The relaunch for Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors is just about ready. Despite starting a new job this morning and a busy weekend ahead, it should be available sometime this week. I’m finishing up some proofing, and the changes are few.
Thanks again to everybody who sent a road trip essay. One of the things I found very interesting was the lack of essays from youth — only one person sent a story from when they were young. Most of them are from younger times, though, reminding me of some of the trips that shaped me in early adulthood.
Working on the relaunch has made me wish I could just hop in the car and drive. But there’s a new job to start this morning, and the commute is 1/5 of the past job’s drive…so I can’t even daydream that I’m on the open road. But it should give me more time to write, and I look forward to that!
I hope everybody has a great week!
Road trip stories from my youth would be suspect. I am sure I would misremember much of it, and I’m also sure that if we did have any mishaps or misfortunes, I, as a child, was insulated from understanding it.
Better to have misfortune as an adult when I can taste and savor it better!
The only one I can remember from my youth was in a Ford Pinto from… somewhere… to… somewhere else. That’s the whole story, right there, though I think I might have seen a buffalo.
Yeah, my memory of my childhood is pretty suspect. All good stuff, I suspect — at least nothing traumatic that sticks out, so I can be thankful for that.
My road trip essay reads like it’s from my childhood, but it’s actually from my adulthood. A couple details are exaggerated, but that’s what writers do . .
Paul: Well, you essay gave the essays and international flare, and having an adventure like that as an adult is definitely something to savor!
You took a road trip in a Ford Pinto and then say nothing traumatic ever happened to you on those old road trips?!
A road trip in a Ford Pinto is plenty traumatic!
CMS: Yep, I agree. Conversations, thoughts, and even events are blurred, so I’ll make things up as well. Nothing like, “And then came the ninjas in the men’s room at Stuckey’s,” but, obviously, I can’t remember the exact conversations and other things from the time. So…I shoot for things people would have said, and maybe really did. I try capturing the feel of things when looking back, but if stretching things, here and there, benefits the tale…well, then… 🙂