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 …
Tag: NASCAR
Another Weekend that Was
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, September 17, 2017, 10:55 a.m. Every weekend has its ups and downs. This one isn’t over. NASCAR begins its playoffs today. Formula One’s Singapore Night Race was on when I got up this morning. The National “Buh-buh-buh-BUH!” Football League is on all day and night. The Red Sox are in St. …
A Long Trip Down a Rocky Road
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, September 14, 2017, 1:32 p.m. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell* is going to be my most carefully composed, diligently examined, and thoroughly questioned novel to date. At the moment, I’m taking a break from the long slog of rewriting and reconsidering what will be my eighth novel. Twice I interrupted the process …
Torn between Tales
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. …
Clinton and Laurens … and Life
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, August 26, 2017, 10:58 a.m. There are those who believe I waste my talents tramping around small-town football stadiums writing about what I see. They are so wrong. Last night Laurens held off Clinton, 24-18. In a small tract of land known as Laurens County, named after a statesman from the …
Apparently the Eclipse Zapped Me
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, August 25, 2017, 11:23 a.m. This week has been a strange one. I think I may have been zapped by the eclipse. My new novel – and first sequel – is out. I have a book signing in Spartanburg on September 2 at Hub City Bookshop (3 p.m.). The week has …
‘Life Gets Complicated’ for Fictional Stock Car Ace Barrie Jarman
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, August 23, 2017, 8:53 p.m. The Clinton Chronicle was kind enough to run this today: Just five months after the release of Lightning in a Bottle, Barrie Jarman is back in a sequel. Life Gets Complicated takes Barrie into the top level of FASCAR. Monte Dutton’s seventh novel is the first …
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Keep the Line Moving
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 11:15 a.m. Yesterday I finished a manuscript. It’s just a first draft, but I doubt it will require much revision. Lightning in a Bottle just required two drafts. I think its sequel will, too. The other project nestled snugly in this laptop … ah, that’s a different matter. …
On Truth in Relation to Fiction
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, July 13, 2017, 10:27 a.m. When I was a boy, my grandmother used to say, when a thunderstorm approached, that it was about to “come up a cloud.” My lawn needs mowing. I’m going to do so if it doesn’t come up a cloud. I’m also going to write fiction today …
The Writing Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, June 24, 2017, 1:39 p.m. This has been a troubling week. It’s better than, oh, a disastrous week. It’s had its good points. My latest novel, Lightning in a Bottle, is getting rave reviews and middling sales. So far, 10 readers have reviewed it on Amazon, and it’s gotten nine “five …
