The End of Cable News (a double Slim)
all the news
that can break
has broken,
the prompters
are blank, the
pundits gone,
goodbye Coop,
Wolf, Jake, Don.
Smoke on the Water.
all the news
that can break
has broken,
the prompters
are blank, the
pundits gone,
goodbye Coop,
Wolf, Jake, Don.
Love this, Jim! ‘the prompters are blank, the pundits gone’ I want MORE! By the way, you asked me to let you know when New Writing Scotland was out; you can get it here (and I believe they will post outside the UK): https://mybooksource.com/she-said-he-said-i-said-pb.html Or alternatively, if you want to, you can read my story for free at https://www.highlifehighland.com/old-libraries/wp-content/uploads/sites/128/2017/06/Short-Story-Third-Prize.pdf Hope you’re well, Laura 🙂
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Thanks Laura for your comments and encouragement, much appreciated. Just ordered New Writing Scotland through Amazon…will wait to read your story in print, my preferred medium for fiction. Look forward to it! Congrats also on winning a prize! All the best, JIM
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Thanks, Jim. It’s a great anthology so I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. There’s a poem by a friend of mine that I reckon will be right up your street – it uses form but in a fun way – so look out for that, ‘Alphabet’ by Mandy Haggith. Hope you & your family are well. Take care, Laura
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Look forward to reading it! Jim
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HI Laura, Finally got a copy of the Anthology on the second attempt, first one got lost somewhere on the way from Scotland to Vancouver. Just finished reading your story and really enjoyed it. A turning point in a life, loved the subtle manipulation by the uncle and the language of course; ‘the sky with that pale nothingness that comes with midsummer”…this made me feel homesick, and I’m from Dublin. Also I can empathise with the boy’s dilemma, I too have had to sit exams involving fluid dynamics. Well done…JIM
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Thanks so much for reading the story, Jim! I’m delighted you enjoyed it. I’d been thinking a lot about this snobbery we have for learning from books, and how we tend to revere that and look down on other types of knowledge… Having said that, I’m sitting here with a copy of Seamus Heaney’s Field Work, and ready to educate myself 🙂
I’m horrified that you had to order the NWS anthology twice, and I hope you got your money back on the missing one! Have you ever read the Irish literary mag The Moth? I have a few copies of a 2016 issue here and it has a lot of poetry which I think you might like… if there was a way for you to send me your postal address privately then I’d be delighted to post you a copy! Perhaps you could use the contact form on my blog? Laura
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Hi Laura, just sent you a message using the contact form…JIM
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