Here are some reasons I wanted to update the blog as to the status of my memoir: 1. To explain my writing absence here. 2. To try and get the word out of its existence. 3. To receive some attaboys and some youcandoits. 4. To describe what the tale is actually about. This last point [...] Continue Reading »
for the attaboys and youcandoits
4if there were timeouts
5Months ago I was posting drafts of memoir chapters as I wrote them. The writing has been a stop and go effort for two years now, and a huge struggle of time management. I am guilty of making more time for writing than is fair, truthfully. The balance of work, and the work I wish [...] Continue Reading »
hunger for the Skeeter-Dog
0I’m having a nice afternoon under my felt Stetson, hiding in a Starbucks just to the right of the entrance in Wytheville, VA. Ashley is with a great bunch of Addair women for dinner theater at the Wolhfahrt Haus. That’s impossible to spell by the way, and I’ve done my usual Wytheville loafing which takes [...] Continue Reading »
finding happiness in work: advice to the younger me
2We’ve began a three month family plan: a checklist for hitting the road in a travel camper come spring, a bunch of paintings and enough CDs to sprinkle around for gas money and electric hookup. No, not really. I’m afraid the plan is going to be a little more boring. Like putting together our taxes, [...] Continue Reading »
nine. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
2NINE Playing background dinner music is one of the best places to people watch that I know of. It’s better than a bench in the mall, better than a county fair, better even than a cafe table on a busy street. When you’re on the piano you may stare all you want and no one [...] Continue Reading »
seven. doing simple things
1SEVEN Graning Paint is a family affair under the interstate that shares a stance with Ray’s Market which supplies the population under the bridge with the coldest brown paper sack they could ask for without leaving the comfort of home. At Graning Paint they have ashtrays on the sales counter, always ask “cash or charge?” [...] Continue Reading »
four. the suttree
3This week I’ve been sharing some of a memoir draft that’s been in the works for over a year. I’d love your feedback. And I need encouragement. Call it insecurity, that’s exactly what it is. Thank you for reading. FOUR. It was getting late but I had to do it. With a handful of [...] Continue Reading »
(three.) some paint dries, a walk to Kenjo, strumming the pawnshop C
4THREE I ran long streaks of paint across the boards with a full brush then jammed it into the alligatored surface. Painters long before me had done the same, and a thirsty old house is the best place to prop up a ladder and have a self chat. This old house should have never been [...] Continue Reading »
installment memoir part 1
2This could get me in trouble, but I’m going to start posting chunks of a memoir. I’ve been asked what it’s about and I don’t know what to say. Very loosely it is about songwriting. But it would be hard to write about the method and not the purpose. You’ll see that I’m not really [...] Continue Reading »
put a little music to it
2I want to write lyrics that hold up as poetry. I want to write melodies good for whistling. I want to write songs that make the rounds over campfires. I want to write the album people play on the highway all alone. I want to write the song that reminds you of a friend. I’d [...] Continue Reading »