Diana Wynne Jones almost made me miss my flight. I was so entirely inside FIRE AND HEMLOCK that it was only the final boarding call that managed to penetrate my consciousness. Are you surprised that I was reading it for the first time? Me, too. But somehow I grew up without discovering her work, and [...]
Family
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I’m a creature of habit, and never is that clearer to me than when I’m in a new situation. Uncharted territory? Hold on, let me just make a chart real quick. Terra incognita? No no, there’s a guide to it online, Yelp maybe, or Wikipedia — give me a minute, I’ll find it. For the [...]
Whether or not I travel for the holidays, the end brings a jet-lag, new-time-zone feeling. It’s also a little like moving, since we tend to reconfigure the house significantly to accommodate festivity. My writing desk, for instance, was deployed as a beverage station. I got the desk on May 2, 2009. (I’m able to be this [...]
The last time I visited the Usual Undisclosed Location, I brought back an envelope full of photos labeled in my dad’s handwriting: 1 x 1 photos, old. They’re relatives, I’m fairly sure, though there are no names on the backs except the photographer’s, Roy Leadd. I like looking at them and wondering about them. Was [...]
I have been engaged, for the past week or so, in parallel tasks, one largely conceptual, the other a mix of conceptual and physical. The conceptual-centric task: revising my graphic novel script. Deciding what threads need to be connected, what dialog tightened, what scenes simply don’t fit and need to be tossed. And I need [...]
So Father’s Day, for me, is a day to think about how much I miss my dad. I have lots of days like that, only rarely underscored by national celebrations, and on those days, I often read Dad’s writing. Sometimes, like today, I choose to share it with the Internet. Here he is at 27, [...]
I’m in the Usual Undisclosed Location for a week. Time here always provides experiences that I am unlikely to have in Portland; for instance, going to church with my mom. Red, white and blue decorations, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and a choral anthem on the theme of healing the broken land, which segued into [...]
You can’t predict them, because then they wouldn’t be ambushes. You can’t say, “Come on now, I’m on my damn lunch break, crying is just not on.” You can’t plan for them. You can’t make a note on your Outlook calendar and block out some time. You think, “For God’s sake, Dad wouldn’t want me [...]
Near the end of a phenomenal Mountain Goats show. Amazing energy, the barn has been in flames all night, and even though I want to punch the drunk screamers just as much as usual, I’m still so glad I’m here. John launches into the song, people are pogoing around the floor, nodding their heads vigorously [...]
They’re playing Bonnie Raitt, not Iron and Wine. The guy at the next table is reading the Bible, not the alt-weekly. But they’ve got soy lattes and free wifi, so here I am. On the way to the coffeehouse, I heard “Blitzkreig Bop” on the radio, repurposed as an Ohio State fight song. O! H! [...]
