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FAMILY VALUES: HOME HISTORY IN MEMORIES

The term Family Values gets tossed around often, so often the definition changes. After the events of January 6, I questioned family values in general, American family values in particular. Since we all have different values, different family values seems likely. There were no lock step in my family values growing up and I didn’t […]

BLOG TRAFFIC: BOOMERPDX FROM NATION TO NATION

Blog traffic map via google analytics. The big difference between the top map and every other map of the world is that this one tracks where the hits, the readers, the bots, showing up on boomerpdx originate. It’s a blog traffic map, which isn’t very writerly since geography isn’t about plot, story structure, or how […]

TAKE ME TO UNION STATION AND PUT ME ON A TRAIN

  What is it about train stations, including Portland Union Station, that feel so mournful? The Rolling Stones caught the sorrow with No Expectations. Take me to the station And put me on a train I’ve got no expectations To pass through here again Once I was a rich man Now I am so poor […]

Life Plan? What To Do When Life Moves On

If I read a book I turn the page. That’s how it works with book reading. Turn the page, then another and another until there’s no more pages.   Call that story a page turner.   A life plan when life moves on without you feels the same. Maybe you didn’t turn the page, but […]

BAD TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS REVEALED

Find the right cluster of furniture piled behind a steel fence. If it carries an association with a famous author, all the better. Frame it in and push the button. All done, right? Photography secrets are in plain sight in this example. The fence distorts the view. The frame’s too small to read anything. It […]

MONICA DRAKE: PORTLAND AUTHOR, DETECTIVE, DELIGHT

    Tell me a better Oregon name than Monica Drake, then show me a better story collection.   Oregon Ducks and Monica Drake? Perfect combination. Oregon State Beavers and Monica Nutria? Not so much. In her short story collection, The Folly Of Loving Life, Monica Drake gives TRUTH to this writers’ advice: Only write […]

ORPHAN X AND GREGG HURWITZ: THE HELPFUL ASSASSIN

Who to call when you need help really bad? Orphan X on speed dial.   Move it on over Jason Bourne, there’s a new franchise in town. Ethan Hunt, your next impossible mission is finding Evan Smoak. Good luck. This post will self-destruct in five seconds. Man, I’d better get busy here. Gregg Hurwitz shows […]

WRITING CLASS: THOMAS WOLFE ON BOOMERPDX

Who needs a writing class? Everyone needs a writing class. Written by a baby boomer blogger, this writing class strikes to the heart of communication in written words. It’s a Writing Class, not talking class. Talking comes after writing class. First think about what you are writing, then write. Afterwards find someone to talk about […]

THOMAS WOLFE PACK ON THE PORCH

If you don’t live in a state with a celebrated novelist, go to North Carolina and Thomas Wolfe. This is dark suited Thomas Wolfe, author of Look Homeward Angel, not white suited Tom Wolfe, author of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Same neighborhood, North Carolina and Virginia, but different eras. That Thomas Wolfe was such […]

TIME TRAVELER

BABY BOOMERS SEE YOUR WORLD THROUGH NEW EYES (When a facebook friend is also the first English teacher you had who improved the language, pay attention. In his words:) ‘Home.’ Quite a word. I just traveled ‘home’ with my aging little brother up the Columbia River Gorge to Arlington/Hermiston in Oregon’s high desert. The land […]