FIRST CAME CYBERPUNK. THEN STEAMPUNK. And by 2021, … RETROPUNK. Shiny robots. Gleaming atom-powered spaceships. Martian canal races. Alien arcologies in the jungles of Venus. Male pronouns. All the glory of a big exploitable universe sans angst or post-apocalypse modernism.…
Category: Writing
My own serious stuff; the craft itself; those who inspire me in it; the art of reading.
Five Summer Haiku
(THESE WERE WRITTEN JUNE 21 on the unnetworked “writing laptop,” which I only mention to explain the last verse and thank you for not skipping ahead. And now, this.) So soon the heat comes after long weeks of spring rain.…
Prosatio Silban and the Best Dish In The World
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE Emerald Incessance, that great sprawling grassland east of epicurean Pormaris, Prosatio Silban was searching for the Exilic Lands’ tastiest meal. The Incessance was hundreds of square miles of hummock, tussock, occasional trees and overtowering reeds,…
Poker Face
WE WERE FIVE MEN PLAYING draw poker. “Ante up, gentlemen,” said R. “Nickel apiece.” The cards went round once, twice, thrice. B coughed. T took a sip of his Cuba Libre. R sent the cards round again. And again.
How To Make Your Blog Sound Important
1. BEGIN EVERY PARAGRAPH WITH “I.” 2. Repost the same story as other blogs within your target demographic. 3. When commenting in other blogs, slip in the phrase “as I wrote” and flash your URL. 4. Call everyone by their…
Seeing Her
ALL I REMEMBER NOW ARE images, and the intimate passion of an infinite love. I remember the room of globes, of maps of worlds and wonders, soft with pillows and draped scarves. And She was there. And She knew me.…
Literal Legend
HE SAID HE WOULD FIGHT Wall Street, but it wasn’t long before he was brought down by a perplexed SWAT team.
Five Words In Search Of A Context
“FUN’S FUN, GENERAL. BUT THIS …”
A Sack Of Cashews
JINGLE. SLAM. 1978. THREE A.M. 7-Eleven. Very hungry. Looking for the little heat-lamp-warmed nut-variety display thing. Cashews are definitely NEEDED. NEEDED NOW.
Days Like Doors
THERE ARE DAYS WHICH OPEN into unglimpsed circles that inspire and uplift. And there are days which close the heart like a fist. There are days when the angels sing within range of human ear And days when all you…
What Do You Say To A Partly Naked Woman?
SHE WAS WALKING UP THE hill toward us through the sea of sprawled bodies surrounding the stage at Laguna Seca Speedway, where some friends and I were enjoying three days of the Grateful Dead and Los Lobos in the summer…
Pithyism #11
TO WRITE WITH TRUTH AND heart, one must be able to see; and sometimes, to not look away.