SILENT BOOMER BEATNIKS HIS WAY TOWARD A BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

Writerly things! An automatic mental jump shift occurs in my approach to Manning, the character, when I write the words "Charley Manning" in a sentence and when I write only "Manning". In the first instance, I experience a jump shift of POV from the interior Manning into my roll as the omniscient observer. This shift encourages me to look around at the scene Manning's entering, to give some details that aren't attached to Manning's stream of consciousness. I believe it adds realistic pieces that Manning might miss because of his intentions in the scene and that I might miss because of how I intend to advance the plot.

For a' that, writing went damn well this morning down at the Torque in the heart of Vancouver. Most of the afternoon, I've been in Portland, walking around, preparing to meet a couple of cronies at Bob's Red Mill for dinner. I briefly visited Powell's Books. Right now, I'm eating chips and drinking a Sprite at the Lucky Lab on Hawthorne. I tried to go up 12th to the worker owned Red & Black Cafe only to discover that no one was working at the moment, even though the hours posted say someone is there. Talking to a couple of young men sitting at an outside table, I learned that only three workers currently own the joint. If someone's got some cash and a lot of energy, there's a chance at the Red & Black to make something happen. They recently bought the building so there's a mortgage. You know? When I finish my damn novel, I can see myself working there and making it happen. Another place for poetry readings and talk of revolution. The Portland Wolf Pack was meeting there last time Mertie and I visited. What couldn't be accomplished with some imagination and a little cash? Huh?

SILENT "BEATNICK" BOOMER REVIEWS A BOOK

If you're interested, you can read my miniview or mini-review of Douglas Spangle's A White Concrete Day, published by GobQ Books in Portland. I enjoyed the book. Read more on Powell's website. You can also find the book at 
Mother Foucault's Bookshop
Broadway Books
St. Johns Booksellers

It's all good and right here in the Greater Portland Area. 

PS: "Greater Portland" refers to Vancouver, Washington just across the roll on Columbia River.

OLD DOG FROM SILENT GEN. LEARNS NEW TRICKS

find this photo at

Jefferson wrote "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do." Why argue with the man who wrote America's "Declaration of Independence"? Yesterday, I wrote a sentence that ended with "an old building that once upon a time housed the famous Powell's Bookstore." How many times, I wondered, had I written "once upon a time" when "once" accounted very well for the longer phrase? I can't imagine how far along I'd be if I hadn't first had to deal with alcoholism and woman issues before I got down to serious attempts at successful writing. I can't fret about my wasted years and lack of confidence or I'll have regret to deal with next. One does what one can and at whatever pace he discovers he can do it at.

On the far northeast section of my daily walk, I sometimes enter a neighborhood of expensive homes, and I imagine living there one day ... if, of course, I can write one successful book that becomes a movie. I think I'm writing that book now, and walking through that neighborhood always fires my imagination. Who knows? More unlikely things have happened. Once that sentence would have read "More unlikely things have been known to happen"? See what I mean? I can now instruct Jefferson too: "The most valuable talent is never using two words when one will do." The superlative "most" eliminated the need for "of all" in Jefferson's maxim. Of course, history reveals that the pronoun "that" would have been required in Jefferson's time to refer to "valuable" and that historical circumstance is why Jefferson constructed his sentence as he did.