Comments:
YouTubes reading stories published in Fresh Words recently. Three or four minutes. There may be more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9mHPK9n1Jk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7CCqYq1DEM
Updating at JC's request. Too many people dead for one thing. Losing Gary Adams and Bill Martindale hurt a lot.
Now have about 300 publications in most genres, most recently monster erotica. https://sites.google.com/site/aberrantword/. The plurality of publishing countries is the UK, followed by the USA and Canada. "smart car" has been translated into Russian and Farsi. A big help has come from Iranian Maysam Kandej. Also published in India, Germany, Iran, Netherlands, Mexico (current Terrror House home - the publisher has traveled a lot).
&*^% ice storm without power for 5.5 days on top of toxic fires and pandemic, but may have it worse than Doug, Sharon and Kitzhaber (cat named after our crap governor). Most of the world has it worse than we do.
We went to visit Don (Mad '61) and Barbara Smith at the their summer home up the Rogue River from Gold Beach after the wedding of our 70 plus hiking buddy in Eugene. While there we hiked, kayaked and took the long jet boat trip up almost to Blossom Bar around where Bill Martindale had his accident. Along the way we saw a bear cub, deer and lots of birds, including eagles. We had hiked the Rogue trail forty some miles upriver as far downriver at Foster Bar. We saw a lot fewer snakes in the river than on the trail. I had a summer job with the highway department in 1964 in Gold Beach. It appears to have changed a little in 48 years. Good place to visit.
Now who has something interesting to report?
Roger Boris Cooper and I represented Madison at Gary Adam's memorial. There was a lot of love and respect from local entertainers and film makers. Gary and Bill Martindale were similar in that they had accomplished so much and yet did not broadcast all that they had done.
Went to Las Vegas and hence to Death Valley on Roads Scholar (formerly Elderhostel) trip. While away heard about Gary Adams. Expected, but still painful.
For pix see gohike.org and find photos from Feb. 5, 2012. In one of the pictures I was smart enough to hide the results of overeating behind the Badwater sign. Scotty's Castle, Ubehebe crater, Zybryskie Point, Mosaic Canyon and like that. Got home on Feb 10 to find all those kind bday wishes.
Profiling has tapered off since the reunion, so it is time for Thanksgiving. Went to my Boring TG (my Boring cousin claims to be in Sandy, but the Post Office knows better - he also claims that all of his relatives are boring). This paragraph is out of order, because I did not want anyone to have to wade through the old dreck to get to the new dreck.
Oh yeah, TG (don't have time to spell Thanksgiving). Thanks for lots of food, being above the ground, friends, rock and roll, swing music, wife, and family. This is not a message from Polyanna, so no thanks to wars, Tea Party, occupy X, politicians in general, and anyone who does not think that seven billion people is not overdoing it a lot.
We are off to Death Valley via Sin City in February. Sounds ominous.
I'm having a lot of fun with the profiles, but I've only got some 6k characters to go. I'd better use them well.
Today 6/8/11 I was reminded of a couple of things. I visited a classmate patient at a local hospital. Seeing the wife with him reminded me of the power of love. Later an 87 year old former jet fighter pilot came around playing "You Are My Sunshine" on his harmonica. I did my dance and we had a little hoedown. Everywhere he went he cheered people up. A small gesture can lift spirits all around. An aside - if you think that "You Are My Sunshine" is a hick tune, listen to the Ray Charles or Aretha version.
A rabbi, a priest, a minister, a very short piano player, a grasshopper, a horse, and a disembodied head get out of a taxi (picture that) and go into a bar. The bartender says "Is this some kind of joke"? This is a metaphor (Greek for "Five or more") for my high school years.
Before I was a music collector, I was heavily involved in producing music. During a music internship with Billy Strayhorn in Toronto I wrote the words to "Take The Train, Eh". The Words are pretty much the same as the title. In the 60s for a short while I was traveling with the Beatles and known as the second Yoko and worked with Paul on several of his songs. John was so jealous, he wrote a couple of songs about me. "I Am The Walrus" refers to my droopy mustache and corpulence at the time and "Nowhere Man" speaks for itself. John was a very mean, spiteful man. You can get the whole story by playing "Got To Get You Into My Life" at 3422 rpm sideways.
Got a bunch of math degrees. Alternate on PSC College Bowl team. Side note - of the four college bowl people, three are dead. All of the alternates are alive. Conclusion based on a small sample - being too smart is bad for longevity. Did time in Eugene. Spent a year in Manhattan (Kansas, that is). Taught at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Married trophy wife Sharon.
Became an actuary at insurance companies in Louisville, Denver and LA. Yes, it was just as boring as it sounds.
Househusband, consultant, program developer and seller (from someone who could neither program nor sell) in marvy Marin.
Moved to LO and watch Perry M and DOOL, got a bunch of volunteer gigs, hike, showshoe. One of the volunteer jobs is occasionally going to the OHSU Balance Lab in Hillsboro and doing bizarre stunts as a control in a Parkinsons study. Example - walking in a circle blindfolded.
Got into the second installment of "Community Writers" in the Oregonian a few years ago. I may have killed the program since they never ran it again. After fighting with the editor, I quit half way through. I liked my article comparing "sinister" and "queer", and the one that they wouldn't print about a fairy tale land resembling Portland (I think it was an alegory - John Leo would know). If I had not quit I was intending to write "Old people - asset or liability" and "US foreign policy - the definition of insanity". The curious could google Doug Hawley Oregonian.
Inspired by Mike Keating to put music collection on computer. Currently at about 113,000 songs from Benny Goodman to Sheryl Crow with lots of Stones and Ray Charles between.
Despite my age, I have the body of a 20 year old. I keep it in the freezer for snacks. Dahmer and dumber. Too soon?
Multiple choice quiz - which picture goes with which job:
Job 1 - Book sales at Booktique.
Job 2 - Roll model / unpaid escort / pusher at Legacy Meridian Park Center.
Job 3 - Manual labor at Tryon Park.
Job 4 - Balance studies at OHSU.
So far have two short stories accepted for mini on-line publications (prolly smaller subscription rates than Mad had studes in our time). Want copies? Email doughawley@hotmail.com. Accepted short story count up to four. Hope to put out a collection of fiction in book form in 2015. One is required to wait 6 months after publishing in literary journals before publishing somewhere else. Story count now up to five or which four are published, one to appear in December. They appear in Insert Literary Mag and Potluck Mag. Latest is in Potluck, my first success with a Sci Fi type story. Soul 2, another Sci Fi type is to appear in Oblong Mag Nov 18.
Writing update Potluck (4x), Insert (2X), Oblong and Short Humour (4X). Because the last two are in Merry Olde, and I've grown a literary beard, I'm now International Author Mountain Man or IAMM for short. Despite being called Santa Claus my lack of any jolly disqualifies me. The Hash story, first accepted, is yet to appear. Fiction On The Web published "Trigger" on Feb 3. You are invited to read and comment.
Up to 20 stories accepted for publication. Mad(ison) Men, a memoir of some high school to appear in Wilderness House mag in July. Other stuff in Wifiles, Fiction On The Web, Synchronized Chaos, Hash and other internet mags of which you have not heard.
Named an unsung hero in Lake Oswego late 2014. They must have heard me try to sing.
I'm now a twit. Only 999,995 followers needed to get me a million.
I was told to update. I now have more publications. See website under homepage. I now have fans in Africa, Europe and Asia - see Nugget Tales.
Namaste Peeps
