tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39832198222068843712023-09-09T04:28:52.984-07:00Already HereUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-41929233225685877212015-08-08T20:02:00.001-07:002015-08-08T20:02:09.370-07:00Day 6 of the Bookthe goal is to write a minimum of 500 words on a long form piece every day<br />
<br />
The Book: 1001 Bars to Go to After You Die<br />
Day 6: 600 words<br />
<br />
Total: 4550Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-4534087609622489522015-08-07T19:22:00.001-07:002015-08-07T19:22:38.229-07:00Day 5 of BlogThe Book 1001 Bars to Go to After You Die<br />
Day 5 - 600 words<br />
Total - 3950<br />
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I wrote a paragraph that I haven't gotten too, I sure hope I get to it or this is going to be one messy manuscriptUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-42868651899795122082015-08-06T18:55:00.002-07:002015-08-06T18:55:17.062-07:00Day 51001 Bars to Go to After You Die<br />
Day 5 - 575 words<br />
Total 3350<br />
<br />
I wrote this eveing in front of the TV when my wife was watching Field of Dreams. I couldn't write when James Earl Jones did that speech at the end of the movie. Yeah I was teary and the writing was slow tonightUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-54638944200131232162015-08-05T20:16:00.001-07:002015-08-05T20:16:20.381-07:00Day 4 of the BookThe goal: To write a minimum of 500 words a day on a novel<br />
<br />
1001 Bars to Go to After Your Die<br />
Day 4 - 850 words<br />
<br />
Total 2750<br />
<br />
This took some time, but I finally finished the first chapter. We will see where it goes from here.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-20257599315152167272015-08-05T06:11:00.000-07:002015-08-05T06:11:22.542-07:00New Essay UpHere is something I wrote a few months ago to go with the reading I run, The Hangover Hour. Every time I try to read a brand new work, usually written right at the bar. This was written there, and submitted there as well. The feature was focusing on the work of Richard Brautigan and I wrote this<br />
<br />
http://www.radiuslit.org/2015/08/05/paying-for-the-the-abortion-the-richard-brautigan-book/Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-35572057744208638772015-08-05T06:06:00.000-07:002015-08-05T06:06:31.615-07:00The book projectOne of the things I will be using this blog for is to follow along on writing a minimum of 500 words a day on a novel and see where we are in a couple months. I have never tried a novel before, and the one I am doing seems less like a novel then a fantastic travelogue. We will see what occurs as it goes along.<br />
<br />
I know that some disagree but if I make it to forty thousand words, I am calling it a novel and the hell with it,<br />
<br />
1001 Bars to Go to After You Die<br />
Day 1 750 words<br />
Day 2 600 words<br />
Day 3 550 words<br />
<br />
Total 1900 wordsUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-17751852698715917732014-02-25T06:10:00.000-08:002014-02-25T06:10:30.537-08:00three storiesA few publications this past week. Always nice for that to happen. I want to write in depth on two of them as part of the series I started called Practice Series. One is not a practice series, but part of a regular series of interconnected tales, it is part of a small book I am in the second draft of, Tales of the Reanimator's Saloon. Here is that story http://www.everydayfiction.com/the-backup-bartender-prefers-to-keep-his-thoughts-to-himself-by-david-macpherson/<br />
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The second story is in yesteryear fiction, I want to write about this in length and the difficulty I have with it, but more later on that, check it out yesteryearfiction.com<br />
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The last that got published is in a cute little digest magazine. Poet's Haven Digest #2. Its a werewolf story I wrote a few years back. I had the idea of using heroin to keep werewolf transformation at bay, and wrote this thing, and it was a chore until a line showed up in the last page that I just loved, it was a real moment of the character talking and not me. I finished it with relish and fixed the beginning to have that same attitude as the last page. Happy it is in print and for purchase for six dollars.<br />
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http://boutique.poetshaven.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=61&product_id=115Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-21532103586357934632014-02-13T06:43:00.001-08:002014-02-13T06:43:37.723-08:00Practice Series 4This might be my favorite practice series, the Brewer's series. It started when Heather and I would go to the local Border's on Saturdays to write. Heather went into the reference section and found this great large book, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. It had crazy listings for folklore, first lines, history, just a crazy mix of everything. Cool reference. She would check on the copy every time we went to Borders. Eventually we bought it. Huge book. Bigger than my first apartment.<br />
<br />
