Goines On: Toe’s up!

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The very evening of the day Goines had reviled himself for uttering his “T”-cap joke to the landscaper, he stubbed a big toe on the stepping stone the landscaper had recently installed just off the lawn near the composting tumbler, which Mrs. Goines had suggested be positioned near their back porch for his convenience. He didn’t sleep well that night, with a throbbing, electric pain, about level 3 out of 10, but enough to slow his going to sleep, or back to sleep each time he awoke to pee.

Dreams of day and night

Photo by Vic Midyett

By Moristotle

The first is a dream of night, real as real:
    Siegfried has returned from having left us,
    from being gone away,
    his nubby hair stiff in short sprigs
    because it is weeks past his last grooming.
    It feels so real on my imagined finger tips,
    stroking him as he sleeps on top of our covers,
    himself as real as a character in a drama,
    as real as the person he had been for us:
    daily, nightly, always, forever.

Goines On: Nightmare

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Goines seemed to have to race his electric toothbrush to cover an entire quadrant before the device’s 30-second beep. He supposed that perceived time was very slow this morning because he had gone deep into dreamland in the hour or two before arising. His psyche probably couldn’t have delivered the quartet of dreams any other way than by sedating him – otherwise he would have woken himself up to escape them.

Goines On: Time after time

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Goines tried to remember how long ago it was he’d concocted a theory why his battery-powered toothbrush seemed to beep its 30-second signals sooner early in the morning than it did at night. It must have been about a year ago he’d emailed a friend his conjecture that the difference had something to do with variations in the operating rate of whatever device a human brain uses to estimate the passage of time.

Interview: Ed Rogers on his art of storymaking

In the flow

Interviewed by Moristotle

I’ve now edited Ed’s four self-published novels, his self-published collection of childhood stories, and dozens of his essays, poems, and fictional pieces for Moristotle & Co. And his fifth novel, which I’m editing now, is the best yet, I think. That is to say, I’ve had years now to admire his fluency in getting ideas and stories down in words. And, in the case of his novels, I’d go beyond saying I “admire” Ed’s ability to saying I “marvel” at it. For having tried my own hand at writing a novel (and not coming up with much), it’s beyond me to comprehend how Ed does it. How does he make up long, intricate, believable, satisfying stories?
    One way to find out, of course, is to ask Ed, hoping that he isn’t himself at a loss to know how he does it. My questions are in italics.