoriety. The Swilcan bridge was not our complete final destination, but it was important in so far as it was bonding to Trevor, Dylan and I and we were able to and still are witness to the seven years of history, golf had only been played there for four years, a mere four but it is the oldest course and perhaps the oldest edifice and we were able to add our presence to that iconic monument where early shepherds could take their sheep across the burn without getting wet or drowned and later on golfers such a Old Tom Morris, a multiple winner and his son young Tom as well and on and on up to Palmer, Nicolas and Woods and Snead and onward it can go but the important part of this little narrative is that Dylan and Trevor and I got to experience that.

Enter the Giveaway:
18 Golf Poems Book Tour Giveaway



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