So a vacation week was coming and I just said "Heather, flip through the Brewer's read me a random entry and I will write a piece." She did. I think that one was on the Greek or Roman guy Cato (that one was not an eventual keeper as you can tell from my strong memory of it) but it was fun to write and with the vacation starting I said I would have her randomly pick an entry a day, I would write it and then at the end of vacation I would have enough for a chap book.<br />
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I didn't do that, but I did write 8 pieces. Some were hard. Some I hated the weird entries I was given. But some came out quite well. Three of them were published. One of them was the first story I sold to Every Day Fiction. That one was based on an entry on Irish Rats, which was rats would be killed by reciting poetry to them. Here is the piece I wrote http://www.everydayfiction.com/the-exterminator-by-dave-macpherson/<br />
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My favorite story from this series was one called Spaghetti Bolognese. It is not available on line but I did sell it twice. I found the entry myself because Heather was driving and I read it out loud "A pasta dish favored by children." Heather was shocked, "What, did you say that it s flavored by children? That's crazy. That's Hansel and Gretel." Wow. She said that and I had the whole story in my head. I sat down in a Panera's and wrote it. If only all writing could be that easy and fun.<br />
<br />
But of course its not that easy. There were some in that series that felt like pulling teeth. There is one story based on a british kids game that was a disaster from start to finish. But I finished it, and that's important to note. Just get the writing done. That's the lesson I learned from this practice. You take the assignment from the practice series and you just sludge through.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-27014345059423323082014-02-12T05:11:00.002-08:002014-02-12T05:11:26.200-08:00Practice Series 3There was my Shakespeare series where everyone of the pieces in the series was good. This is to easy to say because I only wrote one piece in the series (some series). I was reading a book that came with an art exhibit about the portraits of Shakespeare. It went on about how there is strong doubt that none of the paintings credited to by of Shakespeare are actually him. An essay in the back had a line that I don't recall to strongly, it said something to the effect that every generation makes up their own Shakespeare to adhere to its own outlook. This line, the one I don't recall too well, struck me.<br />
<br />
The idea I came up with is a series of pieces where Shakespeare has a menial job in society. A real low level fellow. The first thing I thought of was Shakespeare in my Pocket, he was to be a pickpocket. So I quickly wrote a crime story about a pickpocket crew in New York. It was good and it got published.<br />
<br />
But somehow as I wrote, all my other ideas of how to push the series dissapeared. I couldn't remember the rules and the examples I first thought of. Before I started the first story, I had a ton of ideas of where to go with this practice exercise. But as I wrote the story, those ideas dissipated until all I had was just one story. Not complaining. It is a good one and I like it a lot.<br />
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The thing I take from this is, just because an idea is good and fertile when it pops in your head, it doesn't make a series unless you have strong rules of how the pieces will be written and created, and you have an idea how it will progress. A cool idea is just that. But the story is good.<br />
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http://www.everydayfiction.com/shakespeare-in-my-pocket-by-david-macpherson/<br />
<br />
here is a podcast of the story, also at Every Day Fiction<br />
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http://www.everydayfiction.com/podcast-edf035-shakespeare-in-my-pocket-written-by-david-macpherson-read-by-matt-cowens/Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-30767912565018400252014-02-11T05:23:00.001-08:002014-02-11T05:23:38.404-08:00Practice Series 2I like the idea of writing as practice. I know other writers talk about practice, but I only glanced at their comments, so I have been allowed to come up with my own thoughts on it. I do know there is nothing wrong with trying to submit things to practice. Most of what you write, or more to the point, what I write is junk during these exercises. I would look at the piece when it was done and quote Alec Baldwin from Mamet's State and Main and said, "Well that happened." And then I would say "It's writing for writing's sake." You write because if you don't write your will never have the chance to be good, to be great, to learn from the crap you threw on the page.<br />
<br />
I love the idea of set themes or parameters for writing, because it grounds me. Coming up with something from whole cloth is hard. When I do succeed I get a crazy rush, but when I just keep on looking at the page and scribble nothing or less than nothing, I get the blues for the day. "Look at Dave, he can't even finish a paragraph" Having the set grouping helps me more than it hurts. It focuses the session. But I try not to believe that this is anything but work, that these are finger exercises. Something to hone the skill, to have a good time.<br />
