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Supervising the Rewrite

10 Sep 2013 by KRAG

Kurt R.A. GiambastianiAs I’ve been working on this story, re-creating it from an older model, I’ve been watching over my work. Supervising, if you will.

Overall, the new version is half-again as long–originally around 8,000 words, it now clocks in at about 12,000–and I wondered if that was just because I added a scene here and there.

So I took the opening section. The action is the same. The first and last lines of the section are the same, like fenceposts. But the rest of it has been entirely rebuilt, rewritten, similar only in structure and in what happens. So, what’s the word-count for each version? Continue Reading »

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Golden Cayenne Hot Sauce

09 Sep 2013 by KRAG

Golden CayenneA friend of mine runs OACA Pepper Farm, and he shared a great recipe for a hot sauce that uses carrots, onions, and habanero chili peppers. The carrots give sweetness, the habaneros the heat, and it comes out orange, tangy, and very good.

When my garden started providing me with golden cayenne chili peppers, I thought I might try a twist on the OACA recipe. Keeping with the a la page concept, I considered my options as to what might work well with the intense, almost candy-colored yellow of the golden cayennes. The answer came at a BBQ during Labor Day weekend: corn.

I whipped up a batch of this yesterday, and it’s yummy.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Food, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Recalibration

05 Sep 2013 by KRAG

Mahonia after rainSo far, the results from my poll on subscriber interest and visiting schedule have been small but consistent.

Readers who expressed an opinion, said that they visit about 3 times per week, and want more writerly content–actual writing, or discussions on writing.

What prompted me to ask these questions? Continue Reading »

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Happiness, Music, Joy

04 Sep 2013 by KRAG

GakuI once knew a girl.

She was beautiful, with happy eyes and apple cheeks and long, black hair. She was quick to smile, her eyes turning into crescents, her laugh quiet and shy, like a secret. She was quiet, like me, and thoughtful, unafraid of deeper questions. She played the violin, not very well, but well enough to enjoy the challenge, the process, and the camaraderie of the shared anguish of second violins. From my seat in the viola section, we would share a glance, a wink.

She was kind. When I told her of my growing affections, she suggested we take a different course. I decided my life was better with her in it, and agreed. We remained friends, wrote letters, flirted without romance, talked of life, of dreams, of the future.

In time, though, our paths diverged. Other loves and other dreams led us both away from our hometown. Our letters grew infrequent, then stopped.

Decades passed.

Then, a note. An email. Is that you? Do you remember me? Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

One for the Books

03 Sep 2013 by KRAG

The simplicity and durability of the codex book is hard to match. A decidedly low-tech marvel by today’s standards, a book is still a nearly magical thing.

I have books in my house that are hundreds of years old. I have one was made in the early 1700s. That’s three centuries, my friend. And all of them still work.

The printed book has held many secrets. A lover’s note hidden between the leaves. Scribbled  marginalia penned by a previous owner. Messages constructed with the first letter of each physical page. Code keys built from characteristics of specific editions.

And here’s a new one. “Fore-Edge Paintings.” Continue Reading »

Posted in Books, Low Tech | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments »

Taking your Pulse

03 Sep 2013 by KRAG

Kurt R.A. GiambastianiOver the Labor Day weekend, I talked with other bloggers about frequency of posts. I wondered what my subscribers might want by way of frequency and topics.

Well, the best way to find out is to ask. So I’m asking.

…and…

Thanks for the input.

k

Posted in Writing | Tagged , | 6 Comments »

You Are Surrounded

30 Aug 2013 by KRAG

Echoes from another time.

“You’re too sensitive.”
“I was just teasing!”
“You need to come out of your shell.”
“You spend too much time in your head.”

When I was young, adults labeled me with words like “shy” and “bookish” which didn’t sound bad but I was pretty sure they weren’t compliments. I had no such confusion with the schoolyard taunts of “pussy” and “faggot.”

These were the judgments pronounced upon me. They were the phrases that defined me. They were spoken so often, I believed them. I believed that I was defective, inferior. I believed that I was somehow less. Even with all my gifts–of concentration, of perseverance, in music, as an autodidact–I still felt that there was something wrong with me because I didn’t fit in, because I rarely spoke up, because I enjoyed solitary activities, because I preferred walking in the hills to traveling with the pack.

So, when a friend recommended Susan Cain’s sociological study, Quiet, I was intrigued.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Books, Culture, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

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