Ryne Douglas Pearson's Blog, page 27

Courier

Yes. I like the font. You're reading it now. I'll be the first to admit it's not purty like other fonts--I'm talking to you Times New Roman. But there's something so clean and basic about it. It's the mark my ancient Royal leaves on a piece of paper wound into its carriage. Or close enough. It's old, and stodgy, and stripped down, like a an octogenarian before a colonoscopy. To me it's the font that says 'stop messing around and start reading.'

It's a mean little typeface.

Stories Are Everywhere

Even if they are never widely told. Example--at a recent garage sale I found a small oil painting, maybe 18x12. It's a portrait of a bespectacled US Army sergeant, very serious looking. The late artist's name is difficult to make out, though I believe I have tracked him down. But what strikes me about this is the date, March 3, 1945. The war in Europe was winding down, its counterpart in the Pacific to drag on just a bit longer, and someone, somewhere, stretched canvas over a small wooden...

Kindling Without A Kindle

I surprised myself a few days ago. I told myself long ago that I would never read a book on a tiny screen. On my iPhone? No way. Undoable. Just plain silly.

Then, while waiting for a meeting to begin, boredom set in. I saw that Kindle app that I had installed just to have it (even though I would ever, ever read anything with it on my phone) and I wondered, just out of curiosity, what books might be on there. Now, I do use the Kindle app on my iPad, and I thought, maybe, some of those books...

I Miss Rod Serling

Every Twilight Zone episode, whether based upon a short story or not, was like watching a short story. At least for me. I think that's why the show's appeal has endured for so long. It was, and is, the boob tube equivalent of Analog or Amazing Stories or Omni (if you don't know what those are, fire up Google), and though Serling, who died far too young at the age of 50, didn't write every episode, his vision brought the stories of Matheson and Hamner and Beaumont into living rooms.

Now, we...

Comfort Books

Like those movies that get popped in the DVD player again and again, the books I seem to reread at least once a year are IT, the Stephen King masterpiece (and truly a piece of great American literature), The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

What I find interesting is that there is no recent (last twenty plus years) fiction that has grabbed me as these novels have. I wonder if this is a product of a more youthful nostalgia toward the stories that...

Ordinary People

No, not the Robert Redford directed classic. I'm referring to the characters who populate my writing. Only recently have I realized that I have a tendency to choose...ordinary names. Typical everyman and everywoman monikers. A plethora of Davids and Janets and Michaels and Christines and Adams and Annes. Only occasionally do I throw caution to the wind and throw in an Ariel or a Mathias.

Tomorrow, I break this cycle. Someone's gettin' named Mordechai whether they like it or not.

Writing -- The Bacon Factor

I suddenly appreciate the ability of my house to drive scents from far flung corners directly to my office. This morning a mix of hickory and apple wood smoked bacon crossed that divide and snaked down the hallway and slithered under my door to stop me mid paragraph. My head swiveled almost unconsciously to the right and I stood, leaving a character's words hanging. Through the door, down the hallway, a series of turns and past my daughter playing a game on my wife's iPhone.

And there it was. ...

Changes....

Changes to the site underway. Including the name!