Many years ago, a navy chief warrant officer said to me, “Walker, all it takes to erase a thousand ‘attaboys’ is one ‘Aw, shit.’” What he was telling me in his gruff, salty way was that no matter how much good someone does, a single poor performance can wipe it all away, at least in […]
Absorbing Criticism, or Looking for a Happy Place Between Confidence and Self-Doubt Read More »
Quite a few years ago, when I first read Stephen King’s excellent book On Writing, I thought about how cool it would be to have as many rejection slips as King, the ones he talks about collecting in a desk drawer. Submit a story, get a refusal, into the drawer it goes, out with another submission.
Holding Out for Acceptance: Submission, Rejection, Submission, Repetition Read More »
The visitation line queues all the way to the parking lot, meandering its way through cologne, cigarettes, wet August heat, and the stink of starched mourners on their best funeral behavior. We wait to pay respect. You, being experienced in these rituals, scribble our names in a journal, proof we care and came here. It’s
Sometimes, life happens, whether we want it to or not. Filled with optimism, we make grand plans and promises, setting out to take on the world in our own inimitable way. Soon, however, reality sets upon us, barging in with a vengeance, and we end up missing the mark. The reasons vary. We oversleep, forget,
It’s that time of year again. During the holidays, we gather with family, friends, and pets. We hang out with folks we haven’t seen since last year, don sweaters that have inexplicably shrunk over the past eleven months, and eat and drink like we have no sense of propriety. The end of the calendar year
Have Yourself a Very Troubling Christmas Read More »
A few weeks ago, I made a remark to a co-worker about hearing a Christmas song in Lowe’s the day after Halloween. “You’re just a Christmas hater,” the person said. As I recall, my comment was innocent enough, something along the lines of “Hey, I heard a Christmas song in Lowe’s the day after Halloween,”
Holidays and the Impermanence of Perfect Things Read More »