IWSG, April 2025: The Varieties of Companions

John Winkelman

I wasn’t sure what I would write about in this post, other than the usual recap of my lack of creative writing over the past month.

Then I saw this video, posted this past Monday (March 31). It is an update on the state of NaNoWriMo, both the event and the organization. To sum up – after several years of struggling, NaNoWriMo is shutting down. There are multiple reasons, but the core issue, even more than finances, is a lack of communication between the various staff and volunteers. Having had many jobs over the years and having worked with multiple organizations, I can say that without clear and open communication channels, no organization with more than one person in it will last long.

IWSG has talked about NaNoWriMo many times over the years, and I have written quite a lot on the event since I first attempted the Month of Writing back in 2013, so no need to recap the past decade of participation.

I am grateful for the good that NaNoWriMo brought into the world, and I am sad that it is shutting down under such unfortunate circumstances.

Anyway.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for April 2025 is: What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or have a beer/glass of wine with?

This was a fun question! Picking characters from almost 50 years of reading fantasy was difficult, but here are my final choices. Which is to say, my choices this week, which are probably different from my choices next week.

The character I would like to have a drink with is Li Kao, from Barry Hughart‘s magnificent Bridge of Birds. I am sure Li Kao would be able to drink me under the table, but that seems to be how apprentice-ships work in Hughart’s books. I don’t think I have the intestinal fortitude to participate in what Li Kao would consider an adventure, and as for fighting him, he is far too much of a pragmatist and would likely assassinate me if events pointed toward us getting in a fight.

I think Gideon Nav from Tamsyn Muir‘s Gideon the Ninth would be an absolute blast on an adventure. She is smart, a superb fighter, and has a wicked sense of humor. She seems a bit mopey when drunk, so not so great as a drinking companion, and she would likely immediately kill me if we got in a fight.

The fantasy character I would most like to fight is Corwin of Amber, from Roger Zelazny‘s Chronicles of Amber. I have no doubt I would lose, but of all the other fantasy characters who are fighters, I believe Corwin is the one least likely to kill me once I start losing. Heck – we might even end up as drinking buddies or going on an adventure.

Have a wonderful April, everyone!

[NOTE: a partially-completed version of this post went live earlier today. This is the updated version. I was distracted in the middle by a sudden need to pump several-score gallons of water out of my basement.]

 

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March 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

At long last, I feel like I am back into the reading groove. Work is, well, just as busy, but less chaotic, and therefore I have the mental energy necessary to focus on quiet things like reading. That is not to say that I am reading quiet books.

I am very happy with my book interactions this month. The five books which arrived are a mind-blowing mix. And the reading was a genuine delight.

Acquisitions

Books which arrived at my house in the month of March, 2025.

  1. Melissa Wray, Small Gestures (Grand River Poetry Collective) [2025.03.14] – Received as a gift from the Grand River Poetry Collective
  2. LeRoi Jones, Home: Social Essays [2025.03.23] – Purchased from Black Dog Books and Records
  3. Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast [2025.03.23] – Purchased from Black Dog Books and Records
  4. Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar [2025.03.24] – Purchased from City Lights Books
  5. Jean Baudrillard (Sheila Faria Glaser, translator), Simulacra and Simulation (University of Michigan Press) [2025.03.28] – Purchased from the publisher

Reading List

Books I finished reading in March 2025.

Books

  1. Barney Rosset, Dick Seaver, Fred Jordan, Mike Topp (editors), The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  2. Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings [2025.03.16]
  3. Melissa Wray, Small Gestures [2025.03.16]
  4. Maria Judite de Carvalho (Margaret Jull Costa, translator), Empty Wardrobes [2025.03.21]

