Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, April 1, 2018, 4:48 p.m. On Saturday morning, I left a couple small crises behind me as I drove down U.S. 76 to Newberry College, there to join my friends Brent and Sharon Sanders to watch their daughter, Hailey, play women’s lacrosse for Tusculum College against the Wolves. This was my …
Tag: baseball
Run Along, Nothing to See Here: Just Random Thoughts
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, March 16, 2018, 4:15 p.m. Trial and error. Risk and reward. Deadlines and commitments. Random meetings. A few nights ago, I bumped into a man I grew up with at Dollar General. I bought some soap and a box of Raisin Bran. Even though I live in a small town, and …
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My Mind Is Tired and Incapable of Suitable Organization and Motivation
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, March 10, 2018, 11:57 a.m. It's been a busy week. I got more done on Friday than any day in quite a while. Everything worked. Interview subjects called me back promptly. By the time I got finished writing about a soccer game and talking on a radio show while it was …
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A Cold Pastime So Far
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, March 8, 2018, 1:41 p.m. I've written about my first two baseball games of the spring. The home team won both. Both were in dramatic fashion. Both had runners cut down on the basepaths with disastrous consequences. One was a bit of a long shot, and the other was damned near …
Why You’d Enjoy a Stock Car Racing Novel … or Two
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, February 28, 2018, 11:17 a.m. In 2017, I wrote two novels about a young stock-racing ace named Barrie Jarman. Of my seven novels to date, they are the only ones related to each other. I've often explained this by saying that once I've completed the arduous process of writing a novel, …
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This Too Will Pass … Or It Won’t
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, October 26, 2017, 11:03 a.m. It was 100 degrees in Los Angeles for the first game of the World Series. The president is Donald Trump. A hurricane hit Ireland. Puerto Rico is still an American wasteland a month after Maria. I thought, oddly, about an old pop song. Take a letter, …
The Car Won’t Start
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 11:22 a.m. “My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.” – Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman), Blazing Saddles. Today my mind is more of an intravenous placebo drip, and any cascading rivulets are probably a result of coffee and …
The Roars of Various and Sundry Crowds
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, September 24, 2017, 12:30 p.m. Everyone is winning. Victory radiates out from my psyche. I can’t do this on demand. If I could, I’d be a human crummy movie. Clinton overwhelmed Chesnee, 35-6. Furman clobbered Colgate, 45-14. Presbyterian withstood Cumberland, 27-20. The Red Sox blanked the Reds, 5-0. These are the …
On Truth in Relation to Fiction
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, July 13, 2017, 10:27 a.m. When I was a boy, my grandmother used to say, when a thunderstorm approached, that it was about to “come up a cloud.” My lawn needs mowing. I’m going to do so if it doesn’t come up a cloud. I’m also going to write fiction today …
Lacking Motivation
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, June 21, 2017, 1:08 p.m. Some days are diamonds. Some days are stones. Etc. Yesterday morning, I awakened, and Keith Jackson could have been announcing the occasion. Whoa, Nellie! He came to the living room ready to write! Get some coffee in him, and it’s Katie, bar the door! Keith was …
