Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, May 7, 2019, 12:23 p.m.

It would probably be easier to write a song. A song can be quick and clever. A blog requires a bit more wisdom. It has to be more than clever. It’s not as complicated, but there’s more heft in its thoughts.

Not that I’m an expert in either, or fiction, for that matter. I try. I try a lot. I think I’m getting better, but I know I’m not objective about my own work. Of course, I like it. Most people don’t write shit on purpose unless they’re in business or politics.

Mark Twain as at least one of those who said that truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense. All eight of my novels are commentaries on the absurdity of their times. Most of the times were now, but I also wrote about South Carolina in 1969 and Texas in 1946.

Either all times are absurd, or I failed about 1969 and 1946.

“All Times Are Absurd” would be a good song title if “absurd” wasn’t so difficult to rhyme.

“Unheard” is probably best. “Bird?” “Blurred?” Pretty slim pickings and harder still to let the word fall naturally. I might make a good line in a song but not a whole song (I write as some songsmith begins a Grammy winner.)

In Texas, a wildness descended over the land because fighting men came back from Europe and the Pacific to find that, in a different way, the world had changed forever back home, too.

In South Carolina, the wildness descended among black and white alike because of the rapid change of going to school together. The kids found football in common. They ran, blocked, tackled, threw, caught, and sweated far faster and better than those around them.

Not even the past has provided relief from the present.

Three of my novels – The Audacity of Dope, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – prominently showcase corrupt politicians. One, The Intangibles, has a corrupt administrator. One, Crazy of Natural Causes, involves a corrupt evangelist. Four – The Audacity of Dope, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, Lightning in a Bottle, and Life Gets Complicated – provide major roles for corrupt officials. Two — Cowboys Come Home and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – are chock full of corrupt businessmen.

There’s a heap of corruption in my fiction. All have a vein of satire. Three – The Audacity of Dope, Crazy of Natural Causes, and Cowboys Come Home — are amusing. The stock car racing novels, Lightning in a Bottle and Life Gets Complicated, are funny.

Or those were my intentions.

 

If you become a patron of mine, you’re supporting writing like this as well as my mostly NASCAR blogs at montedutton.com. If you’ve got a few bucks a month to spare, click here.

Another way I cobble out a living is with my books, a wide variety of which is available for sale here.

 

The new novel, my eighth, is called Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Lightning in a Bottle is now available in an audio version, narrated by Jay Harper.