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Every time I have written a series that is longer than four stories, or poems, I have always had one piece that is good. One that I can get published and out there. Its funny that the good story is in different places of the series, some I get it the first or second, and some I look at this eighth piece and go, that's the one. (Now it is true that you are a terrible judge of your own work, but sometimes you can just tell it works).<br />
<br />
I do try to send out the other practice ones, but I am just happy to put words out there. To see if I can progress. When I look at the broken ones, or the fractured ones, I will ask the question, "What the hell was I thinking with that one?" And that is a crass question and also an important one. You have to ask, what was I thinking. What made me go in a dull or uninteresting manner. Sometimes I don't have an answer. Sometimes I don't have the skills to correct it. Which means it is time to try the next one and hope that I get it better.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-13126620375252936252014-02-09T08:51:00.001-08:002014-02-09T08:51:41.209-08:00Practice Series 1The first practice series I recall creating was my color spectrum series. This was not a well thought out series, because it was based on me looking at a pile of my finished pieces and going, "Hey now, looky here. There are a lot that have to do with colors. I have a piece called Blue about a girl who wants to be smurfette, I have a piece called Red, about watching someone strut down the streets in a red dress, and I have that thing called Purple that I don't like, but it is a color, so..... How bout I write pieces with the names of colors."<br />
<br />
This was so original. Man, I had to sit down and catch my breath from all the exersion of coming up with this idea.<br />
<br />
I sat down at Vincent's with my notebook and decided on Green. I thought what could I do about the word green and I thought golf. I never played, but I had friends who caddied during school years and they would complain about it, so I wrote this quickly and it worked/ Read it out a lot at open mics and then got it published. Here it is http://www.everydayfiction.com/green-by-dave-macpherson/<br />
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Then I sat down to write another color and I don't recall if I wrote nothing or if it was so labored I realized that this practice series was never going to get off the ground.<br />
<br />
But it allowed me to realize that a forced series can generate some interesting work. I also learned that it was valid to take the prompt of the series and go somewhere else. I took a color green and wrote about the location of a golf green. That sideways thinking was valid and fun.<br />
<br />
The next series was better.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-53500781900474926082013-07-24T07:21:00.001-07:002013-07-24T07:21:15.846-07:00new writingI am focusing some of my writing time on something silly. A look at my life as a silly young comic kid. I am focusing on one Richie Rich Comic book, but I hope to talk about what it was like to be a comic kid. Its in a blog, and already I have written 3500 words on it. For a flash fiction guy, its like I have been writing epics. More to come. Check it out if you want<br />
<br />
arichierichcomic.blogspot.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-5309306472910921752013-07-16T08:03:00.002-07:002013-07-16T08:03:34.319-07:00what I am doingThe last time I wrote here, I started a new blog to write a small manuscript, a weird little book, well I have finished it. It is nice that in three months, I can crate something. It is 11 thousand words. Little book. But interesting I think. I didn't tell anyone about it, I just wrote. Now it is a first draft and I will be fixing it up but I want to send it out soon just to get that going. There are few publishers who handle weirdness like this, so we will see.<br />
<br />
With that said, I am inspired by the use of the internet to write and write fast. I am writing a first draft, the old fashioned pen and ink way, a collection of fantasy-horror set at a bar stories (these used to be called Club Stories, but being that no one knows about that type of tale, I will just call it the oddness at the bar) And I will be writing a non-fiction blog- put it together as a book - thing. I am with the crowd in not digging books that are blogs, but I find it an interesting personal challenge and the first blogged book worked for me so I will continue.<br />
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More on that as we go on.<br />
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If anyone is interested in the other manuscript I finished, here is some of it in blog form thedetectivepresentstheevidence.blogspot.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-55121771984194889742013-04-26T05:04:00.000-07:002013-04-26T05:04:28.669-07:00Swim ClassI forgot to post the link to this story. It was written in the same vein and on the same day as Dirt Bikes, where I took a Moth Story Hour kind of thing and then made it interesting. Do we really just want to hear funny ironic stories of our petty foibles or do we want stories with man eating fish?<br />
