Eduardo Galeano’s short-short piece “The Language of Art,” has resonated with me for years. In many, many ways, most of the book, The Book of Embraces has resonated with me for years. I’ve had a copy of the book for nearly twenty years. I cannot recall who gave me theContinue Reading
Reflections of Undertakers of Rain We’ve all heard those stories about writers with award winning books having to endure dozens of rejections. Or even more tragically, Patrick Kennedy O’Toole and The Confederacy of Dunces. He got so many rejections that he finally checked out. Sometime after his suicide, his motherContinue Reading
Reflections of Undertakers of Rain As I explained last time, I benefited from the writing four manuscripts before I began work on Undertakers of Rain. This experience made it easier for me to work and I was more efficient at it too. Also, it is my belief that anyone canContinue Reading
Reflections of Undertakers of Rain The moment I set foot on the Goddard College campus that cold January morning in 2007, there was one statement I heard chanted like a mantra: trust the process. Oddly enough, I didn’t really understand the statement then, nor did I for the remainder ofContinue Reading
Reflections of Undertakers of Rain I love small tableaux. I love the notion of a snapshot too. Small constructions of scene, whether or not they are embedded into a larger work of theater or film are wonderful things to me. For instance, and this stretches back some time, in theContinue Reading
Reflections of Undertakers of Rain I assure you that I am much less rough than I once was. I suppose age tends to mellow people out, age or possibly life experience. Who knows? I am not the angry man that I once was. I wander through my days, sleepwalking ifContinue Reading
Reflections of Undertakers of Rain I wandered up SW 4th tonight. This is not an uncommon occurrence, after all, I live on SW 4th. I live in a fancy new building that is impressive in many ways. It’s got the Leed Certification. It’s nice. I did not choose to liveContinue Reading
I have binged on Haruki Murakami on more than one occasion. He has been gracious enough to write a great many books so that I, a fan, can go through binges on occasion. The last great Murakami binge happened during the great Wood Village hideaway during the winter of 2010-springContinue Reading
The days are getting noticeably longer. The sun gets here a little earlier each morning. The flowers are becoming widespread now, and obvious. Spring is here. Although in Portland, it does not mean dry weather or even sunshine. The days are longer, and there are more flowers, and that isContinue Reading
The other night at work my buddy Edd asked, “You writing much?” The question came after a conversation about our kids. His boy’s a couple years older than mine. Edd is a busy guy too. “Not much,” I said. “Rough,” he said. “Yeah,” I countered. It is rough. But IContinue Reading