Short Prose

  1. LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), “Cuba Libre”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  2. Kenneth Koch, “Bertha”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  3. Arrabel (James Hewitt, translator), “Picnic on the Battlefield”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  4. Robert Stromberg, “A Talk with Louis-Ferdinand Céline”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  5. Larry Rivers and Frank O’Hara, “How to Proceed in the Arts”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  6. William S. Burroughs, “from Naked Lunch“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  7. Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Carla Colter and Alison Scott, translators), “The Tunnel”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  8. Ahmed Yacoubi (Paul Bowles and Mohammed Larbi Djilali, translators), “The Night Before Thinking”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  9. Brendan Behan, “The Big House”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.05]
  10. Heinreich Böll (Richard and Clara Winston, translators), “In This Country of Ours”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.07]
  11. Günter Grass (Ralph Manheim, translator), “The Wide Skirt”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.07]
  12. Samuel Beckett (Richard Seaver, translator), “The Expelled”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.08]
  13. Robert Coover, “The Square-Shooter and the Saint”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  14. Robert Gover, “from One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  15. Driss ben Hamed Charhadi (Paul Bowles, translator), “from A Life Full of Holes“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  16. Jakov Lind (Ralph Manheim, translator), “Resurrection”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  17. Sławomir Mrożek (Konrad Syrop, translator), “Three Polish Tales”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  18. Pauline Réage (Sabine d’Estrée, translator), “from Story of O“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  19. Richard Brautigan, “from Trout Fishing in America“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  20. Hubert Selby, Jr., “from Last Exit to Brooklyn“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.11]
  21. Georges Bataille (Austryn Wainhouse, translator), “Madame Edwarda”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  22. Michael Rumaker, “Gringos”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  23. Witold Gombrowicz (Richard Seaver, translator), “On the Back Stair”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  24. Chester Himes, “from Pinktoes“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  25. Kenzaburō Ōe (John Nathan, translator), “Lavish Are the Dead”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  26. Henry Miller, “George Grosz’ Ecce Homo“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  27. Curzio Malaparte (Rex Benedict, translator), “Mamma Marcia”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]

Weekly Round-up, March 29, 2025

John Winkelman

Poe, enjoying a rare warm afternoon on the front porch.

[Poe, enjoying a rare warm afternoon on the front porch.]

The current state of things is a constant mental tinnitus eating up valuable brain space which could be much better put to use reading, writing, and appreciating the small moments of beauty which surround us. I have a great many, very negative thoughts about the current state of politics and economics, but those will have to go into their own posts. For right now, the weekly updates will be more about creative pursuits and simple pleasures.

Reading

I have three books open right now: Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America, and China Mieville’s The City and the City. All three of them are blowing my mind in different ways. I can see that I will need to switch from concurrent to consecutive reading if I am to make it through them and retain something of what I have read.

Writing

Much to my surprise, I wrote something this week! As of this writing, I have most of a short story based on a writing prompt from a couple of weeks ago. It’s called “The Other Up” and I think it has legs. We will see when I finish the draft, hopefully this weekend.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Politics, Dreams
Setting: Battlefield
Genre: Adventure

Listening

They Might Be Giants, “Your Racist Friend” from their 1990 album Flood. Seems apropos of the times.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, March 22, 2025

John Winkelman

Red Maple buds against an overcast afternoon sky.

[Red Maple buds against an overcast afternoon sky.]

Another hectic week. Not a lot accomplished outside of work and working out. I spent what little down time I usually have helping my partner set up a new office, which will allow her to move her business supplies out of the storage unit where they have gathered dust for the past two years. That, and some unexpected house maintenance tasks, filled my days and my mind.

Reading

Immediately after acquiring Melissa Wray’s poetry collection Small Gestures, I read it, and it was beautiful! Next I read Portuguese writer Maria Judite De Carvalho’s Empty Wardrobes, which I received a few years back, when I had a subscription to Two Lines Press of the Center for the Art of Translation. Money and space are tighter now so I had to let that subscription lapse, but I still have over a dozen books from Two Lines Press which I have not yet read. And a pile of books from Deep Vellum, and another from Open Letter, and another from Ugly Duckling Presse, and a large pile from And Other Stories, which is the only publisher to whom I have a subscription.

Friday morning (yesterday, when this is posted) I treated myself to an early morning at Scorpion Hearts Club, where I drank two delicious lattes and cracked open Frantz Fanon‘s The Wretched of the Earth, which I picked up a few months ago from Black Dog Books and Records. Only a dozen pages in, and this book is blowing my mind wide open.

Writing

One day I will have the time, energy, and attention span together to write something creative and good, but today is not that day.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Revenge, Fae
Setting: Small Town
Genre: Noir

Listening

Yes, “Leave It”, from their 1983 album 90125.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, March 15, 2025

John Winkelman

Red maple buds on a twig, seen against a hazy blue sky.

[Red maple buds on a twig, seen against a hazy blue sky.]

It’s been an interesting week. The slide into an official, full-blown Christofascist ethno-state continues. I say “continues” because all of American conservatism has been heading in this direction for about the past 248 years, and REALLY the last 532 years.

