Benefits of Cancel Culture

And you thought it was all about bellowing.

Ryan Long

Story Du Jour #18

All Story Du Jour tales are available online and free! A small offering in these trying times.

Image by Willgard Krause

Teleport Magazine

"The Food of Life" - by Matthew B. Johnson

6,122 words

Conflicting thoughts on digesting a long life. 

Here's a sample of the writing:

"Doctor Percovic?” 

A gentle voice through dense cotton, she was unsure if she’d heard it or imagined it. Soft light began to brighten the world around her as she stirred. Something hard and cold pressed into her back and the backs of her legs. 

 “Are you alright, Doctor?” 

 She opened her eyes, surprised to find she was sitting propped against the wall of the shower. Her head feeling dense and heavy as cast-iron, she turned toward the voice. A face came into soft focus and a soothing hand reached out toward her. 

 “Don’t touch me!” she shouted, recoiling as Lazarus touched her shoulder. 

She tried to stand. Lacking balance, she simply sat back on her haunches, leaning against the shower wall for support. 

“Why?” she croaked.

 Lazarus turned a nozzle protruding from the speckled green tile. A cascade of warm water rained down on them, pulling Marion back to her senses. 

 “Why?” she shouted. 

 “Look at me,” Lazarus said.

Next, a review, then Story Du Jour #19.

John P. McCann Discusses Himself

Yes, it's me. 

What could be better for an hour?

A lot of things, come to think of it: soft music, a pie, a cat and Gorilla glue. But if you'd like to hear a story of the rise, fall, and plateauing of one TV animation writer, then give a listen to my audio interview by Joshua Murphy over at JM Archives.

I discuss my Warner Bros. days, post-Warner Bros. career, and writing books and short stories. If you're thinking of writing for a living, here's a great resource on how not to do it. Give a listen, leave a comment, enjoy rose water and ham.

Cancel Culture Finally Explained

So much chat about canceling this one and banning that one. At last, the sound reasoning behind such dramatic actions is explained.
(Language warning.)

LongBeachGriffy

Book Review: A Thief of Time

A Thief Of Time by Tony Hillerman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Crime, coincidence and culture clash in this tale of secrets, personal loss and theft in the American Southwest.

Navajo cops Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee once again find their paths crossing as stolen artifacts, a purloined backhoe, and a missing person compel the two men to team up in solving intersecting mysteries.

Hillerman's knowledge of the Southwest as well as Navajo ways roots the reader in the world of the story. And while his prose can be spare, it's by no means dry.

"Behind Nakai the sunset had darkened from glowing pale copper to dark copper. Against that gaudy dackdrop, two streaks of clouds were painted blue-black and ragged. To the left a 3/4 moon hung in the sky like a carved white rock."

I'm not a regular Hillerman reader, thus the sense of backstory between the two protagonists left me feeling a little like an invited guest at a family reunion. Nevertheless, the narrative doesn't suffer too badly. The use of Navajo culture to discover clues and weed out false leads lent the tale a unique flavor.

An enjoyable read and well-plotted police procedural.

View all my reviews

Story Du Jour #17

All Story Du Jour tales are available online and free! A small offering in these trying times.

Akin Bilgiç

Agni Online

"Night Beat" - by Lisa Chen

4489 words

Disappearing in Los Angeles is easier than you think.

Here's a sample of the writing:

"Lily read somewhere that the average Korean woman keeps seventeen different lotions and creams on her nightstand, like a sophisticated irrigation system. Sylvia has at least that many creams and ointments sprawled across her vanity, the bigger bottles for expansive surfaces like legs and arms, the smaller jars for trouble spots—elbows, the balls of the feet—and even smaller bottles for her face and neck.

Put Sammy on, will you?" Sylvia calls from the bathroom. Through the door Lily can see her leaning close to the mirror, engrossed in the fine-motor precision needed to apply her glue-on lashes. Lily slides Night Beat out of its paper sleeve, lowers the needle. A pop and hiss before the tom-tom of the bass. The music is like the clinking of bottom-weighted tumblers in a thickly carpeted room.

 Is there a word—German, compound and polysyllabic, probably—that describes the sensation of knowing, at the very moment you are listening to a piece of music, that hearing it again years later will instantly transport you back to this precise time and place? That’s the temporal vertigo Lily feels now, squatting in front of the record player in Sylvia’s low-ceilinged bungalow, Cooke’s voice drowning out the ambient sea-roar of freeway traffic in the distance."


A fine literary selection this week. Another genre soon. 

Raceless in LA

men health.au

All Trained Up and No Place to Run

(Unless You're Running From the Law)

Since Los Angeles has scotched all outdoor sporting activities save mass demonstrations and rioting, I find myself a man alone without a marathon. I'd set my sights on a winter marathon up in Oxnard, but, sadly, they've cancelled due to the old Wuhan Virus. 

Actually, I'm Not Trained Up At All

I was back in February, having run eight miles for the first time in over a decade, lowering my 5k time, and cross-training like a fiend on the stationary bike. But an injury and the COVID blues sapped my zeal. Nevertheless, once again on the rebound, I find that road races are as outmoded as streaking. Virtual racing holds little appeal for me. Who says I ran the time I claim?

Here is My Simple Plan

Training for 26.2 will continue. At such point as I would run a marathon, I will, instead, run from Lot K at the Rose Bowl to the Elmer Smith Bridge and back, then loop the Rose Bowl until I complete 26.2 miles. (Six laps or so.) I invite any and all to observe and second my efforts. Barring fires, floods, pandemics, civil disturbances, or giant insects, I hope to attempt this in late November or early December 2020. 

There. Now I've said. Until then, stay safe and limber.