Bloomin’ Mt. Spokane

The trails of Mt. Spokane create a vibrant backdrop for the blooming flora of June.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more pictures of the Mt. Spokane State Park experience, visit Mt. Kit Carson – Bear Grass Festival and Quartz Mountain – Aptly Named .

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93 Extracted Words – The Tease – May 2019

May 2019

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

Terrell, Ayesha, Sisse´, Cisehal and Michael all sat at the bleached, teak bar. Behind them, the surf crashed softly southward into the faraway. They all sipped lightly from their glasses except Terrell. He was pouring from the Beefeater like a man lost at sea, just trying to get to the bottom so he could put his message in and cork it.

“Why the hurry, sir?” Michael asked.

“No hurry, M,” Terrell answered, between the gold and white teeth of his buccaneer smile. “It’s tasty … but no hurry. Not even with the storm coming.”

Spokane’s Get Lit! 2019

This year’s edition of Get Lit once again featured a roll call of literary talent, from Sharma Shields to Jess Walter.

On Thursday night, we attended a reading at the Spokane Downtown Library featuring Sharma Shields and Jonathan Johnson. Johnson read from many of his pieces, as did Shields, including her new novel, The Cassandra.

On Sunday, we continued our literary adventure with more readings, this time from up and coming M.F.A. talent, such as Kailee Haong and Cassandra Lee. Interpunct Press provided the venue and refreshments.

Our experience, at the 21st edition of Get Lit!, concluded with a working tour of that same local, artisan press – Interpunct Press.

The vibrant and talented local writing community, combined with the hardworking folks at Get Lit!, made this year’s event, once again, an unquestionable success. Thank you to everyone that makes it happen, year after year.

We look forward to seeing what surprises are in store for Get Lit! 2020, next April.

434 Extracted Words – The Tease – April 2019

April 2019

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

He picked at it, looking down and then off at the approaching clouds. “I suppose I owe you guys a better explanation. You’re already guessing anyway. I would. Young guy, clearly messed up. Something pretty shitty must have happened, right?”

“Look kid,” Mann started, “you don’t have to …”

“I think he wants to,” Jessie corrected him.

“I do,” Tumbleweed confirmed her hunch. “Besides, it’s probably better to explain the whole story, rather than have you put in pieces that don’t belong. It might not matter to the dead, but to those of us they leave behind, it should.”

“The dead?” Molly questioned before quickly being hushed by Jessie and Mann.

All three were listening intently, now, with weighted tension, as they anticipated the kid’s disclosure.

“Max, you guessed correctly when you tagged me as a guide. I once was one, a pretty damn good one. For the Rougettes, out of Grants Pass. Problem is, I thought I was even better than I was, better than the river itself. Something happened to change all that. When you picked me up, hitchhiking, over by Grave Creek, I was having a tough time of it.”

“Down on the river?”

“Down on myself, down on life, and had been, for a long time, longer than anyone should be. Drinking into oblivion every night, waking up in strange places, with strange women.”

Jessie and Mollie looked at each other and shrugged. Tumbleweed kept talking, not looking for a reaction, except perhaps, from himself. He was pitched into memory and nothing could pull him back now. It was as if he had dropped an eighty pound pack after a long day on the trail. Suddenly, with virginal clarity, he appreciated the appeal of confession.

“The night before Max stopped to pick me up,” he continued, “I was on a drunk, but the booze ran out. I dried out in the wild, in the dark. Not good. It made for some awful fits in my sleep, horrible dreams. Terrors. Visions. I was pretty confused. The lines between asleep and awake, dream and reality, were all blurred. I woke up in the morning, in the gravel, beside the passer’s cross at Lost Penny. Sometime during the night, I had scratched myself a message in the dirt.”

“A message?” Jessie asked.

“Don’t interrupt,” Molly scolded her. “I don’t think he’s been in this place for a while,” she added, tapping her forehead.

“It’s okay,” Tumbleweed assured her. “I can see it all pretty clear right now. Clearer than I have in quite a while. It wasn’t even a message, really. Just two words …

Dressed in White – Drumheller Overlook and Columbia N.W.R.

The last flurries of winter still drape over the coulees of central Washington.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

51 Extracted Words – The Tease – March 2019

March 2019

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

Both men wore ear protection. Both men wore soiled clothes. Neither man knew the other.

Both men had unusual skills. Both men drank coffee. Neither man spoke to the other.

Both men carried phone chargers. Both men were comfortable in the mid-center of their life. Neither was envious of the other.

And yet …

199 Extracted Words – The Tease – February 2019

February 2019

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

As she stepped out, she decided the view was even more impressive once the day turned on its side. It was early evening, and they were at altitude, but the warm mountain air lingered. The smoke from the valley fires had begun to aggravate the sky.

“Sunset should be amazing tonight, with all that smoke in the air. Even looks like some clouds in the southwest, hope it’s not heavy.”

“I guess we could use the rain, in any dose.”

“Sure can get some nasty stuff out here this time of year.”

They continued to tell each other things about the weather that they both already knew, until they were seconded by rumbling in the distance.

“I guess those two are going to be in there a while?” Mann finally addressed what she had been thinking. “What evil lurks in the hearts of men,” he laughed.

“It’s the stuff that lurks in their other parts that concerns me,” Jessie replied.