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It was published by a favorite site, Linguistic Erosion, which has published 15 or so of my pieces. So thanks.<br />
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<a href="http://www.linguisticerosion.com/2013/02/swim-class.html">http://www.linguisticerosion.com/2013/02/swim-class.html</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-47270751782188150262013-04-25T07:05:00.000-07:002013-04-25T07:05:14.383-07:00Johnny RoadsideI have a new story up at one of my favorite sites, Haggard and Halloo, that I am very happy with. It works and it took me three or so tries to get it to what I like. I finally got it when I remembered the song "r. Bad Example" by Warren Zevon. I just kept that song in my head when I wrote the story.<br />
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<a href="http://www.haggardandhalloo.com/2013/04/14/johnny-roadside/">http://www.haggardandhalloo.com/2013/04/14/johnny-roadside/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-86592417990466838582013-04-12T07:24:00.000-07:002013-04-12T07:24:01.903-07:00More on the other thingI will return with more things on my writing life, but I am pretty excited about the Hangover Hour and it coming in a month. Cool Cool Cool. With the help of Bob and Gary, I have started a tumblr site for it. Its very bare bones, but it is out there. Check it out, I am loading it with poetry video links and other things to set the mood<br />
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thehangoverhour.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-71948442765376092572013-04-02T06:45:00.002-07:002013-04-12T07:22:08.137-07:00The Hangover HourI have been off writing and working and running after a four year old. in my spare time, I am setting up a new spoken word reading venue in the city of Worcester. This is a little different, it is at 5 on a Sunday and there will be an open mike for everyone, it will not have a feature per se. It will have people performing the work of forgotten old writers. Actually, not that forgotten. I think all are pretty well known. We have Parker, Millay, Frank O Hara, Stephen Vincent Benet, Lord Buckley and then my favorite, Ruth Draper, who is pretty forgotten. I got the okay for six evenings to try it out. IT is the Hangover Hour Spoken Word Salon and it will be at Nick's starting on May 12th. Very excited. Almost done with the first flyer which will have an open and Tony Brown, poet and raconteur, perform a little Lord Buckley goodness.<br />
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That's where I've beenUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-6991363856203895252013-01-19T11:48:00.001-08:002013-01-19T11:48:14.500-08:00an object lessonI was at Nick's trying to write, like I do Sundays, and out of desperation, because nothing is a better task master than a blank page you are stuck in front of, and I came up with the title The Mugshot of Dorian Gray. I liked it. I knew it was something I could do, and I quickly wrote the first couple sentences and they seemed good and then I did the dumb thing, the awful thing, I said outloud, "Damn, this thing is going to write itself."<br />
<br />
Never say that.<br />
<br />
It is akin to writer's blasphemey. Sneering at the god of grammar and tense.<br />
<br />
After another 150 words the story stalled. It wasn't working. It was certainly not writing itself. Luckily I still liked the title so I tried it again from the Title and nothing else and I was able to get through it. I was able to beg forgiveness for such silly arrogance.<br />
<br />
Here is the story.<br />
http://www.fiction365.com/2013/01/the-mugshot-of-dorian-gray/Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-49148387237563478152013-01-07T06:08:00.000-08:002013-01-07T06:08:11.324-08:00Dirt Bikes is UpHere is a half autobiographical story (guess which half) I wrote. I must say that I hear many responses to critiques on dialogue or plot issues with "But that's how it happened.:" or "But that's exactly what they said." To that I say, "So what?" so your life didn't work well in a story structure. Fix it. Change it. Lie like a bastard. Have fun.<br />
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Here is the story<br />
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http://www.linguisticerosion.com/2013/01/dirt-bikes.htmlUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-74270582717233834212013-01-04T18:18:00.003-08:002013-01-04T18:18:53.422-08:00Mothful of NonsenseI have a story being published at Linguistic Erosion in a few days and it will allow me to go off on something that annoys me: the belief that stories need to be autobiography. I think that that is such a small, inhibiting way of seeing storytelling. The Moth is this storytelling thing where hipsters tell true stories in an ironic This American Life sort of way. Some of it is good, but most strikes me as self indulgent.<br />
<br />
