A brief line from my novel Nod, Virginia:

He was thirty-three years old, certainly old for a beginner teacher but the Ice-Cream Stop had burned down and he didn’t have insurance or the wherewithal to rebuild and teaching had seemed like a good idea.

Note: Above is a picture of the real Ice-Cream Stop here in Abingdon. It is, in reality, in fine shape!

Another line from Nod, Virginia:

Carson, head still plunked on the steering wheel, reached into the glove-box for his flask of liquid courage. He turned it up and gulped, felt the burn, imagined melting like that bitch witch in The Wizard of Oz.

Perfect Day.

Emma at Seabrook Island

“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling. This, however, is not generally a part of the domestic apparatus on the premises. I think myself that the thing might be managed with several pails of Aspinall and a broom. Only if one worked in a really sweeping and masterly way, and laid on the color in great washes, it might drip down again on one's face in floods of rich and mingled color like some strange fairy rain; and that would have its disadvantages. I am afraid it would be necessary to stick to black and white in this form of artistic composition. To that purpose, indeed, the white ceiling would be of the greatest possible use; in fact, it is the only use I think of a white ceiling being put to.” --G.K. Chesterton

Currently reading, oh, three different things: On Being Catholic by Thomas Howard (really good 3/4 stars), Sorrow Floats by Tim Sandlin (excellent; Tim shares my demented aesthetic--or I share his...); and Lord of the Barnyard by Tristan Egolf (barely started this one--fantastic thus far; plus the author's name is cool).

Just trying to figure out how to combine my disparate (?) muses: Catholicism, hillbillies, absurdities, super heroes (see Catholicism), and redemption (sort of ties in with Catholicism). Hmmm, maybe my muses aren't so disparate after all. But how to combine them in an interesting, slightly subversive, and original way--that is the task. Plus, I do want people to read the thing, so how to make it appealing on a large scale. Hmmm. Hmmm.

Walker Percy's Lost in the Cosmos is quite good. You should check it out. Really. Gotta see this documentary on Walker.

I felt fall in the air this morning. Football, turning leaves, sweater golf: good for the soul.

Starting off this morning listening to a little Fang Island. Gonna try to get a 1000 words on Nod. It's so very odd, this world. The scene I'm working on takes place in a cemetery atop a hill in Nod. Looks kinda like this:

Fred, Carson's best friend and brother-on-law is circling above the cemetery in an ultralight. Fred's rather a simpleton but makes good homemade beer and is a back to basics type. A good bloke. Picture John C. Reilly and you've got a good idea what Fred looks like.

Good Friday to ya.

From Nod, Virginia

Carson read Riley Shine, DOB: August 20, 1972; DOD:? Carson replaced his glasses and his name reappeared on the headstone: Carson Nod, DOB: August 20, 1972; DOD: August 20, 2012. Sweat pouring down his face and running in rivulets down his bony back, Carson contemplated having only two weeks to live and of dying on his birthday. Well, this certainly sucks, he thought.