Afternoon writes - fuelled by coffee and cake.

A dust cloud kicked up from the road. A red half-ton was coming fast. “Sam?” Sam ignored the road and her knocking on the door turned to hammering. “Sam,” Thom repeated. “What?” The half-ton barely made the turn, its ass-end swinging out and spewing dirt. “We should get to the truck.” Thom said. Sam took a step back, balanced her weight, and kicked the door in. “Or that.” “Let’s go.” She pushed Thom into the house. - Sam’s Song - Wip

Rejected New Yorker cartoon.

From the writer of Biscuits' Revenge...

I’d had nights similar to this one, where I found myself in a place that didn’t seem quite real. I guess the psychologists would call it surreal. It didn’t matter. Years ago, a friend returned from a trip across the pond, Scotland, I thought. He described to me the time he’d spent in the thin places. “Thin? Like a narrow street?” I’d asked. “It’s a place where our world bumps up against the next one.” - Sayulita Sucker - Thin Places

"touching on the darkness of human souls... traces of Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy? ... a discussion of “thin places” – locales where the boundary between worlds is permeable." You see, some folks might think I'm just fucking around with Luke Fischer. And maybe in the beginning I was. But as I develop the series (and develop as a writer), things I care about sneak in. That is why a review like this means so much to me. Bob is a very smart reader (and yes, a writer, and yes, a friend), but what he points out in the work is what I'm stretching for. Of course Fischer is there to entertain. But it also to explore - for me internally, and for readers externally. It's true, this is who I am. And it probably keeps me from ever being a mainstream crime writer. It just doesn't fit the formula. And I am really ok with that. I think all of us writers are a bit like this. We are exploring the world and what we think about things (to reference the Anne Carson quote from the other day.) Thomas Trang is exploring it on Mars, Carlotta Dale in paranormal L.A., Bob Armstrong in the West and beyond. Stories are who we are.