234 Extracted Words – The Tease – June 2017

June 2017

I write flash fiction, non-fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is a first for the feature. Someone close to me asked for assistance in creating her own blog. This inspired me to revisit my first post. An excerpt follows.

 

Blogging is like being in prison, although the stakes are much lower. If you make a mistake in prison, you get stabbed or set on fire. Erroneous blogging, if you’re lucky,  will only lead to scoffing  from lonely cubicles, by credit union interns surfing the web instead of inputting data. They won’t even share your idiocy with co-workers, lest they forfeit their stipend.

I suppose the biggest risk in exposing your electric underwear is hacking off another blogger … the biggest, baddest blogger. We’ll call him Mack (there’s a Mack in every prison movie ever made). If you hack Mack off, he has the perfect platform from which to blast you, his own blog. Say he happens to be very fond of Dalmatians (that alone is creepy). Being the dingo lover I am, I post my opinion that Dalmatians are overrated, the blogosphere equivalent of dropping the soap. Next thing I know, Mack and his gang are blasting me on links and feeds from New Jersey to Antarctica. The AKC arranges a tea party on my front lawn, only instead of bringing teabags and Sarah Palin, they tote pitchforks and choke collars.

168 Extracted Words – The Tease – May 2017

May 2017

I write flash fiction, non-fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a work in progress.

So they were scum. That didn’t mean they weren’t doing something good.

“Now, we requested a picture from each of our honorees, something showing what the marshes mean to them. What we didn’t tell them was … those pictures will be used as background for the informational kiosk at the entrance to the main trailhead. We have brought enlargements of the three pictures on stage here tonight.” She again utilizes her thin hands, directing the gathered eyes toward the edge of the stage where three easels stand, covered with canvases that might once have belonged to a dry walling firm, large white blotches, like vitiligo, blanching their forms. As she introduces the first honoree, the tainted canvas is pulled from her picture, revealing a moose with water and camas dropping from its jowls. The dark brown mass of fur is a blunted cigarette burn against the early morning sunrise igniting marsh mist and arrow pines. The crowd acknowledges the exemplary effort.

As she steps to the microphone, he straightens his beard with his hand and shouts, “Bravo!”

Saltese Uplands

Some snaps from the Saltese Uplands, where color and contrast seem to change by the minute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congatulations Chelsea FC

Chelsea FC have won their fifth EPL Championship.

Way to go Blues!

111 Extracted Words – The Tease – May 2017

May 2017

I write flash fiction, non-fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a work in progress.

Rock stars want to be poets. Poets want to be writers. Writers want to be rock stars. The circle of strife. We can’t always have what we want. We rue the choices that have made it so.

Rue. Now that’s a word.

They would rue the day. He rued the day. He even rued the night, the intention to write, when he was blocked this bad, stuck like a porcupine on a cork board. There was only one way to break this ice-cube dam. Pour some vodka on it, over it, through it. Perhaps add some cranberry. Well, that was four ways, but he was stuck so it didn’t matter. No one was counting anyway.

 

 

Spokane’s Get Lit 2017

Get Lit delivers yet again.

 

Get Lit, Spokane’s annual literary festival, concludes today. Once again, the event delivered poignant readings, insightful panels and the severe revelry of pie and whiskey, all with low (or no) fee for admission.

The week long celebration included such names as Sharma Shields, Sam Ligon, Kate Lebo, Jess Walter and Laila Lalami. Participants could choose from tasty items on a literary menu that included panels, workshops, readings, slams and, of course, bookmarkers.

Our favorite event was, once again, the Pie and Whiskey Readings. The electric evening of performance and tastings has grown so popular that the venue had to be moved to Terrain (in the Washington Cracker building) in order to accommodate the burgeoning crowds.

Naturally, we look forward to next year’s festival, April 23rd through the 29th, 2018. This will be Get Lit’s 20th anniversary. It’s never too soon to start planning.

The Other Side of the River

Approaching the Devil’s Toenail from the north.