As With Wet Tears In Rain

That line is a part of a poem I wrote after seeing BLADERUNNER a quarter century ago, the scene with Rutger Hauer at the end, the rhyming couplet was, if I recall correctly, "the stutter of poets insane." I'm still around, not purposely hiding from this particular microverse. I'll have something interesting to write soon. Threats, always with the threats...

Things To Do In Denver When You're Dust

Stolen from the Andy Garcia film set in Denver, my fictional home away from home, and a movie with probably the finest performance by Treat Williams. Well, the decimation is complete. Bob and Kate have on several occasions chided me on tossing out things I might one day regret. Rest assured, the important stuff will be on display in my abattoir again soon. I'll likely relegate the paperbacks to the crawlspace next to the vats of quicklime. As for now, the room is still caked with dust, a similar kind as I see and smell at the graphics shop, its in my ears and in my eyes and I generally feel like Kharis, the Mummy. Hell, I look like him on my best day. The first two photos reflect the dust layered on my jar of several doll heads ( my nieces very much were intrigued by tearing action figures apart when they were younger; I couldn't do the same with my fake-bearded G. I. Joes, the heads were kept taut by rubber bands. I used to hang them from my bedroom window instead, after the commanding officer discovered them with my sisters' Barbies, Midges, and the forgotten Mattel doll of the 70s, Malibu P.J.). Then you see the various bottles in my woeful bottle collection: Night Train (which you can mix with the light blue Aqua Velva to make the $1.77 bottle last longer), Kentucky Nip, and an odd concoction simply called The Drink, a skeletal Elvis warning us "Be Careful Who You Idolize." Next to that, the Elvis candle I received from my cousin Deke Rivers after my novel was published in 1992. Guess my idolization has doomed me already. Next comes the painting, the removal of crappy furniture, and a nice TV and DVD player in my laboratory. I have finally resigned myself to the technology of the new century. And once upon a time, my letterhead read "I Will Flatline Before I Go Online." That was until October of 1997. I suppose a decade later, a DVD player might be in order...Wayne

A Midnight Dreary

I had been talking with Sid about finding books or magazines I had stories or poems in, and how sometimes I meet (or become email-pals with) someone who had also been a contributor. Like a string theory of intersecting careers. Charles Gramlich and I are in the same book featuring Poe-inspired poetry, published on the (I think) 150th anniversary of THE RAVEN seeing print. The second poem/photo montage is by J. Christiano, and was presented to me at a surprise party following the publication of THE HOLY TERROR in April of 1992. The film WAYNE'S WORLD was in theaters at the time, and it was one of the few gifts I received that was not related to that Saturday Night Live skit. Still deciding what to keep and what to doom---Wayne

Is It Warm There In The Magazines?

Still getting rid of a lot of things, paving the way for my new less-cluttered life. I even put some books in a pile of dirt in the house foundation next door, encased in plastic, an odd little throwaway time capsule. About the only shelf remaining intact, although moved around a bit, is that two shelves containing every book, magazine, and comic I've ever been in, along with books by fellow friends and authors Sid Williams, Yvonne Navarro, Brian Hodge, Charles Gramlich, and Marty Mundt. (As can seen by the middle photo, a few books I had to hold onto, if not for sentimental purposes, at least for future research...)

Not In Metropolis

I had planned on writing about Bubbly Creek, as Larry had me dig up my old photos of the creek o' stockyard revenants. Then Bob Smith, that Hemlock Man (as opposed to that Mitchum Man), asked about that Beppo drawing. I am very good friends with painter Alex Ross, who is known as much for his comic art as he is for the models he uses for specific heroes and villains. You can see me as a UN delegate in SUPERMAN: PEACE ON EARTH and in the background (behind a Superman) in the futuristic KINGDOM COME. The coolest thing was when Alex took photos of me a few years back, my head and shoulders from various angles. In the current issue of JUSTICE, it pays off as hundreds of Brainiac robots are torn apart by tons of heroes over a two-page scene. The close-up here includes Donna Troy, who I am sure has a human counterpart walking the streets of Chicago, hopefully not ready to beat the crap out of me if I approach her for a date.

NOT IN PORTLAND

Been a few days since I made an appearance here. Nope,I didn't get on that Greyhound to Portland. Meth City. The city Richard Kimble ran from Lt. Gerard in three separate episodes. Earl Emerson wrote a book called THE PORTLAND LAUGHER, but during the course of the book, you find out that Emerson took that phrase from a radio show host from that Oregon city. (Sid Williams sent me some of the Emerson Thomas Black mysteries when I was recovering from blood poisoning in my right elbow back in '01. So I copied him by stealing my blog title from an episode of LOST. This is a rambling post, the result of my (still here at work) putting in 27 hours in two days. But at least it keeps me off the bus to Portland. I got me a bridge and a noose waiting for me there, when this life doesn't need me anymore...Wayne