Writing and Reading – Page 2

On the Ninth Day of 2025. . .

. . .I didn’t feel sad about my son having to fly back to Southern California today until about an hour after I got back home from the airport. Little things irk me. The dogs. The general questions about what to have for dinner. My wife’s questions about a mysterious charge to our bank accountContinue reading “On the Ninth Day of 2025. . .”

On the Eighth Day of 2025. . .

. . . while my friends in the east and the middle are freezing off their nards, and my Southern California friends are guarding against wildfires, here in the Pacific Northwest, during a miraculous dry spell of three straight days and counting, I worked in the yard today wearing a t-shirt. Today was one ofContinue reading “On the Eighth Day of 2025. . .”

On the Seventh Day of 2025. . .

I would like to say that I rested. I cannot say that. I can say, however, that I spent 20 minutes on the meditation cushion and had some difficulty quieting the mind. I just wanted to think about stuff. That’s the real difficulty, isn’t it, because it’s one thing to sit on a cushion withContinue reading “On the Seventh Day of 2025. . .”

On the Fifth Day of 2025. . .

. . .I had a nightmare of sorts in the duration of sleep between 7:30 and 9 AM. It was one of those deals where you wake up too early, say, 6, and lie awake hoping to sleep again for something like an hour and a half, and then suddenly you’re out, dreaming these super-realisticContinue reading “On the Fifth Day of 2025. . .”

NaNoWriMo 2024: Adjusting My Expectations

The point of any kind of forced creativity experience or challenge is to simply do the creative thing you want to be doing but perhaps wouldn’t be doing otherwise. I am all for it. I’ve done more than a decade worth of a poem every day in April, I’ve participated in songwriting challenges that resultedContinue reading “NaNoWriMo 2024: Adjusting My Expectations”

It’s National Novel Writing Month!

Here we are on the precipice of another year of attempting to write 50,000 words in a single month for the ritual of NaNoWriMo. This will be my third effort. I go into it this year with a bit of trepidation. I worry that the politics of the nation will be too much of aContinue reading “It’s National Novel Writing Month!”

I’m Thinking About Giving Up on Writing Fiction on the Cusp of Another NANOWRIMO

In both Novembers of 2022 and 2023 I wrote 50,000 words for the National Novel Writing Month challenge. The results were two sloppy, hastily written rough drafts of novels. I would expect nothing less from such a challenge, the purpose of which is not to write a masterpiece, but to spill out as quickly asContinue reading “I’m Thinking About Giving Up on Writing Fiction on the Cusp of Another NANOWRIMO”

Gone So Long, I Been Gone So Long

Sorry about that. I mean, I realize no one has been holding their breath, so the apology is mostly self-talk, or self-writing, as I think I do this blogging activity more as a personal practice and discipline than anything else. I don’t mean to imply that I am not mightily grateful for the readers IContinue reading “Gone So Long, I Been Gone So Long”

#538: I Can’t Read

I can’t read shit anymore. David bowie I love to readbut I find lately that I can’t read shit, just like Bowie sangin that song by Tin Machine: it seems that “I can’t read shit anymore.”I blame the internet and stupid smart phonesfor turning myattention spaninto squirrel brain.Did you knowthat squirrels can’t remember where theyContinue reading “#538: I Can’t Read”

On the Twenty-first Day of 2024: The Numbers, Again

Number of bicycle rides in 2024: 5 Number of walks I’ve taken: I wasn’t counting. Let’s estimate that I went for a walk with the dogs maybe 7 times in 21 days. Number of alcoholic beverages consumed: 0 Number of times I wanted a drink really bad but nevertheless resisted: 5 Number of dreams I’veContinue reading “On the Twenty-first Day of 2024: The Numbers, Again”