Showing posts with label New Mexico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Mexico. Show all posts

Friday, December 17, 2010

Page 36 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 (John Nichols)

Game 4
Atiliano Montoya's misfortune was promptly forgotten in the hoopla stirred up by Charlie Parker's whale.
The Magic Journey by John Nichols

Charlie Parkers whale was huge.  Charlie Parker's whale was a blue, a magnetic blue, that pulled visitors into the open all night gas station, that served big hunkin cinneman rolls. On the back wall was a picture of Lyndon B. Johnson gives a howdy folks, welcome to the west, the president is big brother, and he is watching you.  Don't even think about doing wrong here because if you do then I will send the secret service out for you.   The blue whale brought in all sorts.  From noisy teenagers buying pixie sticks, to old men hoping their cars would make that icon in the desert, that proclaimed all cars are safe once they make this gas depot.   It was an oasis and offered the best prices in New Mexico, especially on route 17.  So folks from all around came in hopes of stretching the dollar because social security doesn't pay what it use to.   The desert wind whipped across the desolate plane.
Rules of the GameChoose any book in your library (fiction is best).  With the book in your hands, turn  the page to your current age.  Mine is 36, so I will be using page 36 of that book.   From the first full paragraph on that page, type/write out the first sentence.  Then from that sentence write, for one minute, (start out small) timed.  Allow yourself to write anything that comes to your mind, for a whole minute.Game 3-5: 3 Minutes.
Game 6-7 5 Minutes.  

 Do not self censor.  Music may aid in this discover writing.   Rush type it.   Don't work for quality, work for continuous writing.  Just keep typing the whole minute.  Don't stop.  Don't think, just write. 

Thursday, December 3, 2009

How can you be neutral on the point of a bullet?

Book Sandwiched In: December Reading.


All Things, All At Once: New and Selected StoriesAll Things, All At Once: New and Selected Stories by Lee K. Abbott



How can you be neutral on the point of a moving bullet????

Lee K. Abbot's collection of short stories provides a gateway to the dusty roads in the rural south-west. Abbot's writing covers a wide range of themes including: violence inside a man, lawn mowing, Methodists, UFOs, dreams, choices, shadows of reality, Zodiacs, Wars, Envy, Lust, Friendship, Father and Sons, Golf, New Mexico, Lands of Enchantments, Deserted Byways, wives, and the lost Art of Conversation.

The book may stretch your rigid cultural lines. The characters in the stories are not the type we would necessarily want to hang out with. They are all rebels who may seem at first morally irresponsible. But the characters redemption lies in telling their tales honestly. One of my favorite lines in the stories is "All of this happened years ago when I was the son of a bitch I am not now." (92)
He shows the dark closets full of secrets hanging on clothes hangers ready to be worn.

He forces us to look at our relationships with others and shows how these relationships may not be true to our pretenses.

You can't hate Abbot for his bold strokes, for his bold strokes are his alone.



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Next Month BSI Reviews- The Conjurer's Bird by Martin Davies

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