Posted in Apollo, Apollo 11, Essay, Essays and Non Fiction, Essays and reviews, Literature, Poetry, heroes, literary, memoir, moon landing, personal, space age, space race, technology, writer, writing, writing life, tagged 40th anniversary, Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin, free poem, July 20 1969, lunar landing, man on the moon, Michael Collins, moon, NASA, Neil Armstrong, poem, Tranquility Base, tribute on June 30, 2009 | 11 Comments »
Iconic
The First Man must be humble
yet self-possessed in times of crisis
confident, as one who’s been sorely tried.
Drop him, spin him, shake him
race his heart,
see if he dies.
Undaunted by fame,
puzzled by all the fuss,
natural in the glare.
Stick him in a close compartment,
sling it into the girding dark;
crown him with hero’s laurels
should he return.
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Real space nuts know [...]
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Posted in Dread, Essay, Essays and Non Fiction, Essays and reviews, Fear, God, Horror, Opinions and Rants, Religion, Spleen, confession, depression, humor, humour, inspiration, literary, love, marriage, memoir, personal, relationship, writer, writing, tagged catastrophe, catastrophist, children, confession, Death, despair, Dread, family, Fear, hypochondria, irrational fear, life, mental illness, neurosis, personal, personal essay, psychosis, terminal illness on June 23, 2009 | 9 Comments »
You don’t know what it’s like.
Or…maybe you do.
Living in abject fear, a state of near unbearable suspense, day after day. How wearing that can be. Because that’s what we’re talking about here. A mindset centred around dread, a soul-sucking sense that things are about to fall to pieces and there’s absolutely nothing you can do [...]
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Posted in Essay, Essays and Non Fiction, Essays and reviews, Literature, computer, iMac, literary, movies, podcast, spoken word, technology, writing, writing life, writing room, tagged Apple, changes, FDR, fiction, film, Garageband, iMac, Imovie, internet, Macintosh, maverick, new computer, NIN, Nine Inch Nails, outsider, PC, podcast, reader, readers, spoken word, Steve Jobs, technology, Trent Reznor, trolls, upgrade, writing on June 17, 2009 | 9 Comments »
It’s time.
Time to take that next step and address some of the stagnation that I believe has crept into my writing, seek out new modes of expression.
First of all, that means upgrading the technology I’ve been working with. My old Mac no longer made the nut; it was slow and lacked sufficient memory. Obsolete. [...]
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Posted in Cliff Burns, Literature, Poetry, Prose poems, Reading, Short Stories, Surrealism, Words on Paper, editing, fiction, inspiration, literary, new look, personal, publishing, rut, writer, writing, writing life, zombie, zombies, tagged Andre Breton, Atlas Press, creative rut, creativity, examples of surreal writing, fiction, free fiction, masks, new writing, Paul Eluard, Philip Soupault, Prose poems, short short stories, summer, Surrealism, surrealist writing, The Atomatic Message, weird writing, writer's block, writing, writing tip on June 9, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Last week I joined Sherron out on the patio to keep her company while she made masks. Her materials consisted of old juice jugs and papier-mache. It was fun to watch her work and see faces and personalities emerge from simple plastic containers–the gal possesses an artfulness, visual acuity and imagination that I would swap [...]
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Posted in Books, Essay, Essays and Non Fiction, Essays and reviews, Literature, Mars, Opinions and Rants, Reading, Science fiction, Spleen, confession, genre, literary, novel writing, perseverence, personal, publishing, traditional publishing, writer, writing, writing life, tagged academics, Alpha Centauri, Canadian author, CBC Radio, corporate publishing, cultural nationalism, Czech republic, Fallout, Fallout 3, immortailty, James Patterson, local writer, Lord of the Rings, Mars, Martian colony, Milan Kundera, publishing, Robert Charles Wilson, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Sawyer, Saskatchewan writer, scholars, science fiction fans, SF fans, Stephenie Meyer, traditional publishing, XBox on June 4, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Recently, Milan Kundera raised a few hackles in the Czech Republic by refusing to return to his home and native land to attend a conference devoted to his work. Mr. Kundera stated that he did not wish to contribute to a “necrophile party” made up of academics and scholars, discussing and debating his work.
He also [...]
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