The End of Good Luck

Hello hello,

I just wrapped up a year long (plus some) project called Good Luck, which is an experimental novel that was serialized, as it was written, at The Nervous Breakdown.

The project is about memory/the self, art, labor, and love.

The project was initially spurred by the death of my dear friend Chuck Howe, upset by the absurd news of his passing (he died of heart failure while laughing on the telephone, telling his girlfriend that someone with terrible grammar was attempting to scam him on Facebook messenger, impersonating the dean of Harvard), I began to interrogate my family, and those around me, to see what they thought was important in life. The conclusion … most of it was pretty blurry, but what they found most rewarding was the time they’d spent with their friends and significant others, of course.

Good Luck is an investigation into my own life and beliefs and the zig zag nature of creativity, recollection, what I call home. Speaking of home, I live in an apartment with twenty doors for six rooms. I believe the project reflects that. Come in one door, leave the room from another, stand in another room and get back into that initial room from a separate door altogether.

Much thanks to Joseph Grantham who was the editor of the project. We worked together for sixty consecutive weeks on Good Luck. He is the most adventurous editor I know. Thanks also to the many artists who shared their art as the image for the weekly posts … A majority of that art came from Rae Buleri, but I returned again and again to the artwork of Kristen Felicetti and Ileen Kaplan, as a source of inspiration. During the run of the project I also read and studied Don Quixote, and felt again, how completely free a novel can be, given room to explore itself.

Thank you if you have read any of Good Luck as it posted in 2018, 2019, or 2020. Below are the collected links to this version of the project, as its serialization on the internet ends today.

Much respect,

Bud Smith

Butterfly – Episode Negative One

Popsicle – Episode One

Turkey Baby – Episode Two

Elegy – Episode Three

First Memory – Episode Four

Cults – Episode Five

Playboys – Episode Six

Oblique Strategies – Episode Seven

Blue Skies – Episode Eight

Dreams – Episode Nine

Melissa – Episode Ten

Bullfrog – Episode Eleven

Grasshopper – Episode Twelve

Art – Episode Thirteen

Little Guy – Episode Fourteen

Suicide in Bed – Episode Fifteen

Salad – Episode Sixteen

Block – Episode Seventeen

Rewrite – Episode Eighteen

Eggshells – Episode Nineteen

Birds – Episode Twenty

(and Durak) – Episode Twenty-One

Fish Hook – Episode Twenty-Two

Alcoholics – Episode Twenty-Three [Hobart]

Jane – Episode Twenty-Four

Trees – Episode Twenty-Five

William and Me – Episode Twenty-Six

After Death Valley – Episode Twenty-Seven

Beach Boys – Episode Twenty-Eight

Claudius Jr. – Episode Twenty-Nine

Mystery – Episode Thirty

A Cloud – Episode Thirty-One

Two Cats – Episode Thirty-Two

Salt and Pepper – Episode Thirty-Three

Friends – Episode Thirty-Four

Dear Thunderclap – Episode Thirty-Five

How to Write a Story – Episode Thirty-Six

Survival – Episode Thirty-Seven

Q & A – Episode Thirty-Eight

QQ & AA – Episode Thirty-Nine

Memory House – Episode Forty

Call For Submissions – Episode Forty-One

Cul-de-sac – Episode Forty-Two

Good Luck – Episode Forty-Three

Death – Episode Forty-Four

Blank – Episode Forty-Five

The Editor – Episode Forty-Six

Self – Episode Forty-Seven

Control – Episode Forty-Eight

Sorry Party – Episode Forty-Nine

Red Sky – Episode Fifty

Eviction – Episode Fifty-One

Rewilding – Episode Fifty-Two

Quiz – Episode Fifty-Three

Trying – Episode Fifty-Four

Directions – Episode Fifty-Five

Bleeding & Laughing – Episode Fifty-Six

Arrows – Episode Fifty-Seven

Budwulf – Episode Fifty-Eight

Last Memories – Episode Fifty-Nine

Demolition – Episode Sixty