When I read Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, and many others I come away wanting to be a writer. When I read John Grisham, Stephen King, or James Michener I want to either be a lawyer, a clock-tower sniper, or just go back to being a mechanic. A writer has to take me on a journey where I forget where I am.
Second
Wild creature, so beautiful
sad lilting eyes
suicide was not your end
all telling touch, electric
radiant love as a rose
most fragile
God’s perfect gift.
First
Oh why
beautiful lady
are things
not as they seem,
Winter no longer
is woven
and Spring anew
rises from the dead.
Best
The only thing I have done very well in front of thousands of people is to play violin as a child.
A Day
I was off of work due to an altercation with my boss who was trying to fire me as he had two others before me. I was driving north on Evergreen in South Everett late one afternoon during rush hour traffic. Hundreds of cars were stopped in both directions and I came to a stop a few blocks shy of Airport Road. I witnessed a shouting match going on between a blond kid in an old 1978 Pontiac Trans-Am and a Samoan couple in a small red car. The yelling continued and male Samoan got out of his still running car and went after the young guy in the T/A. Neither one was winning the fight, but the kid was losing bit by bit. At this point the wife/female exploded out of the car leaving the car running with their two kids in the back seat, proceeded into the fracas and showed the finest boxing skills I have ever seen in a woman. Damn, she was good! The kid was losing in a big way after her first few seconds in the fight. A guy got out of the truck in front of me and I got out. We stopped the fight in short order. The Samoan guy still wanted to fight me, but I told him to put his hands away. He didn’t scare me and he knew it. The other Samaritan was a jailer at Snohomish County jail. The cops showed up, took statements, arrested NO ONE, and no one else helped in the least. Months later I received a summons to go to court in Lynwood for this incident. I witnessed case after case being dismissed before they finally got to mine. The judge called the prosecuting attorney up to the bench and proceeded to dismiss the charges. I stood up in court and verbally berated the judge and the proceedings until the judge told the prosecutor to go have a talk with me. I told my story twice with all of these cops and court personnel watching me. The charges were dropped against the wife even though I told them she was the experienced fighter. Months later, after that big Samoan heard I was not backing down, pleaded guilty to all charges.
Nice
“I really think for many of us, poetry chooses us.”
Kamilah Aisha Moon
Writing Magazines
I subscribe to two writing magazines: The Writer and Poets & Writers. I do not subscribe to Writer’s Digest because it comes off as being too positive and not as realistic.
My Mom
My Driver’s Ed cars were a Chevy Caprice Classic and Chevy Impala. My mom’s car was a 1973 VW Super Beetle. My mom never let me drive her car until the day of my driving test. I learned to drive with an automatic transmission. I drove off to take my driver’s test having never driven a stick before. I stalled it getting out of the driveway and I stalled it all the way down the street. But, I passed my driving test within the hour. My mom was laughing at me driving away, but when I returned with my license she was pissed off.
Fav Writing Movies
In some kind of order:
Finding Forrester
Genius
Wonder Boys
When Harry met Sally
As Good as it Gets
Fathers and Daughters
The Rewrite
Reuben, Reuben
Adaptation
Midnight in Paris
Hemingway & Gellhorn
The Whole Wide World
Trumbo
Masters
I want a Masters degree because Bob Wiley went back to school and got his Masters degree.