The most clear-eyed theory states that, rather than 1930s Weimar Germany, we are seeing the USA mimic the late-1990s, post-Soviet Russia. The oligarchs are stripping the country for parts, and already the damage done in last than two months will take years to correct. The only real solution will be to purge the entirety of MAGA and DOGE, and all similar ideologies, from the world, and tax the wealthy until none of them have the financial resources to get involved in politics at any meaningful level, ever again.

In happier news, I just received the first book published by the Grand River Poetry Collective, Melissa Wray‘s Small Gestures. The Collective has about ten more books in various stages in the publishing queue, and more author inquiries are coming in every day.\

Grand Rapids Poet Laureate Christine Stephens-Krieger has been hard at work setting up opportunities and events for Grand Rapids poets. Two coming up in the near future are:

  • Sunday, April 6, 2:00 – 4:00 pm: The Power of Poetry Showcase at the Grand Rapids Public Library
  • Thursday, April 4, 6:00 – 7:30 pm: Grand River Poetry Collective Panel Discussion at the Grand Rapids Art Museum

Reading

I finished The Evergreen Review Reader, which was magnificent, and now I’m on to the next book – Minor Feelings, by Cathy Park Hong, on the recommendation of my partner.

Writing

I have a large pile of old poetry and short stories to investigate to see if any have merit, so that I may edit them. I feel cautiously optimistic and vaguely pessimistic in equal measure.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Portals, Cyborgs
Setting: Virtual Reality
Genre: Fantasy

Listening

Five years ago this week the COVID lockdowns commenced. That five years has been a very long couple of decades.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, March 8, 2025

John Winkelman

Pepper and Poe relaxing on the couch.

[Poe and Pepper, relaxing on the couch.]

Oh, we do live in interesting times. Trump and Musk are very efficiently dismantling the American Empire, which is a good thing, but they are doing so by dismantling America, which is a very bad thing. In the event that we ever have elections again, with candidates who are meaningfully distinct from one another and from the current ball of hagfish slime inhabiting the halls of power, I will vote from anyone who dedicates their career to overturning Citizens United, and putting strict caps on all campaign donations and all campaign spending. Spending is not free speech, has never been free speech, and must never be considered free speech. Free speech is only that which is enjoyed, both in principle and in practice, by all Americans equally. So any laws which act as de facto aggregators of power rather than dispersers of power are per se anti-free speech, and therefore pro-fascism.

Reading

Samuel Beckett. Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Patsy Southgate. Paul Blackburn. Gary Snyder. Carlos Fuentes. Denise Levertov. Boris Pasternak. All of these writers and dozens more besides, in The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966. This book is keeping me sane, for what it’s worth.

Writing

I felt particularly burned out over the past week and so accomplished very little, writing-wise.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Espionage, Super Powers
Setting: Border Town
Genre: Fantasy

Listening

Otis Taylor and his band with an amazing cover of “Hey Joe”, performed at the Kitchener Blues Festival in August of 2014. I have been a fan of Taylor since I first heard one of his songs on local station WYCE back in the early 2000s.

Interesting Links

IWSG, March 2025: A Thing for Just One Day

John Winkelman

I suppose I’m not the only person to find the idea of creative output exhausting here in the cyberpunk hellscape of 2025. Most of my creative sparks last just long enough to make me feel optimistic before being smothered under the latest news of the fascist bootlicks and apartheid fanboys currently running rampant in Washington, DC. But like Sisyphus I keep rollin’ that boulder, while Orpheus sings the blues.

My partner found an unlined journal with paper thick enough that I can use my fountain pens without bleed-through, so I have been scratching out rough drafts of new poems therein. I love my Moleskines, but the paper is just a little too thin for fountain pens.

On the creative front, two things have been keeping me stable this year. First is the ongoing work of the Grand River Poetry Collective, spear-headed by the Grand Rapids Poet Laureate (and my very good friend) Christine Stephens-Krieger. And second, the recurring re-connections with my many creative friends from Back In The Day, particularly with old college friends and co-workers from my several years at Schuler Books, back in the 1990s.

In a bit of fortunate timing, I recently started reading through The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966, which is a collection of the best of the first decade of the Evergreen Review literary journal. Most of the writers in the Review were names I first encountered while working at the bookstore. This coincidence has sent me down a rabbit hole of nostalgia, which is good for re-energizing the writing habit, but perhaps not so good for moving in new directions. Then again, time only moves in one direction (or rather, we only move in one direction through time), so everything old can be new again.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for March, 2025 is: If for one day you could be anyone or *thing* in the world, what would it be?

