blue moon—n. 1. the second full moon occuring within a calendar month; 2. informal once in a blue moon: very rarely; almost never. "blue moon." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 31 Aug. 2012. Writing counter-interpolative communiques on the night of a blue moon, the Speculator must observe the same ancient... Continue Reading →
2010
First, a Sincere Declaration of Thanks I’ve spent most of my life running in circles looking for something authentic, then waiting for permission to explore it, and harshly criticizing myself when I didn’t get that permission. Maybe other people have different experiences, but this has been mine, my personal through-line from childhood to the present. ... Continue Reading →
On Envying Other Writers
Dost thou wish to be praised by a man who curses himself thrice every hour? Wouldst thou wish to please a man who does not please himself? Does a man please himself who repents of nearly everything that he does? - Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, Book VIII Most writers will tell you that envying the... Continue Reading →
The Rules of Attraction: a Lesson in the Use of Idiosyncratic Voice
Like most who went to college in the early 1990s, I had the misfortune of first encountering Bret Easton Ellis’ work indirectly via the movie adaptations. I rented Less Than Zero and thought it was okay in a rich-kids-get-the-blues-and-make-bad-life-decisions sort of way. James Spader was simultaneously cool yet annoying. And that pretty much characterized my... Continue Reading →
The Sound of the Sea
* Note: this was written a few years ago, but I never submitted it to magazines. ~ M My enormous, perfumed, fedora-wearing friend, Walter Kaminski, sits across the table from me outside a Starbucks in San Diego and tells me there is no god. I look at him like he’s crazy and he smiles as... Continue Reading →
The Writing Expedition 