On Saturday morning, I was riding around and around my front yard on a mower, listening to Charlie Robison’s “Desperate Times.” That’s where this dark tale started. Joe Scharmann had applied for dozens of jobs. Three had deigned to invite him for interviews. Those whose job it was to conduct the interviews knew better than …
Tag: Monte Dutton
A Selfie Portrait
This morning I started fooling around with this laptop -- okay, this is a tablet linked to a keyboard -- and I started tinkering with the Fresh Paint app that came with it. As you may know, sometime in 2014, I started drawing simple sketches to illustrated my short stories here and the blogs at …
Horses in Disguise
I tried to think stimulating thoughts and come up with something profound, but, so far, all I’ve come up with is “you say potato, I say po-tah-to” and “what’s good for the Michigoose is good for the Michigander,” which probably has something to do with the NASCAR race being there. In other words, I got …
Absentminded Me
I’ve been absentminded my whole life. It’s not advancing age. It’s not the first onset of dementia. Not yet. If it’s an onset of dementia, it’s not the first. That was when I was in the third grade and completely forgot about a social studies project. On Tuesday, I was speeding along on the manuscript …
Not Gon’ Let It Bother Me
I’m about to be busy with the editing of my new novel, Crazy of Natural Causes. At the moment, I’m obsessing over making the cover better. It’ll work out. It needs to grab the attention of potential readers. Once they buy it, most of them are going to like it. Maybe putting all that work …
Ever More Distant From Me
Ah. Inhale. Exhale. Relax. Sigh. Control enthusiasm. Remain calm. All is well. Publication of my third novel, Crazy of Natural Causes, beckons. As part of a process that began with the nominations of “viewers like you,” (thanks, PBS) it will be published electronically through the KindleScout program of Amazon. I’m about to have my first …
The Writing Will Find You
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be writers. If it’s in them, it will come out, but there’s no reason to encourage it. Don’t recommend it, for God’s sake. Personally, I only think of writing once a day. Every day. All day long. I usually watch TV and read at night. Once I …
Ruination
Sipping a cup of coffee, Haney McGee thought about Ebby Newlin, the old man who didn’t drive a car, worked his whole life at a gas station without ever running one, and looked out for the kids from the wrong side of the tracks. Haney had been in Denver, trying like hell to keep …
The Gratifying News
On Wednesday night, I spent a long time talking about NASCAR on the phone, and at the other end of the phone was a radio show, and I was in a mischievous mood, laughed easily, and thoroughly enjoyed the show. Meanwhile, the iPhone I’d muted was trembling every minute or so. It was on the …
A Different Kind of Racing Book
Motorsports and American Culture: From Demolition Derbies to NASCAR, Edited Mark D. Howell and John D. Miller (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield) I’d never heard of this book until a copy of it was given me by my friend John Edwin Mason, who, in addition to teaching African history and the history of photography at …
Nightrider's Lament 