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READING FICTION IN DECLINE?

March 26, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Reading fiction has been in decline since the first person put a book down and said, “Not for me. Thanks.” A reader doesn’t finish every book. They don’t go into a library with the goal of reading everything. Maybe read everything one author ever wrote, but not everything from everyone. Which brings up one question:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: book, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, challenge, contemporary literary, education, family, fiction, fiction writer, James Joyce, learning, leisure reading, millennials, music, popular fiction, reading, reading fiction, story, well being, wife, William Faulkner, writer, writers, writing

MONDAY MORNING STARTER: COMPLAINING?

March 16, 2026 by David Gillaspie

Monday morning, like every morning of the week, starts with a quick look online to see what’s up in there, to see if anything sticks past the first scroll. What stuck? Complaining. My online peeps are disappointed in their engagement numbers. No one reads their posts. And it hurts soooo bad.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: acting, art, baby boomer, complain, complaining, complaint, dancing, drawing, engagement, essays, faceless public, failure, fiction, frustration, monday morning, music, online, online engagement, painting, poetry, pubic, reportage, sculpting, singing, Social media

GET TO THE WRITING POINT

December 26, 2025 by David Gillaspie

People who feel like their head might explode in the middle of the night because their brain won’t calm down need to get to the writing point. No writer has ever felt the internal pressure in their mind because they’ve already gone over things. Gone over, and over, and over, and over. Let me rewrite […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, boomer blogger, boomer kids, boomerpdx, fiction, new yorker, non-writers, opinion, over and over, Portland, Portland Oregon, public education, revision, rewrite, sentence structure, shared history, story, surveillance, teachers, writer, writer's worth, writers, writing, writing point, written memory, WWII

JOURNALISM WORK FOR ONE AND ALL

May 14, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Journalism work helps everyone understand things better. Take any topic, any story worth telling, and a journalist will find it and write it. That’s what they’re famous for, digging up sources and context and turning them into coherent writing. They are also famous for making mistakes, taking short-cuts, and telling one side. That’s why everyone […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: blog, blog posts, clicks, education, fiction, history, journalism, journalism work, journalist, learned, likes, literature, mass communication, media landscape, modern journalist, new journalism, news, news writing, non-fiction, professionalism, smart phone, Social media, social responsibility, solo journalist, twitter, twitter account, viral, work, write, writer

KEEP GRINDING, WRITERS

August 14, 2023 by David Gillaspie

“Keep grinding’ is the message all writers tell themselves, but not out loud. Instead, what they say is their word count for the day. Maybe it’s a thousand, maybe more. The message they send is keep grinding.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: accolades, blog, blogger, Blogging, fiction, grinding, keep grinding, literary journals, MFA programs, nonfiction, novel, poetry, real writers, reassurance, short story, submission, the grind, work ethic, write, writing

PERSONAL MEMOIR, NOT THE OTHER KIND

December 9, 2022 by David Gillaspie

Personal memoir says, “Too few people take the time to explore themselves thoroughly.” Unless you’re married. Then it’s too little exploring, too much exploring, what’s with all this exploring, what are you, a narcissist? Funny you’d ask.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: audience, baby boomer, bending time, blogger, BOOMER, boomerpdx, embarrassing, fiction, memoir, narcissist, personal memoir, puzzle, satisfied, stumbling block, time, writer, writer's puzzle, writing

FATHER FLAG ON MEMORIAL DAY

May 31, 2022 by David Gillaspie

My father flag is different than the flag shown at public gatherings. His flag was a country boy’s flag, an athlete’s flag, a Silver Star Marine’s flag. This Memorial Day I thought of him while I raised the flag. For me he is the reason for Memorial Day.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: athlete, baby boomer, Baby Boomers, BOOMER, boomers, country boy, fact, father flag, father's flag, fiction, flag, gun law, guns, jan. 6, Marine, memorial day, NRA convention, president, trump, urban scum

ADULT COSTUMES OR THE REAL DEAL

October 31, 2021 by David Gillaspie

Adult costumes on Halloween are not the problem. The problem is the costume adults wear the rest of the time. You know the ones I’m talking about, where everyone looks normal? Or at least normal for them and their friends.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: adult, adult costume, body armor, election, fiction, friends, glock, good guy, guns, walther