Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, October 1, 1:10 p.m. I had to write about Ken Burns’ Country Music series of documentaries, which ran their course last week. I just haven’t had the time until now. I love them all, but Country Music is right down Broadway, the one in Nashville where I have spent many hours. …
Tag: serial
Adventures with Freddy, Part 4 (Final)
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 11:33 a.m. Here is the fourth and final installment of my short story. The world is changing so damned much that it’s hard to keep up. For instance, truck stops are not as crowded. It’s fairly easy to get a shower, shave, and otherwise freshen up. I never …
Adventures with Freddy, Part 3
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, August 11, 2019, 2:45 p.m. In Part Three, suspicion begins to intrude on the traveling camaraderie between the driverless SUV “Freddy” and the passenger “Horace.” It felt odd to become friends with a machine, but Freddy and I were getting along famously. We traveled all the way to Oregon and back, …
Adventures with Freddy, Part 2
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, July 31, 2019, 12:15 a.m. When last we checked in on Freddy Frost, he and “Horace” were becoming well acquainted. As in the words of Johnny Cash, by way of Shel Silverstein, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July, and before continuing on to Nashville, after a day of writing in collaboration with …
Adventures with Freddy, Part 1
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, July 17 2019, 1:15 p.m. I haven't written a short story in quite a while, so I decided to work on this one in installments. This fiction takes place in the not-too-distant future. The idea grew out of my increasing hatred of air travel. For twenty years, I flew in those …
Things Could Be Worse, but It Takes Imagination
Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, January 16, 2017, 9:52 a.m. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I write. On Inauguration Day, I shall write. Other than that, the bookends of the weekdays have nothing in common. Writing must be the tie that binds. Writing must be the salvation of sanity. I must find comfort in writing. …
Continue reading Things Could Be Worse, but It Takes Imagination
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 …
The Way We Do the Things We Do
Get a grip. Have a clue. Or have a grip. Get a clue. Either way, right now, you are both gripless and clueless. Know what I'm saying? Never have we interacted more. Never has it mattered less. The world is empty. We like it that way. Let's make it emptier. Order up another dozen Justin …
Basic Math
Here’s the fourth episode in my short story. The first three were, in order, “The Feeling Bottoms Out,” “The Mercy Killing,” and “Turn It Up.” When Sheila Timlin got off, she and Clyde Barns retired to a booth to make plans for the evening. They had scarcely begun reviewing the options when their …
Turn It Up
This short story about changing times in a man’s life began with “The Feeling Bottoms Out.” The second episode was “The Mercy Killing.” Here’s the third. Clyde Barns was no regular at Henny’s Farm and Tractor, which was a sports bar occupying what once had been a Massey Ferguson dealership. For twenty years, most …
