Abandoned Oddities

Many thanks to the Creator and the Catalyst forum for kindly "anthologizing" some of my shorter, incidental fiction pieces, the stuff I like to refer to as my "Abandoned Oddities".

They have posted both "The Lunar Earthrise" and "The Descendants" so far, and will hopefully (fingers crossed) be posting a previously unreleased piece in the very near future.

Check them all out at the link below, and as always, thanks for reading!

http://www.creatorandthecatalyst.com/dir/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=6a0c33ec7383f177693661339249e948

Chapter 20...

Just "finished" chapter 20 of the "Ghost Train" book!

Things are starting to really spin now.  Knocking at the door of 30,000 words.  The desert winds are swirling and I can almost hear the chug-chug-chug of a locomotive in the distance.

Songs from all of these are helping me on my way:

   Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

      Hayes Carll - Trouble in Mind

   Joe Henry - Civilians

      The Jayhawks - Tomorrow the Green Grass

   Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die...

      Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne

   Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

      Steven Wilson - Insurgentes

     

Rangers, Garza.... Awesome!!!!!

I try to keep my comments about baseball to a minimum.  Why?

Well to be honest...  it's mainly for fear of jinxing things.  When "my team" -- and yes, I am one of those people who refers to them as "my team" (Hey, I cheered for the Rangers back when they were terrible.  I've invested a lot of my precious time if nothing else...) -- but anyway, when my team is on a winning streak, I don't say a thing.  I don't kid about it with co-workers at the day job.  I don't brag about it on the ole blog here.  I keep it all inside, just one big happy (and very silent) smile.

Same is true for a losing streak.  I don't say a word, not on the blog, not in chat, nothing.  I just let the guys in the clubhouse do their thing.

But I will break that general rule just a little bit today, simply because Matt Garza is (and has been) one of my favorite players in all of baseball, and...  I have wanted to see him in a Rangers uniform ever since I first saw him pitch.  I love his passion for the game, for pitching, for life, all of it.  He's one of my top five favorite pitchers in the game right now, and he's going to be wearing a Rangers uniform.  Awesome!

Yu Darvish is another one of my top five favorite pitchers in baseball right now; so two out of five ain't too bad, eh?

Anyway...  Please forgive this small interruption in the regularly scheduled blog updates...  I did "finish" chapters 18 and 19 of the new book this weekend!

New story in the works!

Started a new story yesterday.  Yes, I'm still working on the "Ghost Train" book.  However, I can't just ignore it when inspiration comes knocking.  In this case, it was more of an obnoxious and rather insistent pounding! on the door.

 

Anyway, the new one is about an auto-writer who picks up on an interesting conversation...

 

 

 

 

These are my initial notes.  Of course, we'll fill in the gaps as we go, but the first page is working for me.

 

And while I've been writing, I've been listening to all of these...  A lot!

 

 

The Avett Brothers - The Carpenter

 

   Hayes Carll - Trouble in Mind

 

      Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day (Listening to this one right now, in fact!)

 

   Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell - Old Yellow Moon

 

Jamey Johnson - That Lonesome Song

 

      Old Crow Medicine Show - Carry Me Back

 

   Lucinda Williams - Blessed

 

Dwight Yoakam - 3 Pears

Every once in a while...

...I like to take the most recent Son Volt cd and the most recent Wilco and play them together on "shuffle" or random.  Maybe make a playlist and just keep 'em spinning like that all afternoon or something.

Whenever I do, it's like Uncle Tupelo never broke up and it's the early to mid 1990's all over again (the college years for me).  Nostalgia is a crazy thing, huh?

It really works well with The Search and Sky Blue Sky.  Also pretty good with American Central Dust and Wilco (The Album).  But anyway...

Finished the rough draft -- and by "rough", I mean very rough! -- of "Shirasawa's Rage" last night.  Need to proofread it again this morning, but I thought I'd at least keep everyone posted on the progress. 

Our old pal, Shirasawa stares down a crafty witch in this one.  And learns a little bit about her dark side, as well.  She's going to need some of that in the upcoming "chapters".  It won't be easy for her to find Miyabe's spirit and bring him home to the maple grove.

Oh, and by the way... finished chapter 17 of the "ghost train" tale this week!  I'm probably about half way done now.  So happy Friday!

Back to work!

Back from my sojourn to The Homeland.  What a place.  Oh man, what a place!  I'd say it's probably even better than New Mexico, although it'd probably be close.  Real close.  Almost too close to call it either way.

Anyway...   now it's back to work.  Here's something I finished up this morning, just to sort of ease back into things...

Late Summer Sunset in Ramblewood, Texas 

Yesterday, the willow strands clicked

In the breeze, a soft sound like shucking

Corn, passive, mindless.  The wind’s blowing

Autumn from the northwest.  I see the clouds, smell

Rain and the sweetness of moisture, cooler

Weather.  We used to play in the field across

The road, climb in the lone oak tree, spill

Our laughter over the rocks and winding hills, tumbling

Like a stream, cold and precious. 

Today, we are responsible, go

In cars to asphalt parking

Lots, carrying papers and talking

On portable telephones to people we don’t

Really know, about things we never

Understand.  We call the mystery progress and wonder

Why it still hasn’t made us

More whole, as if division

Ever yielded a sum greater than the split

Substance.

I see the sunrise and work

For the sunset, pine for the place I used

To sit beneath the trees, in the blue shade near

Twilight, with the see saw voice of crickets, and the whip-or-will

Of familiar birds calling at dusk, the knowing

Eyes of owls sitting in hollows

Beyond the tree-line.  We’ve forgotten

Too much, remember

So little and despite our wide, roaming

Experience, still know nothing

That matters.

After the storm...

After the storm the other night...  with the street light shining through the trees and illuminating the wet pavement...  I finished chapter 16 of the "ghost train" book.  It's fitting, since storms have their place in the story.  Read it and see.

 

 

I also got a chance to do some "outlining" the next day.  No, that's not my normal modus operandi, but I figured since I had so much difficulty figuring out exactly what this one is going to be...  I should give in to the notion this once.  The train tracks are just beyond the trees there in the distance.  Always, just beyond the tree-line.  It's so easy to get carried away, if a person isn't careful.  

 

Also thought we'd do a photo version of the recent playlist.  Seems like it's been a while since we did it that way!  So first up...

Alice in Chains -- The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here

We're six months into the year, and I don't quite know what my favorite album will be, but this one will definitely make the shortlist!  Gotta hear this thing to understand.  Jerry Cantrell is one of the most underrated musicians ever.  Ever.

Now for some vinyl:

Blur -- Blur, especially "Song 2"

Elvis Costello -- The Secret, Profane & Sugarcane

 

Foo Fighters -- One by One and In Your Honor

 

Jamey Johnson -- That Lonesome Song and The Guitar Song.  This guy's a recent discovery...  but definitely a new favorite of mine!  A fellow Marine as well.  Semper Fi!

 

U2 -- War, The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree  All on vinyl, the way they were meant to be heard when they were released back in the 1980's...

Wilco -- A Ghost is Born and Wilco (The Album)

 

That about does it for this edition.  Yes, the "Wolves and Coyotes" are out for another prowl, and in my free time, I also snuck another one by the goalie, another New Mexico story that I've been referring to as "A Dry Rose".  Very busy boy, yes.  Anyway, it's out for a spin, as well...  As is a little horror piece I did for a paying venue (fingers crossed).

 

Thanks (as always) for reading...   Now go and enjoy the 4th!