I wonder if there could be scientific research done that could come up with a way to measure how much privilege an individual possesses and then create a scale that tells us that this amount of privilege will lead to … Continue reading A Privilege to be Apart
The river winds around my head, Fish before my eyes. I lay my cheek upon its bed and Contemplate the skies of Morning’s red, of Midday’s blue, of Twilight’s pink aglow, that Filters through the rushing stream Born of mountains … Continue reading The River and the Bed
whither comes the light alas, what matters the source while soon comes the night Continue reading Whither Comes the Light?
In the 12-month period that ended in April, more than 100,000 Americans died of overdoses, up almost 30 percent from the 78,000 deaths in the prior year, according to provisional figures from the National Center for Health Statistics. The figure … Continue reading Where do all the dreams go
Yes, this is yet another entry for the Ungeziefer file… One where scholar and author Rebecca Schuman, who is obviously highly intelligent and supremely credible as evidenced by her skepticism (likeminded with yours truly of course) of Michael Hoffman translating … Continue reading Where one scholar is in error and another in scholarly license
While I wasn’t exactly thrilled with Kafka translator Michael Hoffman translating Ungeziefer as cockroach… To say the least… I am in definite accord with him on much of what he discusses in his introduction to METAMORPHOSIS AND OTHER STORIES, a … Continue reading What time is it? That’s right, it’s the Boy from Bohemia Time!
There’s nothing Fixed that can’t be Broken Praise Jove, for without them, the Broken And all the Hope and Possibilities for which they allow There is nothing Redeemed There is nothing made New Again Beam of Sun meet Fall of … Continue reading Redeemable
Why does one fast? The obvious answers to me are most likely for spiritual or health reasons, and, should the need arise, for political and judicial reasons as well. But who knows really — it’s such a strange thing to … Continue reading Hungry Artists, Kafkian or Otherwise, Fasting for Influence, Spiritual or Otherwise
And if it were a snake, the little bugger probably would have bitten me. Yeah, so… after yesterday’s mostly tongue-in-cheek diatribe re: my frustration with translators who blasphemously translate Ungeziefer, the German word for the mysterious critter into which Franz … Continue reading There’s vermin, right in my own library!
Okay, admittedly, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer so please take my perplexity for what it’s worth… About a plug nickel, that’s what. But anyway, I know it’s easy for a one-language knuklehead like me to complain, but … Continue reading If it’s Ungeziefer why not just call it Ungeziefer?!
Is what I’m conscious of. You dig? Put with brutal succinctness, Damasio’s brief goes like this: Mental activity consists of a stream of “images” that map aspects of the world around us. But these images, by themselves, cannot be conscious. … Continue reading All I’m Conscious of…
Until I read this: Ethereum uses as much electricity as all of Libya, and the digital artist Memo Atken calculated that, due to the blockchain transactions involved in minting an NFT, the average NFT has a carbon footprint equal to … Continue reading Was thinking about converting one of my books into a GIF and selling it as an NFT*…
One of these days I’ll get back to blogging for real again, especially since there’s so much nonsense to discuss these days. But I am at least getting close to knocking out another book. Going back to my wheelhouse this time with another literary fiction number similar in spirit, but not in story, to Inside the Skin. I’ll probably be sending out a request for beta readers to my newsletter soon so if you’re interested helping me out, get on that mailing list so you’ll be notified (and get a free copy of my short story collection to boot). Stay … Continue reading Sun Worshippers
BOOK | FICTION | LITERARYTHE GRADUATE by Charles WebbRATING: ★ ★ ★ ★ When The Graduate, a book published in 1963 by recently deceased author Charles Webb, popped up as a Kindle Unlimited recommendation the other day, I thought to … Continue reading The Graduate by Charles Webb – A Review
I look at the little pebble at my feet and can’t help but think But for the grace of god go I And then laugh Not out of humor But of fear Because he’s nowhere But within the magic of … Continue reading A Pebble is a Rock is a Mountain is Me
the leaves green grow wild wherever their seeds may blow wild, aye, but resolved Continue reading The Leaves Green Grow Wild
An enchanting, expertly written little novel that will linger in my mind for some while – a bit like the cigarette smoke that metaphorically permeates the book itself. Highly recommended. – Rose Auburn Continue reading RAINY SEASON – A Review by Rose Auburn
Merry’s is some of the best writing I’ve read in a while. Like Faulkner, she creates a fictional world unto its own, Faulkner’s set as a struggling Mississippi town, Merry’s as a struggling seaside town in Ireland… Continue reading WE ALL DIE IN THE END by Elizabeth Merry – A Review
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 Continue reading In a Field Left Fallow
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”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”
KURT ★ BRINDLEY 