writer
Productive morning editing. Went out to the Saigon Café for a noodle bowl at noon, then made tracks to the office for a bit of new year paper filing.
Temps mild today, but no sun to melt the snow. Might prove a good weekend to pull out the snowshoes.
Corned beef brisket’s been simmering on the stove all day. Will let it rest in the fridge tomorrow, then stick it in the oven Sunday and hope for leftovers. Last one produced some fine Reuben sandwiches.
Long day. Plans for the trip south stymied. Need to dust myself off and try again. Meanwhile, new projects coming in and a big weekend ahead.
Kitties wrestling on the floor. Too tired to write or read. Time to hit the sack and start in again tomorrow.
Third day straight with overcast skies. Felt warm today, but the snow hasn’t given much ground, and the town’s taken on that tired gray look of a stalled Midwestern winter.
Managed a few revisions on “Desperado” before going into the office, then spent the better part of the day reworking brochure copy. Waiting to see what revisions might be in store before making a commitment on my road trip.
Feel like I’ve fallen into the doldrums, but was reminded I’ve been sick since well before Christmas. Which is true. Just wish I could summon up the energy to get another story out the door. That, or get a good run at Riverbound again.
A Hundred pages into Unbroken, and enjoying it. Again, it’s not Seabiscuit, but what is? Need to remind myself to get out and pick up the new Johnson novel…also the new edition of Best American Short Stories. It’s that time of year, right?
Snow still clinging to the branches. Big rolling clouds still clinging to the Peak. Put in a long day at the office writing a brochure, and ready to go home now. Got stock pot with roasted pork shoulders ready to be turned into split pea soup.
Leaving town tomorrow if the weather holds. Another quick jaunt down to Albuquerque.
Woke up to a winter wonderland, boughs drifted over, everything underfoot buried in four inches of snow. Shoveled three walks including my own. Felt good to be outside in the fresh air.
Headway on “Desperado.” Feeling as if the revisions are working, that I’m closing in on something good. Didn’t get as much keyboard time as I would have liked, owing to the snow shoveling, but hope to knock out a few lines when I get home tonight.
Heard from the editor at Licking River Review. The new edition is out, and complimentary copies (featuring my story “Stuck”) are coming my way. All’s right with the world.
Lazy day. Wrote a bit in the morning, drove the old Christmas tree out to Rock Ledge Ranch for recycling, then hunkered down in the den and watched some playoff football.
Look to pick up the pace tomorrow. Can feel the call of spring, though it’s a long way off. Eager to begin new work on the house, make headway on some new manuscripts.
Weather took another turn today, a warm breeze and clear skies melting all the ice and snow, temps reaching the mid-forties.
Got some good work in on the first five hundred words of a piece I’ve tentatively titled “Desperado.” A story loosely based on the robbery of The Bright Spot, a small family restaurant in Hiland, Wyoming. Been carrying this particular idea around in my head for many years, but finally feel I have the horses to make it work. Two thirds of the narrative feels good already. If I can hammer the opening into shape and make some clever edits on the rest of the pages, I might have a winner.
Copies of the new Dalhousie Review arrived in the mail this morning. My story “Blues Legend” is one of the fiction selections included in the pub, so I’m happy to get my hands on reserve copies I can spread around.
Also got a note from the editors at Narrative this morning. Some wonderful soul (a writer, I believe, from Sri Lanka) asked for my email to let me know he enjoyed my story “Fallen Angel.” Not even sure how to respond to a compliment that wonderful, but will certainly try.
A chill winter bastard today. Not a great deal of snow, but lots of ice. Took a few days off earlier in the week to drive south and spend a few days with the old folks. Happy to report, all is well. Had good weather traveling in both directions, and saw some starkly pretty countryside along the way. Ran across a number of coyote, but saw no deer or elk.
Brought the Hillenbrand book along (Unbroken), but didn’t have much time to read. Sixty or seventy pages into it now. Interesting story. Not as well achieved as Seabiscuit, so far, but holding off judgment until the end. Feels good getting involved in a long piece again.
Still making revisions on the five or so stories I’ve been holding since well before Christmas. Got the final bit of work in on “Burn Scar” and began sending it out yesterday. Last night, did a small revise on “Shark Week,” and sent it off to the Broken Pencil, in hopes of having it singled out for their Literary Death Match competition. We’ll see what happens.
Got some work in on the opening segment of Riverbound, but haven’t been able to get back to it yet for more. Will try and mix in the next round of edits while working on the short pieces. Looking for a good stretch of time this weekend to dig in and move ahead. Fingers crossed.
Mailer’s Armies of the Night came up in discussion today. Been years since I read it. Need to crack it again and see what I missed the first time around. Meanwhile, have to get down to the stove and begin prepping the veal scaloppini that’s waiting for me. Looking forward to a nice quiet Friday night.
Dinner with friends last night. Mussels in white wine sauce, homemade bread. Cobbler for dessert. Still under the weather, but stayed up to watch Requiem for a Heavyweight (the movie, not Playhouse 90). Been a while since I’ve seen it. Forgot that Willie Pep, Muhammad Ali (actually, Cassius Clay at the time) and Jack Dempsey all had cameo roles. Julie Harris was terrific—as always. Gleason, Quinn, and Rooney too.
