"Why do they [write] for their money? Why do they [work] for short pay? They ain't getting nowhere and they're losing their share. They must have gone crazy back there." — Michael Burton (paraphrased)
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, …
Continue reading Why You’d Enjoy a Stock Car Racing Novel … or Two
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, February 23, 2018, 9:35 a.m. The Laurens Academy girls' basketball team reminds me of my Honda Accord. Both wear blue and are approximately the same age. The Lady Crusaders have made three successful round trips to Sumter. The Honda has made two, with a side trip to Camden, on a single …
Continue reading The Penultimate Skirmish in a Great Crusade
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, February 14, 2018, 12:03 p.m. As the Statler Brothers used to sing, don't tell me I've nothing to do. As I peruse events in faraway Daytona Beach, I've been busying myself writing about local matters. At the monthly meeting of the Laurens Commission of Public Works, a dozen or so citizens …
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, February 9, 2018, 10:18 a.m. I must be getting old. I haven't seen it all, but I've seen most of it. Perhaps I could estimate with some degree of accuracy all the stock car races and ballgames I've attended and described, but it would be a waste of time and probably …
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, February 7, 9:33 a.m. For the second consecutive game night at Clinton High School Gymnasium, both varsity basketball games were decided by the same margin. On Friday, the boys and girls both beat Broome by 11. Last night, the boys won, but the girls lost, both by eight. Coincidence? Definitely. The …
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, January 27, 2018, 10:12 a.m. The Red Devils are rallying. Last night many former players and coaches converged on the local gym to watch Clinton swamp Mid-Carolina in both boys’ and girls’ basketball. It wasn’t unexpected. It was a good night to play under the watchful gaze of players from as …
Continue reading Close Games Are Exciting, but the Occasional Blowout Is Fun for the Home Fans, too
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, January 26, 2018, 1:09 p.m. I strolled over to Clinton Middle School yesterday. I went to school there. It was Clinton High School then. I walked into the new gym of the old high school, which is now the new middle school. The middle school fields two basketball team, the Red …
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, January 12, 2018, 10:37 a.m. I have started to confront the possibility that the world has passed me by. I am losing touch. When I write about high-school sports, it makes perfectly good sense that I don’t understand the kids. Their music. Their clothes. Their tastes. Hell, I remember when the …
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 …
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, September 8, 2017, 12:03 p.m. I’ve shaved nearly 10,000 words out of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which has become an on-again, off-again, long-term project. At the beginning of the year, I mostly set it aside to write two related auto-racing novels, Lightning in a Bottle and Life Gets Complicated, a sequel. …
