Monday, December 10, 2018
Saturday, July 7, 2018
Meet the Author, July 4 2018
I had some friends who asked me how my Meet the Author / Book Signing went. Fine, I said. I sat up on the balcony of the Imaginary Books, and played my banjo, while a cool drizzly rain came through Cloudcroft, and basically I tried to figure out how I could spend the rest of my life on such a balcony, it was so nice.
That doesn't tell you how my sales went, or whether I am becoming a famous author, or even whether anyone in the Cloudcroft area is reading my books. A couple people are, maybe. I came home with ten bucks, and it all came from a friend of mine, who requested that the extra three (my books are worth seven) be spent on animals; no problem, it already has. maybe this friend will read that book. maybe some people read the posters or at least became aware that i am here, peddling my books, trying to establish an identity as an author. but most people clearly went about their lives as they already had intended, and didn't even look up.
I talked to Ed for a while, and probably should have warned him, that because I write as a way of processing events and developing opinions about them, he would probably appear in my writing eventually. He too is a writer, and a former teacher, and now seems to be selling a few books. He told about how he was in the Pine Stump Mall, over by Dave's, but lucked out when fire swept the place about six or seven years ago, and moved over to the Burro Street Exchange when he could. He said that the businesses downtown have expanded to take up more space; that, in terms of businesses alone, Cloudcroft has grown. But, unlike Ruidoso, which has simply expanded into the nearby hills, Cloudcroft is penned in by national forest, and not expanding anywhere, so it's still the same size, in terms of houses, that it's always been. I said this is certainly true from my point of view, and in fact I have heard of people struggling to find places to rent; there just aren't any.
A cool drizzle came through as apparently now it's the monsoon season. I played the banjo and a few people raised their eyebrows; some even posed me with a bear statue that they had taken from their mom's cabin. Tourists were all over the place, some asking when they'd rope off the street and start the music (this had apparently already happened, the weekend before). Flags were everywhere; people even wore them; Ed even wore one, basically. I didn't hear a bad word. As I've said, I wouldn't mind spending the rest of summer, even the rest of life, up on a balcony like that.
That doesn't tell you how my sales went, or whether I am becoming a famous author, or even whether anyone in the Cloudcroft area is reading my books. A couple people are, maybe. I came home with ten bucks, and it all came from a friend of mine, who requested that the extra three (my books are worth seven) be spent on animals; no problem, it already has. maybe this friend will read that book. maybe some people read the posters or at least became aware that i am here, peddling my books, trying to establish an identity as an author. but most people clearly went about their lives as they already had intended, and didn't even look up.
I talked to Ed for a while, and probably should have warned him, that because I write as a way of processing events and developing opinions about them, he would probably appear in my writing eventually. He too is a writer, and a former teacher, and now seems to be selling a few books. He told about how he was in the Pine Stump Mall, over by Dave's, but lucked out when fire swept the place about six or seven years ago, and moved over to the Burro Street Exchange when he could. He said that the businesses downtown have expanded to take up more space; that, in terms of businesses alone, Cloudcroft has grown. But, unlike Ruidoso, which has simply expanded into the nearby hills, Cloudcroft is penned in by national forest, and not expanding anywhere, so it's still the same size, in terms of houses, that it's always been. I said this is certainly true from my point of view, and in fact I have heard of people struggling to find places to rent; there just aren't any.
A cool drizzle came through as apparently now it's the monsoon season. I played the banjo and a few people raised their eyebrows; some even posed me with a bear statue that they had taken from their mom's cabin. Tourists were all over the place, some asking when they'd rope off the street and start the music (this had apparently already happened, the weekend before). Flags were everywhere; people even wore them; Ed even wore one, basically. I didn't hear a bad word. As I've said, I wouldn't mind spending the rest of summer, even the rest of life, up on a balcony like that.
