Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Eve of the feast


Her'n and his'n

If there is one given in getting a book published, it is that there must be sufficient material of reasonable quality to make the effort worthwhile to a potential reader. The more I struggle trying to put together a tome of digestible material, the more I realize I do not have much that qualifies as "good enough", much less first grade. So now I must write, and of course my respectable writing has become so sporadic I really do not know where to start. I penned the poem "Winter" last evening, but it is pretty sucky. It began well enough, but got mushy at the end. None-the-less, I will leave it here for a few days and take a long, hard, and hateful look at it before having it permanently on my Lord Bubbha blog or in the trash. At least you know I am trying ... at least it makes me think I am trying.
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Chris's car is broken and I have been driving her back-and-forth to work since yesterday morning. It takes an hour to pick her up in Jonesborough, drive to Elizabethton, and then back to home. I had to take Carolyn to Fall Branch and Boones Creek to clean the buildings last evening, and today I have to get my shot, take Carolyn to the store to get the remainder of her Thanksgiving stuff, and then drive back to Elizabethton to get Chris. I am a well traveled man. Actually, I am pooped.
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To you my dear friends in these United States of America, Happy Thanksgiving. To you my dear friends in Europe and Canada, have a great day every day. Peace!
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My friend Fred always liked to listen to Arlo Guthrie relate the story of Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving day. I think I may have missed hearing it one or two times since Fred died in 1980. I even like the movie. I think Arlo has gone over to the dark side with his political views.

Happy Thanksgiving, Alice.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Peace, Ken.
It's beautiful American holiday. Happy Thanksgiving to you, your family and all your friends.:-)

Tammy said...

Ken. I've been thinking about your blog throughout my day. Isn't this medium (blog) a way for you to write without the pressure of actually having to assemble a book? The variety of your writing is interesting (except for the computer stuff I have to admit). If you tied yourself to a book. i.e. one subject, maybe you would be bored?

Sounds like you are busy. Hopefully you wash some dishes for your slave-wife.. I'm sure she will appreciate it. My publix meat manager gave me an organic, free-range turkey at the same price of a regular bird! I am sooo excited. It was a $85.00 bird marked down to $35.00. I'm not sure why he did it but I'd like to think my Levi's were fitting well this day!

Hope you are feeling fine tomorrow and your children don't stab each other with the carving set.

Mark WILL be doing dishes at my house. I usually spoil him rotten, just like one of my brothers. Maybe I can get a photo of him in the garden for his blog page. He usually doesn't allow such.

Peace. At your feet...

Anonymous said...

Ken
Happy Thanksgiving to you and Carolyn and your children and grandchildren.
My sister has been here since Saturday. She will going back to West Virgina Saturday. We have run around all week. We have done a lot of window shopping and a lot of nothing but talking about memories of Mom and Dad and the Thanksgiving we had when they were living. Vanessa,Greg and the grand kids will be here tomorrow to eat.

Alice

Anonymous said...

Thanks very much, Jola. Thanksgiving used to be the beginning of the Christmas season here, but some stores now have pre-holiday sales as early as July. We will have plenty of great food.
Have a happy Thursday, dear friend. :-)

Anonymous said...

You are correct, Tammy. I really do not need to do a book of my short stuff, but if I included my best short stories, I would have more than enough material. It is something I am researching, but I do find it intriguing. If I was really enthused about a book, I have a full length novel already written ... since 1992. It actually isn't half bad of a story.

Levis always work for me.

I like to wash dishes; the hot water makes my sore hands feel much better. Tell Mark his luck will change for the good if he does the dishes and has a pic posted on his blog.

Live long and prosper, my friend.

Anonymous said...

Hi Alice.

Those memories are precious, especially where parents or grandparents are concerned. Tell your sis I said howdy.

Seems like when y'all, the Moores, and my flock got together on Thanksgiving, it was usually raining or very cold. Supposed to rain and snow tomorrow, so I suppose things haven't changed too much.

Is Greg going to help you cook, or maybe he will sing karaoke for you while you do the work. I bet he is a fun guy to have around.

Don't eat too much; you oldsters can't pig out like we youngsters can. ;-)

Take care, dear Alice.
Ken

Anonymous said...

Hi Ken
Vanessa and I did a lot pre-cooking today, so we don't have to much do to tomorrow. Yes Greg is a lot of fun to be around and will help tomorrow also. He loves to cook.
Vanessa was off from work today so we got a lot done today.
Alice

Maggie said...

Happy Thanksgiving day.

I think your writing is just as good as any of the stuff I have been reading lately. I liked Winter, too.

Sometimes, people get dealt the shittiest hands in this great poker game. Its just the luck of the draw, for most things.

Anonymous said...

Hi Alice,
I remember you saying Gregg likes to cook. Hope everything went well. :-)

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Maggie.

Every poker hand has potential, especially if you can bluff. ;-)

Mark said...

Well Ken I say you are a good writer. Believe me when I say this.
I read plenty and it is not always good. You have a way of telling your stories that lets your readers be in that place. It is your stories and the way you structure them that makes them interesting. However as someone who wanted to be a writer, that was what I went to college for, I know that the task is very hard and I understand. Getting motivated to write can be very hard.

And I did NOT do dishes at Tammy's, I would have if I was asked. Since really all I would have had to do is rinse and put them in the dishwasher. There is a picture of me in the driveway. I will post that tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

You should try doing what you went to college to learn to do. Once you break the ice, I believe you would be a very good writer to go along with your already great photography.

It does help with the writing when you have encouragement you can believe in; I wish I had it at home, but no one cares to read anything anymore. You good blog readers are the only people to see much of my writing.

I do like most of my short stories, but I am realist enough to know the "poetry" mostly sucks. I don't mind that it is bad, because it does make good mental exercise for the prose.

Thanks, Mark.

Mark said...

I have attempted to try poetry with my pictures with some success, I think. It is not easy.

As for writing short stories or maybe even a novel I just do not know where to begin. I guess I need to start with some very short stories and develop from there.

Anonymous said...

You are much better at your poetry-pictures than I could dream of. I like it when you combine the two.

"It all started one day when ...".
Yep, it sounds corny and sometimes is, but it is a very good way to begin a story or a novel. It can be changed once the plot develops. It garners attention; the reader knows from the git-go that you are going to tell him something and he will read on to see what "it" is.

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