Blog Posts for John Erwin Doerper

An Ordinary Day in the life of this writer

John Erwin Doerper — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:20:56 -0700

Today was a day like many others, with only a minor difference: I’m fighting off the tail end of a cold season bug, which turned out to be a rather muscular dragon's tail knocking me back down every time I got up. A gentle rain fell as I woke up. It served as a musical backdrop to the crying of gulls, the singing of the resident male robin, and the trilling of song sparrows. Despite a light ...

Dark Places

John Erwin Doerper — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:16:51 -0800

I do not fear dark places, perhaps because I grew up with them. My father was a stickler for turning off unnecessary lights to save power and to please him (and to avoid the rod) I learned to navigate stairways and hallways in the dark. This came in handy as I grew older and began to take long walks in the dark (because at night, I had the back roads and alleys all to myself). My nocturnal route ...

Lavender or Gray

John Erwin Doerper — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:44:53 -0800

I hate Google searches because they kill creative spontaneity by providing instant references to a term or phrase I want to use in a story. Most of these are trivial and would drag my story down or alter its meaning in the popular consciousness. Take this morning's search: I was about to write down the story of a ghostly appearance that has haunted me on and off for almost forty years. I first ...

Drop low the deck beams, carpenter.

John Erwin Doerper — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:02:37 -0800

I learned this week that a plankless deck is of less use than a gateless gate: Beware the laid-back workman. Over the years we’ve had all sorts of workman fixing things around the house: those who drove the neighbors to distraction with the loud Jesus music they played for two weeks, one who appropriated tools, buckets, and other objects which did not belong to him, and three who had to be ...

Giftmas

John Erwin Doerper — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:20:31 -0800

The morning news were once again filled with reports of slick roads, snow in the forecast, and the problems shoppers were having of connecting with merchants. Aping the national media, the local newspaper wrote that “retailers are probably wondering what they did to deserve such a challenging holiday shopping season.... There was also the late Thanksgiving, meaning fewer shopping days between ...

The night the hummingbirds [almost] died.

John Erwin Doerper — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 11:55:54 -0800

I think I saved half a dozen hummingbirds last night. Saying that, I feel a bit like like a presumptuous ass for violating my non-interference rule. After all, I firmly believe that Mother Nature knows best. If she wants to keep an animal alive, she’ll do so without human interference. But it’s been hard not to put out fresh (that is, liquid) nectar for those crazy Anna’s hummingbird who ...

Nearest Book Meme (inspired by Evie Shockley)

John Erwin Doerper — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:21:18 -0800

Nearest Book Meme"Leaf sprays are slender and delicate." Stuart, John D., and John O. Sawyer, Trees and SHrubs of California. California Natural History Guides, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2001.(Gowen Cypress, Cupressus goveniana) Grab the book nearest you. Right now.Turn to page 45.Find the fifth sentence.Post that sentence (with attribution) ...

NaNoWriMo Winner's Circle.

John Erwin Doerper — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:13:27 -0800

At the stroke of midnight my green word count bar turned purple and a winner's certificate popped up. Great. Now I can let this one simmer on the back burner for a while and go back to the project I was working on before 1 November.

Why I have no sympathy for the Detroit automakers.

John Erwin Doerper — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:55:00 -0800

I got my first car in 1963. It was a Chevrolet Corvair. I thought it was swell, but I didn't know much about cars or driving them, and I flipped it onto its roof a few weeks after I got it (unlike most American youngsters I was more into riding and driving horses than cars at the time; I never learned how to fix a car, but I've built a buggy and a wagon from scratch, that is from the wheels ...

My final Nanowrimo Post

John Erwin Doerper — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:26:59 -0800

50,128 I used to do my best work in the quiet hours of the night but I haven't done that for a while because I haven't had to. But with a new project coming up, I decided I'd better cross the Nanowrimo finish line first. I did so at 4:00 this morning. (The novel needs at least another 50,000 words before I dare call it a first draft.) Now I lie me down to sleep....