writing – Page 26 – Samuel Snoek-Brown

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”

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”

Coffee, coffee, and then more coffee

Just a quick post full of links, because apparently, this week I haven’t been the only one with coffee on the brain (and in my cup). The first one I noticed came through one of my subscriptions here in WordPress, over at author Heather Wright’s The Wright Words blog. Nothing in depth or earth-shaking, butContinue reading “Coffee, coffee, and then more coffee”

A Writer’s Notebook: Bill Roorbach’s bad advice

Yes, I missed last week’s Notebook. Skipped, more like, but my wife was newly arrived from two months overseas, so I forgive myself and I trust you will too. Besides, this week (as I’d intended to do last week), I’m using an exercise from Bill Roorbach’s newly-minted “Bad Advice” series over at the blog heContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Bill Roorbach’s bad advice”

Small stone, Vol. 2, #19

Wind in the pines, the earthy scent of someone’s organic wheat bread overlaying the wash of rose petals and loose soil. Children giggling, a Korean woman translating a botanical label for her elderly mother, two French women remarking on the moss climbing the trunks and the sift of light through the branches, a tourist laughingContinue reading “Small stone, Vol. 2, #19”

Small stone, Vol 2, #18

In the park, at a picnic table, dusk settling in, corduroy blazer on, laptop open, chin on fist. I feel like such a writer, and such a poseur.

A Writer’s Notebook: Work details

There’s this story I’ve been aching to finish for a long, long time now, but the details just aren’t coming. Or, weren’t until this week. But thanks to Tom Franklin, things seem to be rolling again. More on that in a minute. First, some writing: Val dropped the ramps and unchained the big yellow WalkerContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Work details”

New fiction: the OBCBYL project, story #5

I am finished. My run at Our Band Could Be Your Lit is, today, officially over. My last story is online now. I had a blast doing it, and many thanks to Ryan Werner for making me sound cooler than I am (with only one exception, all those titles were his, and like any good editor, heContinue reading “New fiction: the OBCBYL project, story #5”

A Writer’s Notebook: Packing my bags at OBCBYL

And just like that, my tenure at Our Band Could Be Your Lit is coming to an end: this week, I’m writing my last story for this project. And it couldn’t come at a better time, because Ryan Werner has decided to start throwing simply idiotic songs at me. Seriously — his words: “For your lastContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Packing my bags at OBCBYL”