I wrote three pieces in the fall that were my take on the moth. I started each story with a real story of my life and then went complete fabrication. Complete bullshit. It was a total joy to write this, to take real tales and say the hell with it. Only after I wrote them did I realize I was making a comment on the Moth and all the memoir brigade.<br />
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More laterUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-77607205229907815122012-12-31T06:34:00.001-08:002012-12-31T06:34:12.518-08:00My new writing project (yeah, this will happen)After the tenth time of listening to my son sing Deck the Halls in his four year old approximation of English, I realized that there was a writing gold mine hidden in the lyrics.<br />
<br />
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the first installment of the great hardboiled Christmas series. Ready and running by next Christmas season (which I think starts around September 10th now a days)<br />
<br />
From the darkened alleys of this down and out fa la la la burg, I work. I got an office, I got a gun. I got a couple pints of egg nog jostling around my gut, making me all merry and mellow. Like that will ever happen. I'm Menow. Don Menow. I'm working the private detective racket in the sticky part of Caroltown. A Christmas Carol denizen gets themselves in some trouble, they wind up coming to me. I usually kick them out, because I can't be bothered, but a few of them I take their money and do what I can.<br />
<br />
I was lighting another cigarette, waiting for the headache to stop, when she walked through the door. She was a dame, had the legs of a girl who worked the chorus line gigs for longer than her made-up face would say. She sat down without waiting and took out a hip flask of Christmas cheer and took a shot of it. "I heard you can help a lady down on her luck."<br />
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"I ain't seeing any lady here. Just a dame in a chair. What's the damage?"<br />
<br />
She wasn't fazed one bit, "You got the chivalry I figured to be hit with. Yeah. I do a little hoofing. I got a gig with a new troupe, the Nine Dancing Ladies. I would love to say we got an upfront legit routine, but that would be a bent line. We dance in a few slips of holly. The guys hoot and toss coins. Nasty work, but it pays for the pot roast."<br />
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I said, "Yeah, I heard of you girls. You work down at that dive bar, the Pear Tree. Don't you work with those loofer boys, The Lords a Leaping. Man, has there been some sordid talk about those guys."<br />
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The girl laughed, "Yeah, my life would be so much keener if they were all just looking for a sugar daddy, and not for a nice dancing girl."<br />
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This was rich, "So one of those leaping pretty boys had an eye for some Christmas cookie like yourself. That happens. Some of those boys works all sides of the court."<br />
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The girl started to cry, "If only he wanted a little of my skirt. He was long and man how he leaped. But he had his eye on the money. He got me involved in some photo business."<br />
<br />
"A little skin. A little less gay apparel than the constabulary would approve of?"<br />
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The girl's water works really was turned on now. "If only that was the case. No. He was in to a little blackmail."<br />
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I leaned in. "Lady. Now, I'm listening."<br />
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_______________________________<br />
<br />
That's it for now. Next Monday, I will continue with this timely tale of Christmastown degradation. Right now, I will be watching Scooby Doo with my son.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-85997053476282250402012-12-21T06:05:00.001-08:002012-12-21T06:05:33.416-08:00I have given up - Dr. DukeI think it is official. I just don't like the writing of Hunter S. Thompson. Years ago I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and thought it was good though about 50 pages longer than my interest led me to desire. This year I took out from the library two of his books to listen to while driving. I lasted 20 minutes of Rum Diary before radio commercials and oldies rock seemed more fascinating and pertinent. I was nearly half way done with Hey Rube, before I just threw up my hands. I think some of that had to do with the reader, he had a scratchy near yelling voice (I wanted to give him a lozenge and remind him that he should use his inside voiceu) But even with that, I didn't care what he was saying and the Thompson hyperbole just wore my ass out. So that's it. I think I am done trying to like his work. He is one of the writers people speak of with reverence but I don't think the people who name drop him read him that much.<br />
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Blasphemy alert!!!!<br />
<br />
I feel the same way about William S Burroughs. Can't seem to get through any of his books. I admire him, I just don't think I can read him for longer than 20 pages.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-41704067056922030762012-11-28T14:46:00.001-08:002012-11-28T14:46:16.836-08:00Ridiculous Story Idea Give-a-wayThe story idea: Harry Houdini tries out for an opening on the Ghost Hunters team. He goes on a trial investigation.<br />
