The Slot Machine of Death...

I bought cigarettes for my Uncle from a machine
like this when I was four. I loved the clink clank
the coin made as it descended and the metallic
crunching and spring sounds as I pulled the lever.
A fresh pack of Luckies would appear in the tray.
I was so grown up. I was a drug mule for the adults.
A pack cost 22 cents then. They gave me the change.

A pack of
cigarettes
in New York
City now
costs $11.00.

Celebrate your Independence...

Celebrate your independence from tobacco 
by ordering one of the very first copies of 
Romancing The Smoke: Reflections of a 
Nicotine Addict by John Aaron

It includes a personalized signing when we 
next meet...

Available from CreateSpace.com on the 
Fourth of July...
Order your copy today by clicking on:
https://www.createspace.com/3886655

Romancing The Smoke will light you up...

Big thanks to the Ojai Valley News for the 

kind press! I will be reading from the book, 

Romancing The Smoke 6/23  8:30 pm at 

the World University as an author of 

Well Read, part of the Ojai Writers 

Conference...

The book goes to print this week.

Take a deep breath....

Romancing The Smoke Art Exhibition and Book Launch

Smoking in Fashion

In the 30's and 40's, the fashionable professional woman had

special gloves to carry her Chesterfield cigarettes.

Back then it was fashionable to smoke like a chimney.

Romancing The Smoke-Story about the Cover Art

A story in Rolling Stone tells of the time that Johnny Depp 

was staying in the basement of Hunter Thompson's place 

in Woody Creek, CO while preparing for his role as the writer 

in the film, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. 

As the actor pored over the script one night, chain-smoking 

as he worked, he struck a match and noticed, for the first time

 that his nightstand was, in fact, a keg of gunpowder.

Hunter said he always wondered where that powder keg had gone.

Johnny never smoked in the house again.

Watercolor, Mixed media copyright 2011

At The 2nd Annual Ojai WordFest...