I knew it was a good omen when the lead-in to my interview on KTRS, THE BIG 550 A.M. was The Average White Band's, Pick Up the Pieces. When you get an extra fourteen minutes, (I understand that's a lot) give a listen to a fun interview, tragic backstory notwithstanding, to the interview I did on Thursday with St. Louis radio host, McGraw Milhaven. After you click on the link, click on the AUDIO tat, and it's the show dated 10-25-12. Just click the right arrow on … [Read more...]
The Dog Stays In the Picture
August 27, 2012 By
Just call me Jean Angsty Whatley, I'm so damn full of angst. Don't know why.. Oh yes I do. I am going to have to get a real J-O-B now that the book is being birthed in two stages, which could be considered by some to be cruel and unusual punishment. Oh the labor. Don't get me wrong, I am as happy as a little girl, but we're having cover issues, for the print edition of the book. The ship has sailed on Amazon, it's up there, for sale, a mere $4.99. At 100K words, … [Read more...]
Deep End of the Pool
August 9, 2012 By
Bundle of nerves, I am just a big old wad of wound up. I just received the Kindle file to review for Off the Leash this morning and I'm excited on the one hand because every day we're getting a little closer to actually publishing the book, but I'm as nervous as a cat because then it's out there, you know...like out there. Exercise is good. That's what they tell you, right? (Liquor works well too, but is problematic at nine o'clock in the morning.) So I've been … [Read more...]
Anatomy of a Day
August 2, 2012 By
It started out with shadowed splendor, a reflection, of my hands on the rose print fabric of my wing backed chair, which really is a reflection of a writer with too much time on her hands and furniture that looks like her grandmother’s. It was the cottage look I was going for when I bought it and I do have, after all, a bungalow; a cottage by any other name. I was thinking about the privilege of time to observe the daily light show, which passes through my … [Read more...]
Too Much Time on My Hands
July 10, 2012 By
Suffice it to say a book about an eight-week sojourn across the country with nobody but a dog contains a lot of self-reflection. Was thinking about that this morning, when I was noticing how the early morning light creates interesting shadows and contrasts, something I can indulge in as a gainfully, unemployed writer. This immediately made me think of this day last year, and my pleasant stay at the EconoLodge where I went into somewhat of a significant tailspin of … [Read more...]
Gary D
June 27, 2012 By
My brother Garrett would have been 61 years old today. That blows my mind, sixty-one ? You know what I'm talking about. What is more sobering is that come November 21st it will be ten years since his passing. Ten years? The "decade of disaster" as I've affectionately referred to it was ushered in with a phone call informing me of his death, followed by another phone call, just a few days later, that my former husband was in a shit load of trouble with the law, for … [Read more...]
The Last Detail
December 4, 2011 By
Here’s the thing about going on a road trip across America alone with your dog. She can vouch for nothing. When I say, “Hey Lib, remember that herd of big horn sheep in Colorado that were really close to the highway?” she just looks at me with this blank puppy-dog stare. I’ve been engaging in this a lot lately, this one-sided reminiscing. As other duties, like raking up the the 9,000 pounds of autumn confetti littering my yard, now supplanted by the terror of … [Read more...]
Fear and High Water…
June 30, 2011 By
I want to talk to you about fear -- fear over this impending journey. It rises and falls like the water in my basement last night. I have an 82-year-old house. We had torrential rain. Sometimes the storm sewers swell beyond capacity, and the water runs backwards, up through the floor drains in old basements like mine. I know I should have installed a sump pump, but college, cars, and emergency appendectomies were more important. So we bail, we mop. We cast a wary eye … [Read more...]
Holes in Our Hearts and Maybe My Head
June 28, 2011 By
The sign in front of the Standard Artificial Limbs store always makes me think of my step father. On the day he died at the VA hospital in Albuquerque, after my mother and I summoned the rest of the family to tell them he’d passed, once everybody took turns patting him on his rapid cooling forehead, we all walked out into the broiling parking lot, the blacktop almost spongy under the August dessert sun, with my husband carrying Mike’s legs in a grocery sack. One was … [Read more...]
We’re Going
June 25, 2011 By
I’m taking my dog on a road trip. Not a short one, a long one. It’ll be about 8,400 miles, more or less, by the time we get back home. Lord knows what I’ll find when I return. I planted drought-resistant flowers just to hedge my bets. I hope they make it, because we’re going. I’m quitting my job and Libby and I are going. I may run out of gas, fall on my ass and not even make it home, but we’re going. It’s Libby’s fault. She started it. Her acceptance of the … [Read more...]
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