Getting closer . . .

—From CB— As a writer, I’m a rewriter. Nothing is ever finished. After six rewrites, our current novel is still subject to chiropractic adjustments whenever I reread a chapter. At some point, I manage to yell, “Enough!” and that’s the end of...

Barking Dogs & Warfare. . .

—From EF— The midnight internet — that’s how I hear dogs barking in the dark. I still recall with ruffled neck-hairs our first night in our new apartment in East Palo Alto in 1967, after we’d settled ourselves into the dirt-street loveliness of a little cottage among...

Wriggling into View. . .

—From EF— Sitting at the edge of the peninsula/bluff at Portuguese Beach, I was struck by something blitheringly obvious: Mama keeps secrets. I enjoy watching the ever-changing face of the water, sometimes all glitter and dazzle, sometimes gray whompers with lather on...

Literature & Baboons. . .

—From EF— We have finished what is hopefully the final draft of our most recent novel. It belched out of the printer and is now sitting in a big pile waiting for each of us to read the damn thing and proclaim it finished. It has been a very long slog (started as a...

Cats, Cowboys, & Garlic Balls. . .

—From the Fool— I saw some cats on Youtube do funny stuff, so I thought maybe my cat Gertie could do some funny stuff and I could tape it and then put it on the Web and somebody would see it and develop it into a miniseries like Breaking Bad or The Wire except without...

Breaking Badder. . .

—From EF— In 1865, slavery was abolished in the US. Nice idea. But watching Breaking Bad I got a creepy feeling. Late in the final episodes, Jesse is confined in a meth lab where he used to work, tethered by a long vertical chain to an overhead girder like a dog in a...

Our Temporary Dog. . .

—From EF— I was on my hands and knees in the side garden yard, enjoying one of the activities that my frame can currently do without a painful toll. Suddenly there was a great commotion—thrashing and barking—in the back yard where Conrad was weeding. I looked up and...

Bastards, Bars & Aleister Crowley. . .

—From EF— OK, I’m now embarked on the road to hip replacements, and counting the days. My surgeon-to-be is very good, hence much in demand, and I need to wait until May 17 for an evaluation appointment. After that it’s up to the “surgery scheduler” to get me a...

Rampant Metaphors. . .

—From EF— We are part of a small writers’ circle that meets twice a month to read portions of our current work to each other. Our styles are different, but in general the feedback is dependably close, precise, and supportive. As we’ve grown to know and trust each...

The Week That Was. . .

—From CB— Lots of things happened this week. We went to the symphony and heard three Copland pieces and Schumann’s 2nd Symphony. We went to a friend’s Easter party and ate a lot. We hosted a small writers’ circle and had some productive critique. We...