Warren Bluhm's Blog

The Coming of Meteor Man (Part 3)

Let’s say there was this guy walking barefoot through his house when a meteor crashes in his backyard.

There’s a glowing rock in the middle of the crater, and it’s warm to the touch when he picks it up. Why would he do that? People do dumb stuff all the time — why not pick up a glowing meteorite in your own yard?

But where did the meteor come from? Why did it transfer superpowers to the finder? Are dark forces at play or forces of light and justice?

And who is the sultry next-door n...

The reason I write (Part 2)

Eventually every book about writing gets to the point of saying, “Everybody doubts themselves.” Everyone who wants to put words together sometimes wonders why they even bother because there are millions of books and countless writers and how can I possibly write something to compete with everyone who’s already out there blah blah blah blah blah?

Huh. Why DO we put ourselves through this?

Between that last sentence and this one, I did a mini-deep dig into my memories and remembered that...

How writing happens (Part 1)

I browsed back in my Kindle and found a book called Stop Worrying, Start Writing by Sarah Painter. I was surprised, when I opened it, to find I had closed it last at the 92% mark — meaning I had already read most or all of it. (Update: I later checked my “Books Read” log and found I had read it in October 2020.)

I read to the end and started over, reading the first four chapters until I got to the part where she says that almost every book about productivity — writing or otherwise — event...

The questions of 1,000 dreams

It’s all waiting for you, all the stuff, all your plans and dreams — there they are, waiting patiently — they don’t mind if you do or if you don’t, they just wait — ready — waiting —

What are you going to do?

Here it is: The first day of the rest of your life — the first steps in a journey of 1,000 miles — the opening round of the fight of your life. 

Are you going to get started? Are you ready? Those are two different questions, you know. If you wait until you’re “ready,” you may n...

‘Keep a mailing list’

“We only have this time, each of us, 70 or 80 years, if we’re lucky. What’s the point of hiding?” 

That’s the last quote in an interview with Bill Callahan, linked by Austin Kleon in his weekly email newsletter. https://pitchfork.com/features/profile/bill-callahan-shepherd-in-a-sheepskin-vest-interview/

That’s an awesome thought. So what’s the point of putting the quote at the end of an artist interview that will take a few minutes to read, where many people will never see it?

I kno...

Calm down and take a soma

 Orwell © Idiltoffolo | Dreamstime.com

The “big three” dystopian novelists, I believe, are Orwell, Huxley and Bradbury. In many ways we live in Orwell’s totalitarian dystopia; in many ways we live in Bradbury’s book-burning dystopia; but I think Huxley and his soma-induced dystopia may be closest.

Here is a magic pill to take away your pain; here is a magic pill to make your sex life better; here is a magic pill to clear up your skin, to clear out your lungs, to help you sleep, to keep you...

That was then

“I can’t …” but of course you can.

“We never …” but this time you might.

“I’m not …” but you can become.

Let go of the past and see the future.

Watching: Stay Close

There’s a meme out there where Netflix says, “Hey you want to watch a 10-hour movie?” and the obvious response is, “Heck, no.” To which Netflix replies, “What if I split it into eight parts and you watch them one after another,” and the response is, “Damn you, I’m in.”

Red and I watched the first part of Harlan Coben’s Stay Close on Thursday night. We were tempted to watch the second part of this weird, twisting and turning thriller, but we thought better of it.

Early Friday night I sa...

A whisper of peregrination

It has been a sedentary couple of weeks as I have fended off what I insist is a typical winter cold, mainly because I have never had the fever that heralds you-know-what. Perhaps I would be decried as Omicron Superspreader, supervillain extraordinaire, except that I have been working mostly from home and have kept to myself during my forays into The Office.

The main hangover from this cold is an ugly-sounding cough that won’t go away. “OMG,” I hear you whispering, “He really does have … I...

Summer the Kind

Summer the puppy loves to have something in her mouth. She is always gnawing on a bone or a doggie toy, and her first move upon going outside is to snag a brown leaf or a twig off the ground to carry about, like a stereotypical hayseed with a toothpick hanging out the side of her mouth.

A month into winter, few signs remain of her namesake. Summer would be a distant memory if we didn’t have a puppy named Summer to warm up the house. Another cold front is swooping in and Thursday’s high is...