Kurt R.A. Giambastiani's Blog, page 37

Brick by Brick

Typing. Deleting. More typing. More deleting. MOAR typing. Delete delete delete. Delete it all. Every last word, comma, and period. That was yesterday. I was working on an essay for this blog and … it wasn’t going well. I was working on a topic that had been rolling around in my head for a month. […]

Retro Fingerplay

While I’m working on something more meaty, here’s a bit of fun. Like most people my age, I learned to type on a manual typewriter, an old Smith-Corona, to be precise. It was heavy — damned heavy — and came in its own nearly-as-heavy hard-sided case. It had a black-and-red ribbon that always got twisted, the […]

Old Soldier

——— the tiny blade twice my age still has a bite that shaves red cedar from my blunted pencil to reveal its black heart and sharpen my wit ———

Taking a Second Look

Last week we screened Logan, the latest movie starring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. (I was on vacation … don’t judge!) You all know I’m not a big fan of comic-book-inspired films, but Jackman has always surprised me with his talent — in comedies, musicals, and dramas alike — and from the trailer, this one looked […]

Capellini alla Carbonara

I learned to cook from my father. He thought there was one temperature setting: Volcanic. He cooked everything fast and hard. “Braise” was not part of his vocabulary. It took me a long time to unlearn that — burning through too many pieces of non-stick cookware was part of that re-education — but now I thoroughly appreciate […]

The Brie and I

Despite its many advocates, I loathe brie. Even so, every year or two, when the opportunity presents itself, I give it another try just to see if, somehow, my taste buds have changed and I now agree with the world at large. To date, I still don’t like brie. I was reminded of this today […]

Names: Addendum

It's clear that some readers disagree with my characterizations of the names I'm using.

The Alchemy of Names

It began, as it often does, with Sam and Janet.

The Dread

Starting a new novel-writing project is daunting. Every time. Every damned time.

Softly, Softly, Catchee Monkey

You might have noticed a bit more poetry on this blog of late. There’s a reason for this. If I’m to be brutally honest, these past four years I haven’t been much of a writer. My last novel came out in late 2012, and since then — aside from the posts, vignettes, and poetry on […]