On Wednesday night, I spent a long time talking about NASCAR on the phone, and at the other end of the phone was a radio show, and I was in a mischievous mood, laughed easily, and thoroughly enjoyed the show. Meanwhile, the iPhone I’d muted was trembling every minute or so. It was on the …
Category: Writing
Regrouping
I’m lagging. I’m having a crisis of creativity. It’s not writer’s block. It’s just good writer’s block. I’ll snap out of it. It’s like what Jerry Jeff Walker sings. Gimme a beer or two and I’ll be fine / At least it worked every other time / I’m a rodeo-deo-deo cowboy / Bordering on …
The Writing Sanctions
I have to protect myself. From myself. The world provides too many things to do. It’s too easy to while away a day dragging a finger across an iPhone screen on a Twitter scroll. It’s too easy to wonder what made that dog seem so happy, or that cheeseburger so succulent, on Facebook. Plus, too …
Drudgery for a While
I’m between stories right now. I just spent a couple weeks or so on a short story, “The Bright Lights Burn,” that wound up being about 16,000 words. It takes up the story of Riley Mansfield, the likable rogue who was the main character in my first novel, The Audacity of Dope, six and a …
Road Songs and Rivers
I hit the road this morning wishing I was going to somewhere like Texas, or Nashville, or some other place that was more than eight-five minutes away. Much of my time these days is spent holed up at the house typing away. When I get out, it’s golden. From time to time, an old friend …
What I’ve Learned Lately
I just finished another once-over – a third-over, if such a word exists, or, perhaps more properly, a fourth draft – of my third novel, which is called Crazy of Natural Causes. I now consider it ready to be publication, though it is not impending. I considered it ready after the third-draft, too. After I …
Why I Haiku
I’m surprised at myself. It wasn’t suggested to me. I didn’t borrow it from anyone else. It just occurred to me that the poetic haiku works very well on Twitter. I’m sure there are haiku Twitter accounts, probably hundreds, maybe thousands, but they don’t show up on my timeline, and I haven’t followed any. While …
Writing Its Ownself
Nothing about writing is absolute. General rules of thumb abound. Discipline is required. It’s keeping score at a baseball game. The only way to do it is what works for you. Some etch a path around the diamond. Some rely on little dots and lines. Some worry about the balls and strikes. Some don’t. Few …
One Thing Leads to Another
Sometimes I think all the good songs have been written. Everybody’s been doing something different, applying new wrinkles, and adjusting to changing times so much that it’s gradually gotten hopelessly convoluted. I told you, baby, from time to time, but you just wouldn’t listen or pay me no mind, so I’m moving on, I’ll soon …
Though You Didn’t Ask … I Tell
Many are the pursuits in which I spend too much time. Deleting “spam” comments on my websites, for instance. Occasionally, I read some of the nonsensical ones just for fun. A favorite spammer word is “fastidious,” perhaps because it takes fastidious – and diabolical, for that matter – people to post offers for cheap NFL …
Nightrider's Lament 