I have thought about this question many times in the past, though more in the guise of “What would you like to come back as?” This version is much easier to answer, as one day is much shorter than a lifetime, unless I choose to come back as a mayfly.

I think, for one day, I would like to true being a tree, on the southeast  side of a mountain, overlooking a river, in late Spring. Someplace far away from people. Most of all, some place quiet. There is far too little quiet in the world any more.

 

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The Insecure Writer’s Support Group
is a community dedicated to encouraging
and supporting insecure writers
in all phases of their careers.

Weekly Round-up, March 1, 2025

John Winkelman

The view east from Draper Cemetery in Jackson County, Michigan.

[The view east from Draper Cemetery in Jackson County.]

After last week’s whirlwind project, which I can’t discuss but during which I learned a LOT of Python, I am completely exhausted and took the last two days of the week off as sick days, for the sake of my mental and emotional health. Twenty years ago I could have recovered from a 70+ hours-in-eight-days marathon of work by getting a single night of sleep. That simply is not the case any more. I need down time.

This past Tuesday we laid my aunt Judy to rest. She was my Mom’s older sister, and the third of the four siblings to pass. I saw many relatives who I had not seen since Mom’s funeral back in the fall of 2021. The family just keeps getting smaller.

Reading

I am about a third of the way through The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966. So much good stuff here!

Writing

I have had neither time nor energy to put pen to paper this week, other than minimal journaling and some light note-taking and list-making.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Spiritual Beings, Portals
Setting: Ship
Genre: Western

Listening

“Ghostwriter” by RJD2, from the album Deadringer. I listened to this song a lot during my first few years as a web developer, on a compilation album someone gave me back in the early 2000s. The whole album is quite good.

Interesting Links

February 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

At long last, over two months since I cracked it open, I finally finished Doctor Zhivago. It was a long read – mostly beautiful, occasionally frustrating, and above all definitely worth the effort.

Now I am reading short fiction, to help reset my brain. Currently I am working my way through The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966, which, in addition to being full of superb short prose and poetry, is an interesting time-capsule of the state of literature almost seventy years ago.

Acquisitions

The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste Speculative Science Fiction

  1. R.T. Samuel, Rakesh K., Rashmi R.D. (editors), The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF (Blaft Publications)

Reading List

Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak

Books

  1. Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago [2025.02.14]

Short Prose

  1. Jim C. Hines, “Kitemaster” (Patreon post) [2025.02.11]
  2. Samuel Beckett, “Dante and the Lobster”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.14]
  3. Jack Kerouac, “October in the Railroad Earth”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.14]
  4. Patsy Southgate, “A Very Important Lady”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.16] – [Note: I could find almost no information at all on Patsy Southgate online. Anything I found was as a side note to other writers and creative types. The two obituaries I could find, from 1998, were behind paywalls. Perhaps I will gather some sources and put together a Wikipedia page.]
  5. Kameron Hurley, “At the Crossroads of Many Futures” (Patreon post) [2025.02.16]
  6. Tobias S. Buckell, “The Last Cathedral of Earth, In Flight” (Patreon post) [2025.02.17]
  7. Alexander Trocchi, “From Cain’s Book“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.18]
  8. John Rechy, “From City of Night“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.18]
  9. William Eastlake, “Portrait of an Artist with Twenty-Six Horses”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.18]
  10. Carlos Fuentes (Lysander Kemp, translator), “The Life Line”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.21]
  11. Juan Rulfo (Lysander Kemp, translator), “From Pedro Páramo“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.22]
  12. Octavio Paz, “Todos Santos, Día de Muertos”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.24]
  13. Henry Miller, “Defense of the Freedom to Read”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.24]
  14. William Eastlake, “Three Heroes and a Clown”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.25]
  15. Terry Southern, “Red-Dirt Marihuana”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.25]
  16. William S. Burroughs, “Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.26]
  17. Eugène Ionesco, “Foursome”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.26]
  18. Martin Williams, “Charlie Parker: The Burden of Innovation”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.28]

Weekly Round-up, February 22, 2025

John Winkelman

The ears of an orange cat visible over a rumpled pile of bed covers, also orange. In the background a window through which snow-covered houses are visible.

[Pepper, hiding.]

I am in the middle of another insane work week, so light updates here.

Reading

The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966. Amazing stuff here.

Writing

Code. Lots of code.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Colonization, Fae
Setting: Mountains
Genre: Fantasy

Listening

Hannah Waddingham and Brendan Hunt singing the B-52’s “Love Shack” This video will live in my head, rent-free, FOREVER!

Interesting Links