Guns & Magic

 

Kingsblood Royal by Sinclair Lewis. The satire was funny, overall, but the main character bored me past my literary endurance.

 

-David

 

Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis.

 

Before that, I read a couple more photography books:

 

-David

 

On the Other Side of the Camera by Arnold Crane.

 

The best thing about this book is that by photocopying the table of contents I now have a comprehensive reading list of 20th century photographers.

 

-David

 

Imogen Cunningham: Ideas Without End: A Life in Photographs by Richard Lorenz.

 

-David

 

Little Saigon by T. Jefferson Parker.

 

-David

 

The Silent Assassin by Lori Andrews.

 

Two books picked at random at the same time … and both of them were barely readable. What dreadful luck.

 

Here’s hoping the next book on my stack, picked up at the same library but on a different day, won’t suffer from the same sophomoric failings.

 

-David

 

Into the Inferno by Earl Emerson.

 

Sometimes, when you pick a book at random off the library shelfs, you get a classic of modern literature. This wasn’t one of those times.

 

-David

 

A friend asked me why I dropped out of the current writing contest. Here’s my response:

 

The simple explanation for “dropping out” (my friend’s words) involves the phrase “fit of pique”.  ;-)  My story ranked 11th out of 13.

 

The longer explanation involves mathematics. Falling so low in the first round, the only way to get to the third round would be to come in on top of my group in the second round–and that the people who scored high in the first round all bottomed out in the second. And that combination seemed very unlikely. So I opted to drop out. I did come up with a story based on the 2nd round criteria. I just didn’t write it. Spent the afternoon and evening instead reading and hanging out with my wife (we sat on the back porch and chatted a lot and later watched Fido, a funny zombie movie).

 

I don’t think the low ranking of my story was from the quality of the writing, though. I think the judges scored genre very strictly, and my chick-lit/drama fell outside what the judges considered “romance”. I won’t see the feedback from the judges for weeks, though, so that’s just a guess. It’s possible the judges simply hated my story. But I don’t think that’s it.

 

After this, I’m thinking I’ll go back to my pre-2008 stance of not writing for contests. Especially contests that dictate (random) genre, setting & “prop”. I’ve never liked “writing exercises”, and that’s what this kind of contest feels like to me.

 

-David

 

The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman.

 

-David

 

Group #16
Challenge #2 Assignment

 

GENRE – Drama

LOCATION – A beach

OBJECT – A wheelbarrow

 

I’ll think of something.

 

-David