--IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING, THIS IS AN EXORCISIM


…I did things yesterday. Things I don’t normally do. Actually, things I have never done.
I wrote a Kingish amount of words. Stevie would be proud. (That’s Stevie, as in Stephen King, who in his book, “On Writing” says that the average joker should be able to write a minimum of 2,000 words a day, but that he never leaves his desk until he hits 4,000.)
It’s also Stephen King’s birthday today, so here’s to you, Mr. King.
Anyway, I wrote 4,000. 4,000 words.
It was fun, too.
I moved the characters around.
I hurt them.
I put them into difficult situations.
I hope I also made them endearing and somewhat mysterious.

…In addition, I wrote some flash/micro fiction.
I wrote four effective pieces.
I’ve never done that before—toggled in out of the two forms so massively on the same day.
So it was a good day.
When I woke up this morning I discovered one of those micro pieces (“After My Morning Shower; The Man in the Mirror” had been accepted.) That was fast.
#536]

…Last night I went to hear Ben Loory read at Vermillion, an establishment here in Seattle on Capitol Hill.
(That’s Ben’s collection in the photo.)
The night was sponsored by Elliot Bay Books, one of the premier bookstores in the nation. The venue was fun. The people were chic and attentive, artsy types, fans of Ben with a couple of salivating stalkers in the crowd to enliven matters. I was happy to be there and it was worth the 2 hour drive round-trip.
I met Ben last year when he did a reading at John Hopkins in Washington, DC.
Ben is a great guy--humble, authentic soft-spoken and witty.
His stories are very unique. Each is a fable that feels at once real and mysterious, fantastical.
You could read these stories to your kids and they’d enjoy them.
If you read them yourself, you’ll also enjoy them immensely.
On the surface they are spare and simple, yet they have layers and layers to be peeled off, sifted through and examined.
I give the book a big thumb’s up.
I think it’s like $15 or something ridiculous like that.
Get Ben’s book and have a blast.

…Today, in an hour and a half, I have an interview for a radio show.
I did my first audio (phone) interview last month.
It was okay. It was alright.
You have to picture the other person sitting in a booth, or at least I have to.
Otherwise it’s kind of odd.
It’s kind of odd no matter what.
I was nervous about it last time. I hope I’ll not be nervous now. In an hour and a half.

…Here are some things I like on a wide open Wednesday:

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right." Henry Ford

"It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars." Garrison Keillor

"Every now and then a person should get what they want when they want it. It keeps you optimistic." -"Six Feet Under"

“The courage of the poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness.” Christopher Morley

"Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

"If you laugh a lot, when you are older all your wrinkles will be in the right places." Barbara Johnson

"That's why we get involved with other people, right? Not just for their bodies, but for everything else, too--their dreams and their scars and their stories?" Tom Perrotta, "The Leftovers