Are you kidding me, Starkey! I could read your stuff from morn to night if I didn't have other things pressing down on me. Yours is a joy to read. Anyone who doesn't feel similarly doesn't want to learn as badly as I do. You have tapped into a special part of your psyche where language and character have melded so seamlessly, like Joyce with Bloom and Faulkner with Caddy and Benjy, and now you with Tallahatchie and Amboy and Buck that they can be a lodestone of study outside the story.
Some rich and valuable stuff here.
A grievously short history of Beavis and Butt-Head and the itch that simply refuses to go away
DO YOU REMEMBER your first reaction to the phenomenon of Beavis and Butt-Head? Would you call your initial encounter with the lads adventitious — was it an unexpected, full-on, frontal attack on your sensibilities? Or, was it serendipitous, in the sense that while it was still unexpected, shocking even, it left you craving more of it?
I suspect your answer will be generational. That first group is older. …
Could it be that Mike Judge discovered an itch that simply refuses to go away?
Do you remember your first reaction to the phenomenon of Beavis and Butt-Head? Was your first encounter with the lads adventitious — was it unexpected; a full, frontal attack on your sensibilities? Or, was it serendipitous, in the sense that it was unexpected, shocking even, but still, you couldn’t get enough of it?
I suspect your answer is generational. That first group is older. They felt a bit overwhelmed and threatened by what appeared to be B &B’s motiveless actions that nearly always veered away from what was socially acceptable, and often illegal.
The second group — the Serendipitalists, we’ll…
When the price you pay is your happiness
On a bitterly cold Halloween night, many years ago, they’d left Rudy attached to his leash, the other end of which they’d wrapped around one of our rosebushes near the street. He was whining, yipping. Trick or Treaters, coming up to and leaving our door, passed him by.
To say he was scruffy was an understatement. He was to-the-marrow ugly. Part was lack of care, but the rest had to be hereditary. He had the protruding lower jaw characteristic of the Chihuahua, but the other gene doner possessed that kind of dense hairiness that lends itself to matting. …
Genius in a Bottle’s fortnightly list of published pieces
Well, we’ve completed February with a burgeoning readership. 2020’s year-end celebrations are definitely behind us and the re-starting of the motor has now transitioned to seamless operation. readership is up and the submissions are potent with the creative energy of rested minds.
Please enjoy GiaB’s published works below. Where possible, we would appreciate if you could read the stories, clap for them and maybe drop the writer a line to let them know your thoughts. It all helps in bringing out our best.
If you feel so inclined, GiaB would appreciate it if you could share these stories with others…
Genius in a Bottle’s fortnightly list of published pieces
Victor: They Persisted by Susan Sagarin /Fiction — Editing
Jay: The Road to Ash Fork, by Dan Lee — Editing
Shaheena: The Sudden Fury of a Desert Storm by Obinna…
Genius in a Bottle’s fortnightly list of published pieces
Well, we’ve completed February with a burgeoning readership. 2020’s year-end celebrations are definitely behind us and the re-starting of the motor has now transitioned to seamless operation. readership is up and the submissions are potent with the creative energy of rested minds.
Please enjoy GiaB’s published works below. Where possible, we would appreciate if you could read the stories, clap for them and maybe drop the writer a line to let them know your thoughts. It all helps in bringing out our best.
If you feel so inclined, GiaB would appreciate…
Doctrex and Klasco toast their Brotherhood
Doctrex begins his journey to the province capital of Kabeez with Klasco and his wagon drawn by two crossans (horse-like animals). As their journey begins, Doctrex begins his explanation, at Klasco’s request, of why he wants to replace Klasco in the Kabeezan army preparing to engage the far-northern province in battle. As he recounts his brief experience with Axtilla, he discovers that some of his newly understood beliefs from Axtilla are taboo subjects to Klasco. At some point, their discussion gets heated.
And, now …
KLASCO DIDN’T LET THE CROSSANS HAVE THEIR FILL OF WATER before…
A Sunday in spring at the Hermanos de José Restaurante
Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? — Matthew 6:26 [Good News Translation]
WE HAD AGREED after forty-nine years, eight months, that the light had gone out in our marriage. That light had been flickering for years, like a lantern whose owner had been remiss in trimming the wick, and the oil could no longer leach up to the dying flame.
One day it was simply dark. We could no longer find each other.
…
Traveling to Kabeez
Doctrex joins Klasco outside while the latter has an after-dinner pipe. Doctrex is unaware of the deep impression he had made on his host. Klasco explains that he was one of the Council of twelve who had enacted conscription to protect Kabeez against the expected attack by Rhuether’s army. They had planned to send the Kabeezan troops to the far northern Provence to surprise and overthrow Rhuether. While Klasco would be exempt by being on the Council and being the sole protector for his sick child, Klea, he felt his duty is to go. He proposes…
Jay Squires
Poet, short-story writer. Featured in “2017 Best-Short-Stories-of-the-Year.” Connect in my newsletter: http://bondingfyre.com/landing-page-for-writer-guide/
