Enter now to win a first-run AUTOGRAPHED COPY of “A History Remembered by No One,” the debut collection of stories by Will Carlson. “A History Remembered by No One” spotlights both intimate personal accounts as well as universally-shared experiences in a coming of age tale that spans the 21st century. Whether growing up in a…
Category: Writing
“A History Remembered by No One” Now Available as a Free Kindle Ebook
Like free books? (And who doesn’t?) For the next five days everyone can pick up a free ebook version from Amazon of my debut book, a collection of stories entitled “A History Remembered by No One: Stories by Sea and Land!” Each life has tied to it a history– but how much of each person’s…
“Into the Memory Hole”
I. The weeds need pulling—for the sake of the crop. The little two-by-five foot plot at the edge of yard, in the only section that gets any dependable light, is overrun after another week of neglect. Grasping handfuls of the unwanted shoots I wonder the purpose of weeds, if they are knowingly belligerent,…
Virtute et Labore
(the seventh chapter of Shell Games) The new vagabond’s mind rippled outward like a vast, quickly growing web of consciousness catching flies of transcendence, as she flitted in the direction of Albany. Molly Connors was a living, breathing paradox, she realized: alone yet with all things. Another earlier paradox had zapped into her brain…
Tisk
Don’t go looking for Tanokwans today, though. There’s only one left in the year 2016, and he’s out in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, holed up on the second floor of a Howard Johnson. There each day is spent, reading and critiquing every word Henry James ever wrote—even a pile of the author’s yellowed, crumpled notes…
The Lucky and the Sublime
(the fifth chapter of Shell Games) The great town seal of Blandis depicts a man on his knees, his hands raised joyously toward a mountain with the sun’s rays shining from behind the tall peak. The year this occurred, 1734, is emblazoned at the bottom. All in all, it’s a very impressive work of…
A Great Mystery
(the fourth chapter of Shell Games) The Rev. Walpole Albright had suggested the universe wished to snuff out dozens, hundreds, or even more of its own creations. Most of the universe’s creations who heard this dire pronouncement met it with a shrug. Yet the promise of eminent destruction lingered with a few of the…
So Sayeth
(the third chapter of Shell Games) England and its North American extremities also spoke much a similar language. One wrote to confess it was growing very tired of seeing only subjects’ backs; the other replied it was equally leery of losing the necessary leverage and independence an arm affords. Another volleyed folly eventually ensued….
“Life–A Poem, About Possibilities”
written August 1996 Life is like a joyous ride That very few have really tried Life is like a sunrise in the early morn– As fresh as when the world was born. Life is like the height of mid-summer’s day– The kind of place you’d forever like to stay Life is like a bud of…
“The Tale of the Two Deaths”
written December 4, 1996 I had known the outcome of my incarceration the moment of my capture. Being an officer of higher rank, I was relegated, along with several of my comrades, to the fortification of Los Cuevos. At the the sound of those words I knew my fate my secured. Los Cuevos was…
Blank White Page
written December 1, 1999 So we meet again, blank white page. I thought I just got rid of you. Well, you’re out of luck, my creative self isn’t home. No, I don’t know when he’ll be back. Could be awhile. A week to write a story, I think as I walk home from…
No One Will Believe You 