It’s dark here, it’s dark here because it’s always dark here. At the restaurant on the 30th floor, we looked out the windows. Richard said, “wow, it’s dark, already.” “Yes,” I said. I looked at my watch. Quarter to five. “The solstice is still five weeks away,” Richard said. ThisContinue Reading
The State of Kansas and other unmapped places, an interview with Julianna Spallholz. December 2012 We went to the aquarium in Denver to see the sights. We wandered through the exhibitions of theoretical marine life of the Colorado River from the top of the continent to the Gulf of California.Continue Reading
As writers, how do we write about it and make it interesting to readers? The question comes to me so often that I’m ashamed that I don’t have a snappy answer to it. The question: Did it really happen? The question comes after someone I know has read something I’veContinue Reading
Dunbar Springs and a moment to dejank I was opposed to the house on Queen Street. I was so opposed to the house on Queen Street that I said nothing. I said nothing. Any words I uttered fell into abysmal air and neglected to find deaf ears. The house onContinue Reading
The State of Kansas by Julianna Spallholz, a review The slim volume came to me by mail. All the way from Vermont too. The State of Kansas ISBN: 978-0-9823594-4-0 available through GenPop Books (www.genpopbooks.com) for $16. It’s well worth the money, the book is beautifully laid out, the pages andContinue Reading
Enter Julianna and the wellspring of fiction fodder. I know Julianna Spallholz. Julianna and I shared a summer together many years ago and in a place very far away. We met at the home of mutual friends in May or June of 2005 in the Barrio Viejo in central Tucson.Continue Reading
Enter Doris the cockroach queen of Armory Park. Here in Portland, Oregon I occasionally see cars driving around in the summer with Arizona license plates. I only see these plates in the summer. This leads me to believe two things: first, these are people who are too scared to remainContinue Reading
I spent a few hours with my dear friend Caroline today. I say dear friend, and it is true, she is a dear friend. Generally when I introduce her, I introduce her as my MFBF (mother fuckin’ best friend). I don’t know exactly how she got this title, but itContinue Reading
The key to last week’s quiz. I used this only as a springboard for discussion. It was meant to a fun icebreaker. After all, who’s going to take a writing workshops facilitator serious who has this introduction: “Welcome in, I thought we’d get started with a quiz.”? Incidentally, anyone whoContinue Reading
I used the following quiz as an ice breaker for a writing workshop I taught a few years ago. It’s pretty fun stuff. I found it to be a better opening exercise rather than the who are you and why are you here stuff we normally get at the onsetContinue Reading