You can do a lot with fiction. You can remove all narrative or all punctuation. You can go stream of consciousness and remove spelling norms and paragraph breaks. Cormac McCarthy removes the dialogue quotes. Do it right, and you can remove most everything in fiction and still have terrific writing. Except for one unavoidable thing:…… Continue reading Title Fight
Author: rtmcontrol
Pride Cometh Before the Sale: Behind “Murder on the First Night’s Feast”
There is a C.S. Lewis quote about the blindness of the proud. To paraphrase, someone completely full of themselves is so busy looking down their noses that they’re blind to what’s above them. And what’s above them, of course, is the whole, wide world. We’re all prideful. Someway, somehow we’re all darn proud of something:…… Continue reading Pride Cometh Before the Sale: Behind “Murder on the First Night’s Feast”
Mangeot Not of the Guanacaste, 2018
A Disclaimer: Mangeot of the Nordlands is my floppy-hat wearing, perma-addled, globe-trekking alter ego. His is a thirst for the strange marrow of new lands and their cocktails. He is well-meaning and gets to live my best life. 22 September We make the Ninth Parallel at Costa Rica. It is the rainy season, and by…… Continue reading Mangeot Not of the Guanacaste, 2018
She Who Must Be Seen: Behind “Star of Zoe”
I just have to see her. How “Star of Zoe” first got going, well, it was without Zoe. Not technically, I mean. I was riffing on this idea, this phrase: I just have to see her. So right there comes a She Who Must Be Seen. A proto-Zoe in the mix. My first riff, though,…… Continue reading She Who Must Be Seen: Behind “Star of Zoe”