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In a Field Left Fallow

In a field depleted and left a fallow

Where only single crops have e’er grown

‘Twill sundry bloom soon rich, tho’ callow

When by Nature’s hand the seeds are sown

 
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A Turn From the Worst

So, I was thick into the development of the follow-up novel to THE GOOD KILL (any guesses what follow-up title will be?) when of a sudden it seemed like End Times had finally started to throw down with the Covid-19 pandemic and cult daddy trump’s horrific death-inducing response to it.

With the Killian Lebon storyline as dark and violent as it is, and with all the research into the real-life examples of darkness and violence it takes to bring it out fictionally, I just thought it best for my mental stability to shelve all the pretend mayhem for a while seeing how there was far too much of it going on within our apocalyptic twilight zone of a reality.

But of course I could not not write so I immediately began looking internally for a story that would be able to transport me away to a better place.

Continue reading “A Turn From the Worst”
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In Appreciation of a Photograph

Except for THE GOOD KILL, of which I contracted out to Extended Imagery, for better or worse, you decide, I’ve created all my book covers, including the one for my latest novella RAINY SEASON.

It’s a fun process creating book covers, one that allows me to escape the writing process tedium for a while and become creative through other mediums. I like to create the cover early on in the story development process so I can refer to it for inspiration similar to the way I refer to the logline.

The covers I created are mostly designed around photographs I took, except for HOW NOT TO DIE, which you’ll see if you look closely, is designed around a photograph of me in a hospital bed flashing my middle finger in defiance as I’m being treated for heart failure, which was the result of a freak side effect of the chemo drug I was taking at the time (I was speedily switched to a different drug which has yet to cause my heart to fail, fingers crossed), and except for HERCULES GONE MAD, which is designed from a drawing of mine.

Continue reading “In Appreciation of a Photograph”
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God Bless the Italians 🇮🇹

…of Philadelphia.*

Apparently it was they who created the stromboli.

And we’re a better world for it.

It is less clear, however, who created the #ketostromboli.

Regardless, cue Dean Martin: “When the moon hits your eye like a big ol’stromboli, that’s amore ❤️” … or something like that.

The filling is leftovers from yesterday’s raviolis

#alonetogethereatingitalianandsingingdeanmartinsongs

*and everywhere around the globe ❤️

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If the corn is gonna be “knee high by the Fourth of July”

Or so the saying goes…

Then I guess it’ll be reachin’ near to heaven come August Twenty-Seven.

Reporting live from the cornfield in my hood

Yep, we like our cornstalks nice and tall in these here parts.

For reference, I’m 6’5″ tall.

In non-USofAmerican speak that’s 195.58cm.

Anyway… in case you’ve never had the fun opportunity to walk about a cornfield, now you know just how tall those towering cornstalks can get.

#whilewalking
#cornitswhatsfordinner

 
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Memories Like a Dream

My father and I are struggling to mount his just purchased used dirt bike to the back of our black VW bug and I’m giddy as a child because I am a child and then as a family we’re out in the field that runs past the yard with scythes hacking out trails that run past and around the old sagging barn and then beyond into and out of the wood as we sweat under the intense mid-summer sun but I don’t care because I know the reason why we’re all out there and I had never worked so hard and with such purpose and then finally I’m on the back of that bike with my arms tight around my mother’s waist as we fly through and around those trails that I had helped to lay as spiteful thorn bushes strive futilely to slow us down and thick burrs glom onto our pants and socks and hang on for their own lives as I hang on for mine and when we finish the ride that seemed to have lasted only seconds and mom powers the down the motorcycle in the driveway and I holler out jeez that sure was fun! she whips her helmeted head around and fires off one of her patented scolding looks at me thinking that I had just taken the lord’s name in vain…

#fromoutoftheblue
#amdreaming