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Author Archives: John Swinburn
One Hundred Sixty-Seven
The phone rang. I glanced at the LED panel. “Club for Growth.” No, thanks, I’ll skip that call. I know who they are. I know they want my money so they can spend it doing things that are contrary to … Continue reading
Posted in Ruminations
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The End of Writing Season
Tonight is the final meeting of our local writers’ club for the “season.” We end the club year with dinner at an Italian restaurant. The evening will begin with the food and then progress to a presentation by the managing … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking, Writing
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One Hundred Sixty-Six
Consider this: attempt to write a friendly conversational letter, carry on a relaxing conversation with a friend, take a walk on the beach, and enjoy a cup of coffee; all within the space of one minute. It can’t be done. We … Continue reading
Posted in Ruminations
1 Comment
Memories of Home, of New Mexico
This morning, as I thumbed through an old blog I downloaded before I killed it off several years ago (if one can thumb through an electronic document), I came upon a lengthy post about a trip my wife and I made to New … Continue reading
Posted in Food, Sense of place, Travel
1 Comment
One Hundred Sixty-Five
Some decisions are indefensible. They are so blatantly self-serving and so laced with avarice that no apologist can successfully endorse them as reasonable. But we turn a blind eye toward them and stay quiet because it just wouldn’t look right … Continue reading
Posted in Ruminations
3 Comments
Psyched, Somehow
It’s just after 4:30 as I begin writing this. I’ve been up for more than an hour, yet I’m still on my first cup of coffee. Sometimes, I measure my acceptance of the day by the coffee I consume, but … Continue reading
Posted in Dreams, Just Thinking
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One Hundred Sixty-Four
I am pleased that I’m able to complain about the pain in my knees and my wrists, but I’m not happy that I have pain in my knees and my wrists. Appreciating the little things requires tolerance of the little … Continue reading
Posted in Ruminations
1 Comment
Set-Up Vignette
Epistolary love affairs didn’t have the same ferocity as those conducted in the flesh. At least that’s how Jeremiah Scotland saw it. He’d been involved in both and preferred the latter, as they were more satisfying, in the physical sense. Yet he … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Writing
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One Hundred Sixty-Three
Electric power is back on, the sun is rising in the east, birds are flying, so all is right with the world.
Posted in Ruminations
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Dream Story
Another damn dream. But this one might have opened up a channel to a plot for a novel. I intended to write it down yesterday, when I awoke from the dream. But I did not. So I’ve lost some detail … Continue reading
One Hundred Sixty-Two
Fear is both a motivator and a demotivator. If that is true, that must mean fear has no effect on motivation, yes?
Posted in Ruminations
3 Comments
Cars, Lies, and Things that Honk in the Night
This morning, I’ll arrive at the Toyota dealer in Hot Springs just about the time they open the bays to allow broken cars seeking salvation to enter. Mine will be one of them. As far as I know, it doesn’t … Continue reading
Posted in Cars
6 Comments
One Hundred Sixty-One
Disappointment has the capacity to take a person into a dark little world of his own making. Confronted with the appropriate frame of mind, though, it can simply amplify one’s creativity in finding ways toward attainment.
Posted in Ruminations
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Caramel Floods
Soft and thick like flash-cooled caramel, my thoughts creep along in slow motion, their hard edges dragged around obstacles that get in their way by the more pliable core within. Thinking is, at times, an exercise in patience. When the mind … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Writing
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One Hundred Sixty
Writing is lonely, but only if the writer craves company. More often, the writer’s friends and acquaintances reside in his mind, living deep in the recesses of an imagination that can be frightful. My imaginary friends and inaccessible villains hide … Continue reading
Posted in Ruminations
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Allowing In All Recollections
The conversation stirred recollections. Maybe. But were they real? I spoke of old memories, memories I don’t trust. Did I really visit several strip clubs while I was in high school and in the first years of college, or were … Continue reading
Posted in Memories, Philosophy, Wisdom
1 Comment
One Hundred Fifty-Nine
Skepticism about the words a person utters tends to recede when those words are coupled with comments that can be confirmed. People like me, though, who are deeply skeptical of others from time to time continue to hold onto seeds of … Continue reading
Posted in Ruminations
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Curvature
What if I were to write an autobiography? A memoir? A semi-fictional recollection of things I’ve yet to do, something like a friend has already begun? What if? Nothing if. It won’t change the curvature of the earth. But it … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
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One Hundred Fifty-Eight
‘Honor among thieves’ is a concept built on lies and cobbled together with broken promises and naked self-interest.
Posted in Ruminations
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And The Winner Is…
Well, I read The Story of Steve during the read-around today. It got a few laughs. That’s really all it’s good for, which is not a bad thing. Sometimes silly whimsy is just what the doctor ordered. After the banquet this … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
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Contestables
A poem I wrote a few months ago, A Night on the Town, received 1st Honorable Mention in the Marie Barton Memorial Poetry Award contest at the Arkansas Writers’ Conference yesterday. At the moment, I don’t remember what the contest … Continue reading
Writerly Things
I read a short story during yesterday afternoon’s read-around at the writers’ conference. I’d read it before, recently, at the local club’s program, L’Audible Art. I think I did a better job this time around; I think it was generally … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
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One Hundred Fifty-Seven
Solving complex problems takes a willingness to explore impossibilities as if they were possible.
Posted in Ruminations
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Being Early as It Is…
It’s one thing to be awake in the wee hours of the morning, inside the house. It’s quite another to venture into the darkness outside the door, where all manner of wild beasts may be prowling about; raccoons, skunks, foxes, … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
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One Hundred Fifty-Six
Breakfast in the wee-est of the wee hours is a delight few experience with sufficient frequency.
Posted in Ruminations
4 Comments