Me
I'm an aspiring writer. That means I'm just a guy who hasn't written anything yet.
But I'm trying.
I wrote a short story in sixth grade, and since then, nothing. As a teenager, I was too busy with girls, baseball and pot (hey, it was the 70's...). Then I joined the service, and married a gal who thought creative writing was for homos. My mother dismissed my low-paying newspaper job as "that writing thing" (even waving her hand dismissively when she said it. Really).
The newspaper job made way for law school (I consider this my mid-life crisis), which in turn turned into a short-lived career as an attorney. Neither left time for the creative arts.
After burning out on law, I made my way back to the military (they have much better health care and retirement plans than my civilian careers). Somewhere along the way, my creative itch got buried. Deep.
So now, approaching middle-age my youngest children in high school, a couple of years away from retirement from my real job, it's as good a time as any to see if I have any talent. My current wife (#2) is supportive (ok, tolerant), and there's a brother who's an enthusiastic cheerleader. That's all the encouragement I really need.
I've joined a few writing websites, and am still looking for a writer's group to join. Feedback from online writing prompts has been generally positive (like I said, a little motivation goes a long way).
So this little blog here will be my public experiment. Some reflections, a book review here and there, comments on things learned along the way, and an occasional piece of original writing. I welcome feedback and constructive criticism.
Now on with the show...
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Author Archives: daveallen
You Like Me, You Really Like Me!
While I’m not about to quit my day job, I’ve been able to crank out a few pieces that editors have been able to stomach. So far, I’ve had a few short stories printed in Gonzo Today, a (fantastic) online publication promoting new … Continue reading
It was a dark and stormy night…
It was a dark and stormy night. I sat in the den, in an overstuffed recliner, another bourbon in hand. It’d been a week since Eleanor died, suddenly. She said she didn’t feel well and went upstairs to rest. … Continue reading
“Are you a writer?”
Last weekend I found myself at Louisville’s Writer’s Block Festival, a daylong series of workshops, panels and public readings. Several professional writers, representing both popular fiction and the academic creative writing world, shared their insights. Pulitzer winner Adam Johnson was … Continue reading
Why I Don’t Write Poetry
Ode to the Banjo – A Sonnet Wafting o’er Appalachian hills so low, The sound of angels fills my life with joy; I hear the twang of a five-string banjo, And all my angst and sorrows are destroyed; Gabriel breaks … Continue reading
The Wasp
Edgar lay paralyzed on the rainforest floor; the wasp’s poison worked quickly. He had separated from his group not half an hour before. University researchers, they entered the jungle searching for new species. Frustrated with the group’s slow pace, he … Continue reading
Tina
Tina filled two glasses with Sangria. She handed one to her guest, then leaned back against the refrigerator as she gulped the other. “So I’m walking down the sidewalk last summer and this drunk staggers up, grabs my shoulder and … Continue reading
The One About Kitty
Kitty woke up alone and washed down the day’s first Prozac with a supple ’59 Bordeaux. She carried the bottle with her out to the veranda, where she sat for hours and stared out into the garden. At about noon, … Continue reading
Lester and the Coyote
The coyote – its fur matted, drool trickling from its mouth – crept forward out of the gully’s tall grass toward the unattended toddler in the sandbox. Lester leaned back in his new lawn chair, sipped his beer and watched the … Continue reading
Interview
The railroad manager studied the boy who barged in asking for a job. He needed a brakeman, but the coupling and uncoupling of railroad cars was dangerous work, and the kid looked too young, too green, for the job. As … Continue reading
Verbarostracoidea
Constable Pickwick poked his head into the laboratory. “Any answers yet?” Professor Englebert Willoughby looked up from his microscope. “Well, the shell lodged in the deceased’s ear canal is a bivalve from the order Verbarostracoidea. They’re common worldwide. But you … Continue reading
