How does one write? It’s sort of like asking a baseball fan, how does one keep score? Why, there’s only one way to keep score. The way it works for you. Or, uh, one. Awkward or not. It’s a matter of person. If one starts in third, one stays there. No gear shifting. It’s got …
Tag: fiction
My Fingers Are Faster
This sharp little number has speeded me up. It’s a transformer, capable of serving both my laptop and tablet needs. I don’t fully understand my tablet needs. I’ve had a laptop. I’ve had an iPhone. Now I’ve got the capability of existing in between. Middle Earth, maybe. What could be finer than to be in …
A Sticking Key
I’m grateful for this Sony laptop. It’s lasted longer than any of my previous writing apparati. The wear and tear of writing about distant events took its toll on a Dell, a Toshiba, and another brand whose name escapes me now. I’ve also been a writer – a sportswriter for most of that time – …
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (Part Six)
The prevailing view was that Riggs Hellams was turning the trick. Leland Mortenson, slugging right fielder, was coming around. With a couple weeks to go, he was closing in on thirty homers. His strikeouts were down. He seemed happier. Those in the media who followed the team were warming to him, depicting Mortenson as …
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (Part Five)
Get your licks in/ While you can / Keep your future / In your hands / Don’t let the damn authorities / Dictate what you do / Always keep it in your mind just who’s / Screwing who. Riggs Hellams found an old acquaintance standing, arms folded behind him, in uniform near the …
Try, Try Again
I’m taking a break. I’ve been working on the thirty-eighth chapter of the first draft of a novel about an evil politician and a good cop who have known each other all their lives. It’s slowed as it nears its end. When last I left Denny Frawley, he was debating the incumbent governor and this …
Peeking Outside
Man, oh, man. My life has changed. For twenty years, I flew about fifty thousand miles in each, writing about stock car races all over the country. On Friday, I will walk onto a plane for the first time since November 2012. I used to write columns. Now I write blogs. I used to write …
What’s in It for Me?
On my other blog, at montedutton.com, I struck a chord this week.I think it was a G, but it might have been an E-minor.Two weeks ago, I wrote a NASCAR blog about Dale Earnhardt Jr. About eight hundred people read it. On Sunday, I wrote a blog about the incident in upstate New York involving …
Lest the Brightness Fade …
It’s a world of opportunity. Unfortunately, it’s also a world of rationalization. I write best in the mornings. Most days I awaken brimming with ideas. Complications arise and slowly accumulate as the day makes its lonely way to sunset. By mid-afternoon, I’m bailing complications with a straw cowboy hat from a sinking rowboat. Also, time …
Gone Back There
I’m still not sure. It seemed real, as real as anything ever. It’s impossible to discuss. I’ve got close friends, sure, but none who would believe this. Among the reasons is I wouldn’t, and I’m more gullible than most. That this happened is inconceivable. It was real. It had to be. Either that or …
Nightrider's Lament 