This Christmas I'm thankful for my characters. Not the characters, mind you. As a lad, Christmas was full of "characters": the uncle who always showed up sloshed on Christmas morning and stayed all day long, and my father, who would drink with anybody but him, fleeing to parts unknown; the Christmas Eve parties with the …
Tag: Monte Dutton
A Weird, Wonderful Tale of the Road
It's no surprise I enjoyed Joe Clifford Fausts's joy ride of a novel, Drawing Down the Moon. Dating back to a dive into the Beat Generation about a decade ago, I've grown fond of "road novels." My first, The Audacity of Dope (2011), was about a songwriter leading bad guys (and girls) on a merry …
It Could Have Been Worse
I've been writing about a bad guy named Glen Trimmel in what will be my fifth novel, so I guess I was in the mood to write this short story. Johnny Wangerin began the day by giving his nephew a ride to work. Then he stopped by the pharmacy, where his call-in prescriptions …
Go West, Old Man
A Swedish movie with subtitles was on a few minutes ago. I didn't watch it, but it was on. I was going through emails and getting rid of spam on my website. All I know about the movie was that it had something to do with love, probably the forbidden variety, and, when the closing …
A Woman of Her Word
"I see that brooch you've been wearing," Estelle hissed. "Warren gave that to you, didn't he?" "Why, yes. He is so sweet." "Giselle, you hussy! If you thought there was a chance in hell I'd be leaving any time soon, why, you're sadly mistaken. Wild horses couldn't get me out of this house." "Well, my …
Fiction and Taxes
What's the Anne Murray song? Hey-a-ay-ay-hay-ay-ay, what about me? I've got some feelings on my mind, I-I-I do ..." Something like that. I would have referred to it as an old Anne Murray song, but there aren't any new ones of which I know. I've got a lot going on. There's this ridiculous tax dispute …
What to My Wandering Eyes Did Appear?
I overslept this morning. It was because I'm always hyper after writing, and I wrote about high school basketball last night. It provides a little spending money. It gets me out the house, where I hole up, writing, reading, watching TV, and playing guitar, along with non-creative activities such as washing dishes and clothes, and …
How I Got Here Musically
I remember when I first heard of Don McLean and "American Pie." It was a little over forty-four years ago. I was in the library of Bell Street Middle School, reading Time magazine. At about the same time, maybe even the same day, I read an article about James Taylor. I still tell people …
The Vitality of Extrasensory Youth
Lexi Sobado -- AKA "Alex," AKA "Lynx" -- is a remarkable young woman. She is immensely educated -- none of it formal -- and has extrasensory perceptions that warn her of danger. She has a newlywed husband deployed in the Middle East, extra-official relationship with an extra-government entity, and a serial killer after her. She …
Irony and Amusement
It was bound to be an interesting day. The first sign was when I put on some coffee and turned on the TV. A local news, uh, person was talking about the terrorist attacks in France and said that, in January, a terrorist attack killed "Charlie Hebdo and 11 others." How could a person whose …
Nightrider's Lament 