This morning I'm feeling paralyzed. I need to write about cowboys in 1946, and my mind is stuck in the present. I've tried sticking planks under the tires. I've jammed the gears. Nothing. So I decided to ruminate here. I'm thinking. I'm thinking. Here's the transition I've been making, and it may be unduly influenced …
Tag: fiction
Be Clever … But Not Too Clever
My father was a wonderful storyteller. I was probably an adult before I ever questioned their truthfulness. It seemed like my dad was either alone, or with a long-forgotten pal, when the miraculous events in question occurred. They were almost funny. Among my friends, they became my famous, as did my dad. One of my …
Time and Place
I got up early. I used to get up early all the time, probably six-thirty on the average, but it's unusual for me to have to be up early, and I usually stay up late, reading and watching late-night talk shows, and I go to bed when I'm good and ready, and wake up when …
Coming Home Took a While for the Author, Too
Today was fun. I didn't go anywhere but L&L Office Supply for a couple reams of paper. Okay, I stopped by the Old Mill for an early supper, before the crowds hit. The crowds had already hit Dempsey's. It's tough to beat that crowd on a Monday. The writing was fun. I had the docket …
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Speeding, and Fiction, and … Speeding Through Fiction
I can't drive 55. I can drive 62. They never stop you when you're 10 miles an our or less over the speed limit. About four months ago, I got my first speeding ticket in at least five years. I got it in the worst state possible to be stopped for speeding, North Carolina, which …
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Tuesday Morning Consciousness Stream
I've had much to think of, and yet I've learned gradually that I'm living in a world that seldom thinks. It tweets. It texts. It posts. It links. It sinks. But it seldom thinks. It's turnt af. Nowumsayin? Saturday was unexpected. I was pecking away at something at least as nonsensical as this when …
What a Tangled Web I’ve Weaved
I'm sort of a mass of contradictions this morning. I want to get myself in the mood to work on fiction, but, so far, this has been one of those mornings in which I can't come up with a topic, and so I bide some time by reading my timeline, and checking the weather, and …
The Library in the Palm of My Hand
I spent most of Thursday back in time. It was New Year's Day of 1947, and LSU and Arkansas were playing to a scoreless tie in a Cotton Bowl contested in snow and ice. That much is true. The game was taking place amid fiction. I completed the longest chapter to date in my …
Too Much Information About the Way the Morning Went
I just read the county arrest report on my iPhone. Police charged a man named Roydrecilous Irby with "giving false information to law enforcement." I wonder if it was his name. The bad weather has "about played out," as is often said around here. It's slick, but it'll be wet by tomorrow. I had to …
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Pleased at the Moment
I love writing fiction. At the end of a good chapter, I feel warm in the knowledge that I have done my best. The best of days is when I spend most of it writing and playing my guitar. This morning I finished the editing process of the next novel, Forgive Us Our Trespasses. I'm …
Nightrider's Lament 