Reedsy

The Journal, Wednesday, September 12

Hey Folks, Something around four to five years ago, I created a persona named Nicolas Z Porter. Nick and I and three other personas (Gervasio Arrancado, Ray Sevareid, and Eric Stringer) enjoyed a wild ride. Overall, Porter was the persona under which I wrote stories that felt Hemingway-esque to me. They were more brusque, more on-point, stark shades of grey on a white background with the occasional splash of vivid color. Often the color was red-drying-to-black. Of the other personas, Arrancado wrote Latin American magic realism, Sevareid wrote science fantasy, and Stringer wrote weird, psychological-suspense stuff. Though Eric’s personality was … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, September 6

Hey Folks, Very long but very informative post today. I hope you’ll get your favorite beverage and hang in there. Wow. According to a staff member at Reedsy, “The New York Times recently reported that short stories are ‘experiencing a resurgence’ with both readers and critics alike. In 2017, sales of short story collections shot up almost 50% over the previous year. In the past five years, three of the most prestigious prizes in fiction — the Booker, the Nobel, and the Folio — were awarded to writers best known for their short stories. “In other words: the short story … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, August 29

Hey Folks, Via The Passive Voice, the author of an article at Fast Company states one of the goals of a “3D novel” she wrote was to articulate “some of our generation’s concerns in the sense of … how can we find a future worth living for.” That got my curmudgeonly hackles up. Maybe because I’ve always had one foot in my father’s generation and one in my own. Maybe because I’ve been close to death a few times. Maybe because I think manufactured-drama is a silly way to shore up your own sense of self-esteem. Yawn, stretch. Yeah, well, … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, July 25

Hey Folks, Still not fully back up to speed with my writing. At times, I’ve found myself actually hoping “other things” (website construction, copyedits, etc.) will come up so I can delay it a little longer. It’s a conundrum. I want to write. I want to give myself wholly over to my stories and play with my friends. For me, there is no better feeling than being lost in a good story as it unfolds. And then there’s that legacy thing I talked about a couple days ago. And of course, if someone else said to me, “But I really … Read more

The Journal, Monday, July 23

Hey Folks, A Brief Memoir with a Point When my dad passed away around 30 years ago, I was thrilled to find some of his writings in an old suitcase. It wasn’t a suitcase full of manuscripts or anything like that. The suitcase was an old two-tone brown pressboard affair. It had a kind of fishnet container stretched across the inside of the lid. Inisde were old New Mexico State Police shoulder patches, an old pair of glasses and other things. And inside that fishnet area were a few poems typed on an old manual Remington. Dad never talked about … Read more