Drafted a new story yesterday. Also finished what I hope to be the last set of revisions on “Burn Scar.” Re-opened Riverbound. Will see where I can take it after a long cooling session.
Heading south to Albuquerque tomorrow to visit the folks for a few days. Need to pick up a book on tape from the library before I blow town. Weather’s good. Hope it’ll hold.
Spent the early part of the morning revising a short piece (just under 2000) I’m calling “Burn Scar.” Happy now with the general cut of the narrative, but need to make a few more tweaks before putting it in the mail.
Spent the other half of the morning policing the house, getting things back to their pre-holiday state.
Am halfway through the Denis Johnson novel (again) and enjoying it more than the first time around. The man knows how to string words together. He’s also wickedly funny.
Feel closer and closer to being ready to take a stab at another book length story. Could use some more research time, but don’t want to stand in the way of ambition or get bogged down in details working on a first draft. The main idea’s there, and I think I have enough to run with it.
Talked to the folks today. Nice to hear their voices. Was told my sisters and significant others have mounted a cross-desert pilgrimage to Disneyland. Might sneak down to Albuquerque next week in their absence.
Beautiful winter snow today. Just lovely. Streets are quiet, the sky’s low and gray, it’s a new year. Still under the weather, but after shrugging off the vestiges of 2014, I’m excited about what lies ahead.
New Year’s Eve. A cold dark night, indeed. Took a chopstick in the eye two days ago, and am still smarting from it. The redness is leaving, but still having focus issues. No white flashes, which is good. But will look after it all the same. Had a detached retina in the same eye ten years ago and don’t want to revisit that for anything.
Hanging back tonight, watching a little TV. Cooking some pork chops and opening a bottle of wine. Looking forward to 2015, though to be honest I don’t expect to stay up long enough to greet it. Still too tired and beaten down from the crud.
Time to move ahead into a new book. Unbroken, maybe. Started to revisit Denis Johnson’s Nobody Move, and also Don DeLillo’s Underworld, but need to find something fresh to round things out. Finished the 1930s volume on story writing—not your rah-rah, let’s-meet-over-tea, self-help manual—and found it all the more enjoyable because of that.
Movie tomorrow? A long walk? Who knows? Wish we could snowshoe, but with a bad case of bronchitis stalking around the house, there isn’t much chance of it happening.
Sick yesterday, sick today. Temps well below freezing. Everything moving at glacial speed.
Down two more days with the worst cold in years. Into the second week now and tired of it. Have a pot of home-made minestrone on the burner, and a glass of red in hand. Hoping to feel better come morning.
Beautiful Christmas dinner with friends and family last night. Goose with Cumberland sauce…stuffed apples…duchess potatoes…roasted Brussels sprouts with squash and cranberries…candlelight and wine.
Afterward, sticky toffee pudding, more wine, and carols at the piano.
Today, many partings. Florida. Connecticut. England. An empty house filled with lingering memories. Reminders of everything that makes life worth living.
Out of pocket the past few days. Been trying to catch up with the holidays without much success. Feel like the guy in the movies who’s left behind when the car speeds away. Can see myself through the rear window growing smaller and smaller. Legs churning. Arms flailing.
Christmas tree did a face plant into the sofa last night. Chalk it up to negative tropism. Or bad luck. Or gremlins. Whatever evil force behind its undoing, the entire menagerie ended up on the living room floor. Heard it from the den, and thought, uh oh. Ran in to check, and was greeted by the sight of spilled water, broken ornaments, pine needles, a fallen angel....
The tree is now on the front lawn, looking like something out a Raymond Carver story. Some of us were more traumatized than others, but in the immediate aftermath of the crash even the cats looked like they could use a drink.
Clouds sitting low across the mountains. Looks as if it might snow, though haven’t heard anything suggesting it’ll happen. Hope if it decides to come down it waits a week and treats us to a white Christmas.
US diplomatic relations have restored with Cuba…North Korea has launched a cyber attack against Sony Pictures…and LL Bean duck boots have become a fashion statement on college campuses. I learned all of this since waking up.
Been thinking about the Robert Hellenga’s, “A Christmas Letter.” A terrific story that first appeared in Ploughshares. I’ve decided I need to re-read it on Christmas. Also, I want to crack Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, which has been sitting on the nightstand for months.
Misty night. Back and forth to the office. Projects in and out the door. Christmas coming on hard and not really ready for it.
Wild day. Christmas lunch at Edelweiss, then back to the office. From the office to Jeep dealership. From the Jeep dealership to the repair shop. From the repair shop back to the office, and from the office back home—only do discover the file I need to work on is lost in cyberspace back at the office and not in my dropbox where I thought I’d saved it.
Crud.
Too tired to drive back and search for it. Will have to jump out of bed early tomorrow morning, instead, and hope I named it something intelligible.
Sporadic work at the keyboard this morning, interrupted by a last minute application for new health insurance. Haircut just before noon. More work. Then home to some critical reading in the bathtub.
New project at the office! Fingers crossed it’s a busy year.
(Saw TL Jones's "The Homesman" yesterday. Found it fascinating.)
