A collaborative project based on my poem "Touched," about my first and only meeting with my maternal grandfather, has been published in Soundzine! This poem tells how I entered the world just as my Irish grandfather was dying of cancer. We were in the same hospital, and the nurse brought me down to meet him as soon as I was born. He went into a coma that night and passed on three days later.

Good start. Got a Photo uploaded- using a PC computer and IE browser

More next time.

I am excited to be participating in the Clarion West Write-a-thon!

Clarion West is a speculative fiction workshop held annually in Seattle. Since 1971, Clarion West has offered support and education to writers of science fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, and slipstream literature. The Write-a-thon is a way for writers to participate remotely while also raising money for the workshop. This is my first year participating in the Write-a-thon, and I have set some hefty goals for myself: to kickstart my epic fantasy novel, launch my author website, and raise $2,000!

Click here to read the prologue for my fantasy novel, check out my profile, and donate.

On June 7, I had the honor of being a guest reader for Shannon Cain's performance art project, Tucson, The Novel: An Experiment in Literature and Civil Discourse. Ms. Cain, whose prize-winning short story collection is forthcoming from University of Pittsburgh Press, is serializing her novel-in-progress in three-minute segments during Tucson City Council meetings' public comment periods. It was a very interesting experience to participate in this project. I will soon provide a full commentary, but in the meantime, here is a link to the Channel 12 coverage. Fast forward to minute marker 62:35 to see my reading. Here is the bootleg version:

I had a great time visiting Wisconsin to participate in the Stoneboat reading in late April. The release party was held at Paradigm Coffee & Music, a funky cafe in downtown Sheboygan. I arrived shortly after a cold snap that culminated in a thundersnow. (That's thunder, lightning, and snow, all at once. Good times.) I missed all that, though, and enjoyed a convivial evening in the company of fellow artists, with only a slight chill in the night air. Here is a video of the reading:

My prose poem “Humberto, I Just Saw the News” is featured alongside many fantastic poems, short prose pieces, and visual artworks in the spring issue of Stoneboat, a Wisconsin-based literary journal. I had the opportunity to read in Sheboygan to help celebrate the new issue, which I will share more about soon. For now, here is the text of my poem. If you enjoy it and would like to purchase a copy or a subscription to Stoneboat, please visit their website.

If you want to get started in creative writing or you're looking for a workshop to support your established writing practice, you might enjoy The Writers Studio's upcoming classes.

Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Schultz founded The Writers Studio in New York more than twenty years ago, and Eleanor Kedney founded the studio's Tucson branch in 2005.  Although I have not taken a Writers Studio Class, I attended a local reading the studio hosted about a year ago at which Schultz shared his poetry. I left feeling impressed with the warm atmosphere the group created, not to mention the talent on display.

Monday, January 17, is the first day of Carli Brosseau's ten-week workshop. Brosseau is a brilliant writer and editor whom I know through the Editorial Freelancers Association. I highly recommend taking her class. Kedney's ten-week workshop starts January 20. Although I don't know Kedney personally, her credentials are their own recommendation. 

Warning: Contains Spoilers

I've had time now to watch Inception twice and digest the experience. I think it is a great movie, but what makes it great is everything but its fuzzy ending. I will endeavor not to write too much about the ending, except to iterate how much more satisfied I would have been if the damn top had just fallen, allowing the movie to decisively avoid the single biggest cliche in all of speculative fiction, namely, it was all a dream.

I appreciated this movie on many different levels. Although it is most definitely a heist flick preoccupied with everyone timing the job perfectly to get the big score, and although it was also a postmodern epic, I actually cared about the central characters. At least one review I read seems sure that "we," the viewers, can't connect to Inception's characters, but I have to disagree. This viewer could and did. I was surprised, actually, at how much I came to care about Cobb and Robert Fischer. My disappointment with the ending actually stems from the degree to which I cared about Cobb. I wanted him to have his reward, and I wanted the film to trust itself enough to avoid the cliche intellectual ending and go for the ending that would fulfill a main character who has suffered emotionally throughout the film. 

Separate lives: Living apart together

My wife and I have been married for 54 years. It is not such an unusual accomplishment on the face of it except that for 20 years she worked in locations all over the United States and in many foreign countries for extended periods of time. Her assignments for a banking software company often required her to live in hotels or corporate apartments up to a year or more. While she was a road warrior I lived in St. Louis, part of the time in apartments and later in a house.  We chose both the apartment and house for their proximity to the St Louis airport. When she was in the United States she was allowed to come home only on weekends.  On 9/11 she was working in Kansas City and all flights were canceled. We alternated taking Amtrak back and forth until commercial flights were allowed again. Her overseas assignments often required her to stay abroad for months at a time.  The wear and tear of transcontinental travel made it difficult to return home more than two or three times a year. In spite of all this we have been married 54 years.

The World, Then & Now

Inspired by the AARP’s Calendar Art Competition Titled “Then and Now”.