THE HAPPY BEATNIK

Georgie Porgy nearing 82

Oh what a nightmare. We changed our internet from awful CenturyLink to Xfinity and lost our email address. In the midst of this wonderful late-in-life creative rush [now 27 stories], I'm fighting all the problems that come with new email addresses. The sign in problems. Password messes. You name it. I can't even explain some of the problems. Still? Creating like mad. Trusting my psyche, my imagination to lead me to the source. Anyhow... this is my check-in with those who follow my labors in the word arbor. I'm thinking I might do this. Since most lit mags won't accept any stories that have been "published" on the internet, I'm going to try this. I'm going to put my email address in here. Anyone who'd like to see one of my stories, email me with your email address. I'll pick one favorite story and send it as an attachment to anyone interested. You can judge how I'm doing. I'm very happy with what I'm finding in me to write about. I still need to pick one story. Waiting to get your emails: geomert.q.com@gmail.com The story I picked is less than a 1000 words.

Don't worry. I won't put you on a mailing list. I don't have one in the first place. And I'm so not a marketing whiz. 

BEATNIKING ALONG THE SHORT STORY ROAD

trumpery, the word

I'm on my third story in a week: "Game Of Hearts", "Activated Charcoal" the first two. I'm beginning a third today named temporarily "Superstition". Notice that I put quotation marks around the short story titles. And I use italics for novel titles. These affectations result from earning my Masters In English. I believe those are recommended by the Chicago Manual of Style which was the standard. Many professors demanded those stylistic requirements. What about movie titles and song titles? I know I could do research to trigger my recall of those long ago days, but, let me be honest, I truly don't care to take the time. I'd do it if it came up in a short story and I needed the detail. I'd rather use italics for everything. These days of trumpery, I suppose I would demand those standards of students if I were teaching. I'd forgotten all about that word, trumpery. Amazing how it came to me just now. And how fitting it is for these days of worthless nonsense in the White House.

Lastly, my first submission of a current story was returned from a reputable literary magazine. But I was specifically asked to submit again. That feels better than outright rejection.

CLEAN AIR AND SHORT STORIES

I feel the necessity to comment even though demand is

photo by Greg Moser

down. Since May 9, I have created 24 stories, beginning with "The Line Ahead". I just finished the 24th story, "The Phone Call". All this began when I picked up an old collection of Ray Carver's tales Will You Please Be Quiet Please that was yellowing on a bookshelf in the office. So he was influenced by Hemingway and Chekhov? Now I'm influenced by his writing. I also doted on Hemingway and Chekhov back in the 1960s. I believe a line can be drawn through the connections. What a bitch that Carver died at age 50 of lung cancer. He was a smoker. Now e-cigarettes are killing people with lung ailments. Drawing anything but air into our lungs is risky. Thus the need [political opinion follows] for protection of our atmosphere. Clean air is a necessity for the human species. For all mammals to be exact. Even fish need oxygen. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOGvQsWW1As

DAVID EAGLEMAN SUPPORTS THIS BEATNIK'S IDEAS

David Eagleman

Absolutely nothing to report. Nothing. Last two weeks has been busy with non-writing tasks and around the house duties. We are looking into reflooring the condo, but laminated flooring may be not possible due to Condo Community Regulations. I finished another short story, "The Feels Of Homer". Like it. Recent reading has been Incognito by David Eagleman, an update on neuroscience that supports the theory we humans are as much robots as gorillas are. I accept that I'm a robot. It's that or evolution is a lie, and I know that's not true. Thus the human species has gone from believing it's the center of the solar system and in command of its own behavior to being just another instinct driven animal in the vast Cosmos. I find that an intriguing proposition. Nothing to fear. Now reading Rather Outspoken by Dan Rather.

MYNA BIRD BEATNIK

Eighty-six people checked in so time for another entry. I sent off a short story ms to a prestigious competition. I believe I have no chance. A name writer will have the best chance. The press will want to make money on their publication. A name draw will do that. Still, I had fun putting the ms together—stories written in many styles over the years. In truth, I think I've been a myna bird kind of writer. A copycat of styles. I read something and a story pops into mind in that writer's voice. The stories in the ms represent Hammett, Allen [Woody], Carver, Hemingway, Salinger... at least that many voices. Maybe Dickens in spots. I don't seem to have developed a voice of my own. Maybe I'm just an inauthentic character in someone's novel without a voice of my own.

At SIU during my first stab at a Masters In English, a fellow TA [Terry Brown] asked me to type up a ms for him, a paper he wrote on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. I couldn't help myself and began to imitate Swift's style, altering the style of my friend's paper quite a bit. He couldn't believe I'd done such a thing. Looking back, I can't believe I did it either.

I've written 17 stories in the past two months. Reading Carver set them off. Him being a recovered alcoholic might have something to do with my sounding like him and their themes being similar. I seem to be happiest when I'm writing or when I'm in my wife's company. 

LOTS OF WORK, LOTS AND LOTS

Jeez, Louise, 82 people looked in this morning. Thank you folks. Been awhile, I know, but I've been hard at work. Spent three days straightening out the file cards I keep on all my poetry. Things were in a mess, and I found I was sending out poems I'd self-published in my two poetry books, Gray House By Cold Mountain and Tenderfoot [available Amazon or AuthorHouse]. That's a no-no in the publishing world, even though the readership of those books is extremely small.

Just finished a few minutes ago writing another short story I love to pieces called "Lennie". I'm also rewriting the poetry ms about my prostate cancer, You Wake One Morning, Remembering. I'm altering it from second person singular to first person and it will have a new undecided title. The reason I began it second person was some sort of shame or shyness about using first person. Don't ask me why. I don't understand it myself. After all, it's my cancer, my dealing with it, the humor I find in my dealing with it. In fact, I wonder if it's not too humorous in places while in other places showing too much self-pity. It's a complicated book, unlike any other cancer poetry I've read. Lot's of references to movies and personalities in the news of my days.

BEATNIKING THROUGH THE RAPIDS

 Photo by Ivana Cajina @unsplash

What more can I say? I've been roughing out a story every couple of days. Found a groove that works and that I trust. Will have to go back for rewrites, of course, but I like how these tales adhere to reality as I've experienced it and think about it. I tell you this...some of the trick is to change the names and tell it like it was. Words pouring out like rushing waters. Would not imagine that an 81 year old could feel this rejuvinated as a writer.