<br />
It's yours<br />
<br />
Why Give It Away: Because I would need to research Houdini more than from the Tony Curtis movie. Also, I just wrote a story where Hercules is hired to be in Ghost Hunters, and I like it enough to work on it so I guess I have released Houdini from servitude.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-92101684287261957952012-11-25T17:42:00.003-08:002012-11-25T17:42:54.647-08:00It was a grave yard smashLast month, my son and I were at a library we don't usually go to. Small one, but the children's section had a great deal of recent picture books. George was not interested in these, he found a bin of Scooby Doo picture books and he was hooked but good. Which gave me time to look at the new ones. It was Halloween so I was happy to see all these lovely SPOOOOOKY books. One took my attention, it was a picture book of The Monster Mash. You know. The old silly novelty song. It was new and had lovely illustrations, the illustrator really did a great job. The artist is David Catrow and it really is fun and awesome, if only.....<br />
<br />
On looking at it, I realized something was off. The cover and the spine and the title page all said the author of the book was David Catrow. It hit me. What about the guy who wrote the song back in the sixties? Where was his name. So I searched and finally found it in the copyright page in tiny print acknowledging that the song was written by Bobby Pickett. The guy who wrote the words to the picture book only gets credit in the copyright notice. I checked and all the words of the book, and the only words of the book, are the lyrics written by the almost uncredited Bobby Pickett.<br />
<br />
And now comes the rant.<br />
<br />
I want to believe that David Catrow had nothing to do with this. That his publisher said, people are buying this book for your pictures, you are the author. I hope that an artist who illustrated someone else's words would not think himself worthy of sole authorship of the work. I mean hell, even in most pictures book versions of The Night Before Christmas you get the author Clement Moore on the cover. So this song by Bobby Pickett is not his anymore? He was just a workman on a song from a half century ago and we don't need to even mention more than we have to legally? Catrow is our boy and that's the only name we need to float.<br />
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This pisses me off more than it should. Bobby Pickett wrote a silly song that is still being sung fifty years later. It's not like David Catrow rescued this obscure work from the vaults. Someone wrote it, and it wasn't the artist who made the cool pictures.<br />
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For years I wrote a column on GotPoetry.Com called the International Revue of Bad Children's Book. I ended it after 42 columns about three years ago. If I was still writing it, I would include this book, not because the words are bad and not because the pictures are lousy, they are certainly not. I would include it because it is showing the publishing world being disrespectful to a writer. Even if they think the words are silly and superfluous. There would not be a book if not for Bobby Pickett. Someone needs to write the words, and that person should have his name on the goddammed title page.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3983219822206884371.post-17488126081970556212012-11-24T05:47:00.001-08:002012-11-24T05:47:33.860-08:00The Seasoning of LifeThe new Grand Fiend trifle is up, The Seasoning of Life. http://www.linguisticerosion.com/2012/11/conversations-with-grand-fiend.html\<br />
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For most of them, I got my inspiration from my collection of monster drawings (yeah I know, kind of goofy just even writing that) but this came from a small book by the food writer MFK Fisher, A Cordial Water. This is a neat little book about all the foods and herbs meant to cure people. She is a fine writer and its more engaging than it might sound at first, with that said, I haven't finished the book, I just gotta sit down and go through it.<br />
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The first chapter talks about a gray little girl she went to school with who stank "She wore around her neck a bag of assafeddity. It had a bitterness to it, rather rancid, and when I discussed this casually with my mother, she laughed in a vague remembering way and said to see if my new friend did not wear a little cloth bag hanging under her dress around her neck. And she did. During recess went down to the dim toilets together, and quietly she showed it to me, gray, gray, even her skin in that light was he color of her wool dress, her underwear, the soft little bag like a dead field mouse on a string. It would keep fevers away, she whispered gently to me."<br />
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Two paragraphs later the little girl dies and the family moves away. Strong stuff this thing called belief. And of course it inspired nonsense from me.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0