The Book of the Irish Bulls – On Sale Now
On my Dad
I tried write about my Dad yesterday, but for some reason this website would not allow me to post it.
I have a complicated relationship with him. He is basically more moral than me and loyal totally to his wife, while I have been a bit l have been a bit lascivious but not really evil or ever violent as an adult.
It is Father’s Day next month.
A poem, slightly bleak
“Die a Be Bes” by yours truly
“Die of be bes,” said his then four-year-old niece when he warned her older sister about snacking too much.
Not so funny now.
A poem and a random thought
“Flicker” by yours truly
Her image still flickers in his mind sometimes.
She was very pretty but a bit thin.
He liked her personality and thought her smart.
At one point in online chatting, she made a long, angry post
That basically he needed to act and not just talk.
She was much younger, and young women can be very expectant in romance.
He had his chance.,
Just a thought:
I have been in Santa Fe less than a year now, and it can be surprisingly chilly and windy, even toward summer. I don’t mind it because I have sensitive skin and prefer cool weather. But the wind sounds can be spooky.
Just a crude joke today. Sorry for it.
“Yes, I am also very concerned about high gas prices. My flatulence has severely cost me many potential friends.”
On personal things
I have often written on art or media on this blog but have been preoccupied getting my latest novella done and a bit bored by news lately.
So just some comments on a relative. My niece is getting married next month . She is my Godchild and sent an invitation to the wedding, But she lives in a distant state, and I have had health problems that make travel difficult. So I politely declined.
My niece is very pretty, works hard, and “has a good head on her shoulders.” So I am surprised she did not marry someone sooner. It may because she has conservative parents who did not accept past suitors.
On another matter, I love movies and used to watch them a lot and still own many DVDs. But for some reason I have not wanted to watch them lately. It may be because I have been prolific in short fiction of my own lately and only have so much space in my imagination. I still listen to music sometimes.
On a new novel
“Who hasn’t, in the middle of a long, dull journey, wished they could remove themselves from its boredom? Who hasn’t thought… this whole ordeal would be much better if I simply wasn’t present?”
Step-Stone, one of several sinister corporations that populate [the novel] Model Citizens, Daniel Shand’s witty, scabrous satire of fin de creation capitalism, has the solution – the closest thing, they say, to teleportation. After self-sedating in the comfort of their own homes, travellers are picked up by a Step-Stone driver and loaded onto a van, where they remain unconscious for the duration of their journey, only waking in their hotel room. In case you’re concerned about them taking advantage (“they’d have to be saints not to consider it”), drivers are administered anti-arousal medicine to guarantee a molestation-free trAavorite ip; a panel in the storage compartment where passengers are stacked reads: “IN RARE EVENT OF WAKING MID-TRANSPORT PLEASE DO NOT SCREAM OR CLAW.”
Just few random thoughts; I have not read the novel yet. The writer appears to be Scottish, and I was in love with Scotland for a while as a tourist. I think the first sentence may have to do with Freud’s notion of thanatos, the desire to die or at least be gone. Also, the idea of being on a long and somewhat dull journey reminds of taking trains around Europe my junior year of college on Spring vacation. I tried to fully read a history book but mainly listened to a cassette tape of Achtung Baby, which is still one of my favorite albums.
On new work in progress
Had to do some errands today and forgot to post earlier in the day, but I do try to post daily. It is therapeutic for me.
My publisher seems to have accepted my new novella idea based on a prospectus letter. T.he manuscript is almost done. The genre is very different from my previous fiction, but as one of my grad school teachers said about a famous politician who had a big public scandal, “we are all complex.”
This one will probably be about 100 pages again. It deals with military conflict, and I have never been in the military. It won’t be as technical or detailed as a Tom Clancy novel, but after all it will be fiction.
Short fiction and a new poem
“Brief Romance” by yours truly
She may have been the love of his life. She ironically pronounced the word as “lurve” when they were seeing a movie together and was a bit older and had a difficult romance in the past that almost made her cry when they spoke a bit about it.
They had met first at a New Year’s Eve party at a DC bar while he was vacationing from an overseas job.
After he had moved back to the U.S., at one of their earliest later meetings at the rooftop terrace of a DC house party that they were probably let into because their group was mostly young and pretty women. He made a few jokes on the rooftop that made her laugh. He liked her sense of humor as much as her beauty. But she could also be cynical, and to his mind overly practical. Sensing he had a crush on her that night, she said quietly to him on the rooftop, “it is better to be alone.”
She said one reason to break up was because they were both too shy for one another. She also implied her age and health problems meant she could not have children. He sensed they also had political differences, but he did not care about that. And they did not really talk about politics.
He did see her once again walking one of her dogs in a cute winter cap in downtown DC, but they said nothing to each other. He had thought her moving close to him from the DC suburbs meant she wanted to pursue a relationship but was obviously wrong.
Life goes on.
“‘S’more.” by yours truly
You have had enough s’more
And quite too much Smirnoff, sir.
Stop wanting more.
It will only make you poor.
You will end cold, dead, and left by a whore.
And frankly you are being a bore.
You are making everyone sore and some snore.
You can’t un-tear what you tore.
A poem (I have no idea why my website completely erased this earlier today).
“Un” by yours truly
Un, un, un.
“John Donne–Anne Donne–Undone.”
Might be crazy but a bit of fun.
“Here comes the sun!”
Don’t let yourself be burnt
Or put in an urn. Urn(t). What was earn(t)?
On a sermon
I watched Mass today again, and the pastor spoke of natural and supernatural love. The natural one seems to be mainly physical and maybe sexual attraction. . The second is more about affection and loyalty. I understand the ancient Greeks also had the notion of agape, meaning loving neighbors even if they are not really friends or even possibly enemies at times.