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
view from ed's balcony
hey I know this isn't Cloudcroft at its best - and I know that you may know who this is, or what it's doing at the Western Bar. This person appears to be on both sides - maybe he/she doesn't realize that confederates and USA were on opposites sides in that war - but I'm sure he would say, "heritage not hate," or, "you can be both," since the war is over.
there's more to life than this so I'll stop here. He did it, I took a picture. "Kandinsky" had something to do with it too.
there's more to life than this so I'll stop here. He did it, I took a picture. "Kandinsky" had something to do with it too.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Free Range Flash Fiction
thirty short stories a thousand words or less
Available on Amazon
$5.99 + shipping
Available on Kindle
$3.00 at the Kindle Store
$5.99 + shipping
Available on Kindle
$3.00 at the Kindle Store
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
e pluribus haiku 2018
$2.99 on Kindle
1000 original haiku from fifty states and the District of Columbia - written in an original 5-7-5 style. Haiku are colorful and physical and include a season word or hint. Because the USA is geographically spread out, geography clues are necessary too.
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
About two years ago we bought this cabin, but didn't really move here until about May. So now, we've been here going on two years, and have come to know the place a little better.
My first observation is, this town really loves skating. I have no idea how much of the high school is actually down on the rink in any given weekend night, but sometimes it seems like all of them. And, they are good skaters. Kids that grow up around here really know how to skate. They aren't all Olympic skaters, but they're all good.
Second is, a friend of mine the other day was ruing how people don't communicate much anymore, as people go around with phones and don't interact on the street, etc. I told her that in Cloudcroft, they do. It's not that they don't have phones or use them, they do. But when they go into town, and hang around, they look at each other, and talk to each other. Individual communication is very much alive.
My girls, 9 and 12, are absolutely fanatical about skating, while the boys don't touch it. The girls want to go down there every night, and do, as long as it's open. So far it's been open about 16 days; we've caught about 14. I've been lucky enough to fall only a few times. Once it was hard to get up, and that made me even more cautious about inching around the perimeter. I try not to hold the rail too much. I try to just skate. Unfortunately, I am still recovering from a fall a year ago, which affected my shoulder, and I'm just not as fast as I used to be. The girls go whizzing around me. They've learned to twirl, to go backwards, to do a backward crossover, all this stuff. Once the younger one said to me, "Daddy, I can skate backward!" I felt like answering, "I can skate forward!" but instead, I just said, "That's excellent!" They are fitting into the town fabric.
After all, we don't have that much to do; this is one thing kids can do. And they can do it better than the rest of us. Love of hockey may have come and gone in the southwest, but, love of skating is still strong here, and I like that.
My first observation is, this town really loves skating. I have no idea how much of the high school is actually down on the rink in any given weekend night, but sometimes it seems like all of them. And, they are good skaters. Kids that grow up around here really know how to skate. They aren't all Olympic skaters, but they're all good.
Second is, a friend of mine the other day was ruing how people don't communicate much anymore, as people go around with phones and don't interact on the street, etc. I told her that in Cloudcroft, they do. It's not that they don't have phones or use them, they do. But when they go into town, and hang around, they look at each other, and talk to each other. Individual communication is very much alive.
My girls, 9 and 12, are absolutely fanatical about skating, while the boys don't touch it. The girls want to go down there every night, and do, as long as it's open. So far it's been open about 16 days; we've caught about 14. I've been lucky enough to fall only a few times. Once it was hard to get up, and that made me even more cautious about inching around the perimeter. I try not to hold the rail too much. I try to just skate. Unfortunately, I am still recovering from a fall a year ago, which affected my shoulder, and I'm just not as fast as I used to be. The girls go whizzing around me. They've learned to twirl, to go backwards, to do a backward crossover, all this stuff. Once the younger one said to me, "Daddy, I can skate backward!" I felt like answering, "I can skate forward!" but instead, I just said, "That's excellent!" They are fitting into the town fabric.
After all, we don't have that much to do; this is one thing kids can do. And they can do it better than the rest of us. Love of hockey may have come and gone in the southwest, but, love of skating is still strong here, and I like that.
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