The refrigerator gurgles and hums, the soft vibrato of the compressor like a brook on rocks; somewhere upstairs a neighbor runs their kitchen tap and the water rains down the building’s pipes, and I hear the gentle rumble of bare feet on wood floors; the hard disc of my laptop whirs as it awakens like a birdContinue reading “Small stone, Vol. 2, #23”
Author Archives: Samuel Snoek-Brown
Photo blog 59
Small stone, Vol. 2, #22
Cold like a bullet, it rolls between my tongue and the roof of my mouth, that tiny jagged crown where the stem once was pressing a rough circle into my palate. It is so ripely firm it will not burst until I break it with my teeth. Then, oh! the tang and natural sugars, that succulentContinue reading “Small stone, Vol. 2, #22”
A Writer’s Notebook: The Writer’s Toolbox, sentence sticks
So, last week I let Jamie Cat Callan‘s The Writer’s Toolbox help me start a story. It was about John, an architect from Minnesota who is feeling guilty over abandoning his elderly mother in order to stalk the woman he’s secretly in love with. Don’t ask me — the Toolbox came up with this story. But that’s whereContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: The Writer’s Toolbox, sentence sticks”
Not-so-new publication
Back in the spring of 2010, I published a story in the online literary magazine Temenos. Later, they decided to select from their spring and fall issues to produce a small print anthology for that year, but time and budgets being what they are, it took a while to finish the project. I’d quite forgottenContinue reading “Not-so-new publication”
Photo blog 58
(For anyone who doesn’t have all of Shakespeare memorized — I had to look this up, too — the title is taken from the play, Act 3 scene 4, which this photo depicts. For more info, check out Portland’s own Original Shakespeare Practice Festival online.)
Small stone, Vol. 2, #21
Dappled light, breeze through the parted lips of the driver’s window, soft voice of NPR whispering on the radio. Midday lullaby.
A Writer’s Notebook: The Writer’s Toolbox, Protagonist Game
I’m going to do this next Writer’s Notebook exercise in two parts. This weekend, I’m just getting down some basic ideas, and over the coming week, I’ll develop these ideas into a draft and toss it up next Friday. What appears in the Notebook this week are notes from an exercise in Jamie Cat Callan‘sContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: The Writer’s Toolbox, Protagonist Game”
Photo blog 57
Small stone, Vol. 2, #20
Flag-themed fruit breakfast, bald eagle through a waterfall, grilled cheese and lemonade for lunch. Frisbee in the park surrounded by bikinied sunbathers and stocky, muscle-flexing softball players. A cramped bus ride, fireworks over the river downtown, freaks and drunks and street-preachers at the bus stop, tired crabby Americans all the way home. Exactly as itContinue reading “Small stone, Vol. 2, #20”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 