Barry Graham's Blog, page 67

Is writing cathartic for you?

No, not at all. But that’s not why I do it.

Bearing witness

Bearing witness:

"In America we love to kill people. Sometimes it is legal, more often it is not. But, legal or not, the killing is steady. Sometimes it is in self-defense, sometimes it is in a frenzy of rage or fear, and sometimes it is premeditated, planned for hours and days and months in advance.

I’ve watched two killings. I’ve looked in the men’s faces as they died. And many of the other killings happen near me.”

Glasgow altercation

Glasgow altercation:

"About a fortnight later, I was at a show in the Albany Hotel. I was watching the first fight of the evening when somebody tapped me on the shoulder. It was Kevin Wood.

‘So you’ve been saying I sabotaged your show?’ he said coldly. He was the fattest, ugliest, most wart-ridden fuckpig I ever saw. His appearance was the best thing about him.

‘That’s right. Sue me for slander.’ l looked away.

‘You’re asking to get your legs broken, Piers.’

I turned on him. ‘Come out to the car...

Why this is the best time ever to be a writer

I’ve been a published author since 1989. My books have been published by large, medium-sized and small publishers. But some of my best, and best-reviewed, books have taken years to find a publisher. On more than one occasion, editors have told me that they wanted to make an offer but were blocked by the marketing department, who didn’t see obvious or immediate commercial potential (because I don’t write about rich white people getting their feelings hurt).

Over the years, I’ve...

thenocturnalfew:86thatshit:dichotomization:Bonnie’s .38...

thenocturnalfew:

86thatshit:

dichotomization:

Bonnie’s .38 revolver, a gift from Clyde. Engraved “To Bonnie. I owe you one. Clyde 2-28-32”.

thug love

I only wish I could come up with a gift this meaningful.

Reunion

Reunion:

'She looked straight at him, but her face showed nothing. “Listen to me,” she said. “I think you’re going to get your parole. So, you better hear this: keep away from me. Stay out of my way. If I see you anywhere, even by accident, I’ll shoot you in the face.”

Frank kept looking at her but he didn’t say anything. So pretty. Then a lawyer went and said something to Laura, and Frank was led away.As Laura walked out of the prison, the Attorney General’s flunky said, “Laura, I understand...

No place like home

No place like home:

"Where I come from stays the same, even when they’ve knocked down the old houses with no bathrooms and built cell blocks with bathrooms, or gutted the rancid old tenements and sandblasted the outsides and put bathrooms in the insides.

It stays the same, even though the children now have baths and don’t have to wait for their parents to boil a big pot of water and then pour it into a plastic basin. My sister and I used to watch my mother or my grandmother do that - they’d pu...

I'm there when it gets dark, to kill you if I can

I'm there when it gets dark, to kill you if I can:

"It was the accepted wisdom among the kids that, if you were alone in the back court at night, you’d hear the Bogey Man’s song coming from the close. We used to sing it to each other on long summer evenings and scare ourselves shitless. It was an eerie chant which went:

I’m the Bogey, Bogey,

I’m the Bogey Man.

I’m there when it gets dark,

To kill you if I can.

And once, in broad daylight, I was in the back court and he...

Where the law is no law

Where the law is no law:

"A romantic might have said that, when the sun went down, Death prowled the dark and arid streets of Phoenix, searching for people to take. But the truth was something worse: the streets were abandoned, left to themselves. No one controlled them, not Death, not the politicians, not the cops. On the streets at night, you were alone. Anything could happen to you and no one would save you."

Trimet advises you not to shove a friend under a train while you...

Trimet advises you not to shove a friend under a train while you check your text messages.